If you have been in business for a while, you will know the drill. You need to have insurance, you don’t really want to pay for it (because it is not a “product” you can see, feel or touch) and the prices always seem to be too high.
You can change this though, follow these three steps and you will be able to find a cheap business insurance quote.
Step 1 – Be prepared
The more information you can have available about your business, the better your quote will be. Insurers want to know things about your business that reduce the likelihood of a claim. The sorts of things you can declare, that will reduce your price are:-
a) Whether you have the full quota of fire extinguishers
b) What type of intruder alarm do you have, who installs and maintains it and importantly, do you have Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 Police response.
c) Do you have fire and smoke alarms and are they monitored by a third party, in the event of an activation.
d) Have you undertaken a full Health and Safety and Fire risk assessment?
e) Do you have external grilles or shutters and do they cover every door and window (that is accessible to an intruder)?
f) Do you have CCTV inside and/or is there a council run scheme covering the front and/or rear of your property?
These are just some of the points that certain commercial insurance companies will allow discounts for. But if they don’t know about it, you can’t get a discount.
Step 2 – Get up to date figures.
You only need to insure for the maximum stock or business computers replacement cost. If your stock levels have been reducing, then you only need to insure for these.
Your business computers may be insured for what you paid for them, but costs have been reducing. How much would it cost to replace every single piece of computer equipment? Usually this will be less than half what you paid for it, if you have had it for more than a year.
Step 3 – Go online.
Don’t rely on you local broker or the policy that your bank tries to sell you. Get on the net, find yourself an independent business insurance broker and get them to search and search for you. It does not matter where you are nowadays, you will find a broker that is keen to serve you and they can do this quicker than ever before.