The internet is a wonderful thing, it has transformed business and will continue to break new ground. But, there is a frustrating element to it.

It is along the lines of one mans meat is another mans poison. If I know what I am looking for, what search terms do I used to find a company that can offer me the service I want. in my country? This is not easy. If you take commercial building insurance for example, this incorporates many different categories and types of cover.

In England and Wales, most blocks of flats, including converted properties, are insured. The problem is, some are insured individually and others through a residents or management association.

I have provided, this week alone, over a dozen quotes for blocks of flats. I thought I would aks the enquirers how easy they found the site and what terms did they use, given we are now working with our new site.

I was in for a shock as nearly everyone said that they found it difficult to find a website that seemed to offer what they wanted. Although we have the name Businessinsure, we do have particular property and buildings sections. So, you do not have to be a fully trading commercial venture to get a premium and terms from us.

So, to help future searchers, the main search phrase we would suggest using, if you need block of flats insurance, is residents association insurance. You can, if you want stick the word buildings in there or even change residents to management.

The internet as we say is wonderful, without it we would not have the speed of delivery for many products and services. But, you do need to think out of the box a bit to get to that needle in a haystack. Perseverance is the key, you will get there in the end.

We are hearing in the news today that Kraft, the American food firm have upped their offer to 850 per share for Cadbury. It was surprising that Cadbury has 45,000 employees, of which just over 40,000 are outside of the UK. That is some size of company with a multinational spread. Their main market is of course here in the UK but they do receive significant income from outside the UK and even outside of the EU.

We will have to wait and see what Kraft actually does with Cadbury, some good things and some things that will make the staff less than happy.

Whilst we cannot be certain, out there, right now, the next Cadbury could be in the making. It started life in a very small, home based “factory” in Bournville and has grown to the company we see today. Whilst it has been around for over 180 years, what a different picture it would be today starting out.

There are numerous, if not countless, things to worry about if you start today, one of the issues they would have to face in their acorn stage, is what type of insurance they require. Typically, a home based venture whether full or part time, would look around for a small business insurance policy or a business from home insurance package. Both of these would provide the range of perils and protection from claims that a small, new venture will require.

Of course, the Cadbury family did not even think about insurance as it was unheard of and the chances of raising a claim were nil. Nowadays though, if you sell a food product you need to extra careful of any claims against you.

You may be the owner of the next acorn that will develop into an oak tree, but, to help protect your business from many insurable eventualities, you need to speak to an independent broker about suitable cover.

We get a lot of enquiries for all sorts of trades and businesses, providing a hairdressing salon insurance quote is one of most competitive areas. Significant savings can be made, just by making two or three, five minute phone calls.

There are a lot of parts to running a business which you constantly put on the back burner and say, one day I will get around to looking into that in more detail. Top, or very near, of the list is business insurance. You know you need it, you know it is not really that interesting and you also know that it needs to be right.

When you do get around to going through your policy and cover, make sure you check your sums insured. You must make sure that you are covered for the correct amount. If not, you may have a claim reduced.

Salons are wonderful places to visit, they are designed to look good, feel comfortable and most of make you want to go back again and again. So, when you set up your business you tend to spend a fortune on fixtures, fittings, stock, computers, mirrors, sinks and a whole host of other items.

Basic as it may seem, you need to sit down with a sheet of A4 paper for each room in the business. Then, list down everything that you own or are responsible for (ie you may lease, and therefore not be worried about, the building). Next to each of these items, put down your rough idea of how much you think it would cost you to replace if it were damaged beyond repair or stolen. Then, add up all of the amounts you have for business contents, stock and tenants improvements (these are things you would not take if you moved – ie laminate flooring). When you have the three amounts, add 10% in case your estimation is wrong and then refer to your policy.

If your amounts are the same, well done, if lower (than your policy) - speak to your broker to see if it is worth reducing your sums insured. If they are higher, you also need ot make a phone call and get an estimate of how much it would be to rack up your cover, if it is affordable, go ahead.

We have all read in the past few weeks about how the last decade was really signified by debt. Consumer spending, fuelled by easy credit, resulted in a booming economy. But, like the proverbial house of cards, the weight got too much and it all came crashing to the ground.

In the long run this is, whether you believe it or not, going to be a good thing. Yes, we will have similar situations where a market, country or economy is buoyed by something, that in the cold light of day, is too good to be true.

Rising house and commercial property prices where one of the biggest causes of the debt boom. There were not many assets you could buy, use day in day out, that would appreciate in value by up to 20% per annum, year on year.

We are trying to rectify this and consumers in the UK do have wiser heads on their shoulders now. Let us see if the next decade is more of a caring, sharing one – rather than a show off one.

So, how does this affect my business insurance? Not in a nice way I’m afraid. Financial services companies, in particular insurers, have spent years investing the premiums you pay throughout the year. They are invested in some very complex vehicles, in the hope of course that they get better returns than the 2 or 3% they could have got by stashing it in a bank.

Let’s say that your cafe insurance is £1,000 per year. You pay this to the underwriter on day one of your annual policy. The insurers then invest this and hope that they will get returns nearer to double digits, than low singles. So, over the year your £1,000 becomes £1,100. Their expenses are approximately 50%, including the commission paid to any placing broker. This means that even if you have a claim, which costs 50% of your premium, they have still made a 10% return. Your premium has gone in commission, costs and claims, but the insurers can still say that they have made money.

As the economy has come crashing down, so have the returns available to insurers. This means that your £1,000 premium, which may have remained unchanged for a couple of years is going to start to creeping up.

Of course, now is the time to look round for an alternative as there are still companies out there that want your business. Basically, if you have been claims free for at least two years, do not accept an increase at renewal.

We have recently had a claim, under a retail insurance policy, where the motor on the roller shutter failed, this closed and the staff could not get out, nor the customers in.

In the past 10 or 15 years, shopping has become a leisure activity, to help satisfy this demand, every town or city has got either one or many shopping centres. Most of these are designed solely to get you, the consumer, in the doors and in a relaxed atmosphere. Part of this process is that the shops do not have front doors. The shopping centres do, but the individual shops just have a simple, lockable, roller shutter door.

As with anything mechanical, there is always the possibility that these doors, where they are mechanically controlled, will fail to operate. As the shopping centres begin to age, so do the doors and the likelihood of a motor burn out or some other problem, increases.

Roller shutters are also used more and more for simple high street shops. The risk of damage to these is also increase from malicious damage to attempted theft.

If you have a shop insurance policy, you really do need to check two things (if you have roller shutter doors).

Firstly, that the roller shutter door is separately noted as an insured item, and secondly that you have breakdown cover. Most policies will cover perils, such as theft, fire, flood etc. If your roller shutter door motor breaks down, this is not a usual “insured peril”. It needs to be covered on an engineering extension. If you don’t have this cover, you can kiss goodbye to any repairs or business interruption losses.

Speak to your broker, check your cover, if it is not right, get it sorted.

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. When we talk about business insurance, this relates to two things.

Firstly, the service and professionalism of any staff (either broker or insurer) that you come into contact with. And secondly, and much more importantly, what type of claims service you receive.

Whatever the insurance industry may say, claims from natural causes have been few and far between for the past dozen or so years in the UK. Yes, we have the summer floods of 2007 but apart from that, weather related claims have been thin on the ground. Even subsidence claims have reduced significantly as the great British summer has allowed the ground, particular in South East England, to not be quite so dry and parched.

In Scotland, we are being told this is the worst winter for 30 years and south of the border, it is certainly the worst winter since the early nineties.

As the thaw gets under way, we are seeing a massive, in excess of 50%, increase in the number of claims, whether for house, hotel, pub, restaurant or shop insurance they are all suffering losses. The main reason is burst pipes. Frozen water in a pipe does not take much expansion to produce a split in either a copper or a plastic pipe. As soon as the thaw occurs, the water in the pipes (which is under pressure) takes the quickest exit – which is going to be through the split or crack in the pipe.

The problem with burst pipes is that, unless you have exposed pipes, you will not see any damage until it seeps through walls or ceilings. This usually only happens once there has been significant damage. Even worse, if it is a bigger crack or split in a pipe the water does not seep out, it flows out at the same rate as any tap opened full on.

The last three weeks have seen thousands of claims being intimated and insurers usually want to see each property that has a claim to check the legitimacy of the cover, the sums insured and whether the insured has properly maintained their pipes. This in turn creates delays with clients wanting insurers to visit straight away.

We are already seeing signs of strains within one insurer with staff that can’t seem to cope. This of course impacts on us as the customer, quite rightly, sees this as our fault as we recommended the insurers in the first place.

Fingers crossed they do a bit of cross company support and the claims departments get some additional bums on seats to help deal with the influx.

Restaurant insurance policies are not a legal requirement per se. You do need to have employers liability insurance (EL) cover in place, if you have anyone working for you, whether paid, volunteers, family or friends.

Technically, you could get an EL policy on it’s own. But, insurers do not offer such a policy as they feel it is selection against them, effectively you are choosing to insure only a small part of your business risk, which can result in the largest claims.

What you need to have is a business package policy, for your particular trade. Whatever you have heard over the past few years, premiums for good quality businesses have been decreasing. Your existing insurer may not be prepared to admit it, but they are happy to price your business differently if you threaten to move.

Our challenge, for 2010, is to see if we can offer a more competitive restaurant or takeaway insurance quote for you. We are not advocating you to cancel any policies mid term, but it is always worth checking that your policy premium is in the correct “ball park”.

Over the past six months, we can count in single digits the number of quotes where we have not been able to offer cheaper cover. Usually, this is where there have been a large number of claims and understandably, new insurers price themselves out of the equation.

So, if you are kicking your heels and have a few spare minutes, call us and see what sort of price we can offer.

The risks presented by a normal, residential house are considered by many people to be exactly the same, whether the house is owner occupied or let to a third party.

However, in the eyes of UK residential and commercial building insurance companies, they differ a great deal.

For this reason, you have two main types of insurance for houses. A standard home insurance policy, which covers the buildings and contents, taken out by the owner of the property (including if mortgaged) is the first. The second type of policy is one that covers all other types of dwelling which are occupied by people other than those that actually own, or have a financial interest in, the property.

If you own a property, whether as a buy to let or some other reason, that you do not occupy and let out, then you need to get a separate landlord insurance policy. The reason being, that insurers categorise, and price, houses that are let out differently to those that you occupy yourself.

This is based on years and years of statistics. Think of the bigger, brand name, insurers. They have been insuring houses for in excess of 100 years in some cases, through one guise or another. They know that if you live in a house, the claims ratio (number and severity of losses) is going to be less than the ratio for let houses. We cannot argue with these statistics as it will not change the insurers minds as they are in business to make a profit.

What we can do, is to look around for alternatives, this is the way to save yourself money, because some insurers, as you would expect, offer better, more competitive pricing for properties that are let. With the internet, this is much easier than it has ever been before. Buy to let insurance is the best search term because this will throw up brokers that specialise in this area. We always suggest it is best to give them a call, rather than rely on an online form, this way you can discuss all of the options available.

Yes, a very poor title I will admit, but it is making a very valid point. We provide business insurance quotes, that is our bread and butter and we do it very well. One of the main difficulties we have is that we not selling a tangible product.

Sure, we are selling a service, in the same way that a solicitor, accountant or lawyer does, but at least you can see and experience their service. You know you need a solicitor to make your house purchase smooth, you need an accountant to stop Mr A Darling grabbing more than he deserves from your hard earned salary or if you are having a bit of legal bother you get your lawyer involved.

But, when you look around for pub, hotel or restaurant insurance you are searching for a product that you cannot see, feel, touch or experience. Until, on unless, you have a claim. If you are fortunate enough to not have a claim then it can be a bitter pill to swallow having to fork out hundreds, if not thousands of pounds when you are not getting, what you perceive is, a real return.

The service we are selling is one that you don’t want to buy, don’t want to pay for and ultimately, don’t even want to use. How easy is that to sell? Thankfully, it is not too difficult because sensible business people realise there is a requirement for cover.

What is happening more and more though, and is causing concern, is that people are cutting down on their cover. This is starting to cause problems as people are starting to putting in claims and then realising that the cover they thought they had (say, fixed glass cover) is not in place because they pared their cover down to save money.

Whilst I cannot guarantee it, I can be 99.99% sure that any business that has been insured for 3 or more years and has a good claims record, will be able to get a cheaper quote at renewal, for the same, if not more, cover.

The secret is to get an independent broker to do the donkey work for you.

Yes, a very poor title I will admit, but it is making a very valid point. We provide business insurance quotes, that is our bread and butter and we do it very well. One of the main difficulties we have is that we not selling a tangible product.

Sure, we are selling a service, in the same way that a solicitor, accountant or lawyer does, but at least you can see and experience their service. You know you need a solicitor to make your house purchase smooth, you need an accountant to stop Mr A Darling grabbing more than he deserves from your hard earned salary or if you are having a bit of legal bother you get your lawyer involved.

But, when you look around for pub, hotel or restaurant insurance you are searching for a product that you cannot see, feel, touch or experience. Until, on unless, you have a claim. If you are fortunate enough to not have a claim then it can be a bitter pill to swallow having to fork out hundreds, if not thousands of pounds when you are not getting, what you perceive is, a real return.

The service we are selling is one that you don’t want to buy, don’t want to pay for and ultimately, don’t even want to use. How easy is that to sell? Thankfully, it is not too difficult because sensible business people realise there is a requirement for cover.

What is happening more and more though, and is causing concern, is that people are cutting down on their cover. This is starting to cause problems as people are starting to putting in claims and then realising that the cover they thought they had (say, fixed glass cover) is not in place because they pared their cover down to save money.

Whilst I cannot guarantee it, I can be 99.99% sure that any business that has been insured for 3 or more years and has a good claims record, will be able to get a cheaper quote at renewal, for the same, if not more, cover.

The secret is to get an independent broker to do the donkey work for you.