Archive for the ‘small business insurance quote’ Category

Small business insurance – lesser cover?

Monday, June 20th, 2011

If you look at Government statistics for businesses, approximately 97% of trading businesses have a turnover of less than £2,000,000. There are a few variations on this, but the gist is that nearly all businesses are classified as small to medium enterprises. Not that £2m turnover is by any means to be sniffed at, but there has to be some sort of cut off. Even the commercial insurance companies we use tend to have scales of turnover and anything over £2m/£3m has to be rated and categorised differently.

When we go the very bottom of the scale, and looking at small business insurance quotes, the premiums can be as low as £75.00 per year, for a full business package. Now, you may think that at this level of premium, the cover may be woefully low, but in some cases (depending very much on the insurer) the opposite can be true.

We have blogged long and hard in the past about fringe insurers that undercut every price going, only because their cover is so bad, the excesses too high or the terms/conditions/warranties are way too onerous.

But, there are certain insurers that have built special business from home and small business packages for the very small, or micro companies. These tend to be very, very competitive and they can include lots of additional covers, such as legal expenses and goods in transit. They do not charge a lot extra for these because the insurers experience in this particular business area is good, so they price accordingly to try and get more business of the same type.

These policies tend to be very good for the new venture as well, because as all of us know who have started a new business, the costs need to be controlled, very, tightly in the first years.

If you are looking for a quote, best thing to do is to have your financial information to hand and to speak to an independent business insurance broker.

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Getting a small business insurance quote – quickly.

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

In business, time is precious. As someone who has started a business from a standing start I realise that balancing all of the priorities you have day to day is extremely difficult. On one day you may have a bit of free time that you were not expecting due to a cancellation only to find the next few days you cannot even stop to think, let alone do anything else because you are so busy.

So, when you get your business insurance renewal documents on your doorstep, you can almost guarantee that the first thing you will do is to say that you will look around for an alternative prior to the renewal date. The second thing you will do, is to then struggle to find enough time to sit down with the right documents to get yourself a handful of other quotes.

Things have changes though, for the better, in that it does not always take that much time for you to get an alternative small business insurance quote to at least compare with your existing renewal. Even if your renewal has been at the same sort of figure for years and years, how do you know that you are still paying the right price?

Complacency is a serious issue with some business insurance brokers, to get you as a new customer they will pull out all the stops and do the best deal possible. Then, when it comes to renewal, they will simple offer you the existing insurers renewal, if this is 10% more, then they still offer it.

So, instead of just sitting back and taking what they send to you, turn the tables and get yourself a quote. Going back to the time issue, if you pick a broker that trades online and via telesales, then the chances are that, if you have your existing renewal to hand, you can get a comparative quote within about ten minutes, which is not bad really!

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Small business insurance – are prices increasing?

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

In the business insurance broking world, we are caught between a rock and a hard place at times. One the one hand, we have the insurers who have been saying to us for at least three years that the average premiums out there are unsustainable and prices have got to increase. On the other hand, we have you, the insurance buying businesses who, quite rightly, are looking for the best price and the best cover.

The difficulty we have with insurers is, that whatever their size and whatever products they sell, they have a two tier pricing structure. For new business, they are prepared to pull out all of the stops and quote some, frankly, crazy prices. But, when it comes to renewal prices, they are more than happy to expect us, the brokers, to sell to you year on year increases, even for profitable business.

But is this the same story for small business insurance? As ever, the answer is a bit black and white, a sort of light-ish grey colour. Small businesses have tended, traditionally, to be more profitable (in insurance terms). They are usually run from home, owner managed and as they are someones sole livelihood, usually looked after and nurtured very well.

This means, that for every £100 of premiums paid to insurers, the profit return is higher than for say, £100 paid by larger multi-national businesses. This is because the larger businesses are able to attract better, cheaper rates and they are much more likely to have larger losses. When you consider hundreds and hundreds of businesses together, it has always been the same story.

But does this mean that you can still get a competitive quote? The answer is yes you can, but you just need to look a little bit more carefully than you did in the past. To help you in this process, you need to speak to a business insurance broker. Their sole aim is to work for you, the purchaser. In law, they are your agent and must take every step available to them to provide you with the best price and the widest cover.

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Small business insurance – expected costs?

Friday, October 1st, 2010

If you look across the corporate history landscape, you will see hundreds of huge companies, many of which are household brands. A significant percentage of these started life as single outlet retailers or businesses from home. Through perseverance they have all grown and grown.

If you are thinking of starting the “next big thing” in business, you will need to consider getting yourself a small business insurance policy. Why do we say small? For the reasons noted above, at the end of the day, the tighter the ship you start with, the more likely you are to survive your first few years trading.

So, by definition it is likely that your business will be small. There is no industry standard definition of what is small, or medium or large. The commercial insurance companies in the UK have recognised though that there needs to a different approach to the different sizes of business.

Most of them therefore, have different policies for the smaller venture. You can either get a certain small business specific policy, or if you are trading from home, a business from home policy.

The two things you need to consider are firstly that you need cover and secondly, that to get this you speak to a specialist broker, such as Businessinsure. We will help guide you through the maze of what cover you need and how to get the best price.

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Small business insurance – getting a small quote

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Speak to any business insurance broker or insurer and ask them to define a small business and we can guarantee two things. One, is that most will not have any way of differentiating between large, medium and small and two, is that this that have definitions, they will differ.

One insurer we deal with classifies small business as any venture that has a financial turnover (annual) of less than £2,000,000. Now, having set up and run small businesses in the past, £2m turnover is fantastic and if I have achieved that in some businesses, I would have been over the moon. But, that is just one definition from one insurer. Others classify small businesses as those with less than a set number of employees, usually between 5 and 10. This is more like it, a small business to me is one that has less than double figure employees.

But, how do you go about getting a specialist small business insurance quote? You do not want a policy that is designed purely for the larger business and this is just scaled down for you. How do you know that you are getting the absolute best deal and the best price. By their very nature small businesses tend to be younger, newer ones and they are more susceptible to hits against their revenue. The more they can save in the first few years, the more stronger they will emerge.

If you can, speak to an independent business insurance broker. Independent is the key phrase here. This means they can go to whatever insurers they choose to get you the best deal. If they are not independent, your choice is severely limited, as will be the price range for the policy they recommend to you.

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Small business insurance – goods in transit cover

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

If you have ever started a business from scratch, or are running a business, you will know that the range and type of tasks you undertake are never-ending. If you used to work for a larger company, everything seemed to be taken care of. You always had someone you could ask, or go through a procurement process to order whatever product or service you wanted.

However, you realise there is more to life and decide to go on your own. Having done this personally, there is nothing more liberating and it is worthwhile to be your own boss.

One of the many things you will need to do at the start, is to get yourself a small business insurance quote, if you are happy with this, it will then progress into a policy that will provide vital protection for your business.

Going back to all of the tasks that you undertake, one of these will be collection and delivery of stock and products you have supplied or manufactured. As you start and grow, it is unlikely that you will use a third party courier to do this for you. So, you will use your own car or van. If any of your stock is stolen or the vehicle is involved in an accident and the stock is damaged, then you will be out of pocket.

This is where you need to make sure that the business insurance policy that you get, includes cover for goods in transit. Many policies do, with a standard limit of £2,000, which can of course be increased if required.

The good thing is, that you do not need to specify the vehicle or the registration. As long as the vehicle is one that is used by employees, partners, owners or directors, then you will be covered. Watch out for the excess, anything more than £250 is too high and also check any terms regarding losses in unattended vehicles overnight.

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Getting a cheap business insurance quote – quicker than an Easter egg hunt

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

OK, so in the interest of trying to be seasonal I could have picked a better opening line. But, looking back over some videos from past Easter weekends, I estimate it takes a good ten or fifteen minutes for a normal hunt. When I say normal, this is when you do tend to give the kids a few clues for the slightly harder to find ones.

So, fifteen minutes tops, can you get a small business insurance quote in that time? The answer, in 2010, is yes. But, you need to be selective about where you go, who you speak to and importantly, what information you have to hand. The best way to get yourself a decent, quick quote is to speak to an online business insurance broker. Make sure that they are independent (check their website) and that they have the ability to do a “whole of market” search.

For example, if you are looking for a shop insurance quote, if you spend more than 15 minutes on the phone discussing this for a quote then there really is something wrong. Most commercial and business insurance companies have standard packages for most types of business (pubs, hotels, shops, office’s etc). For this reason, they only need about 10 or 15 questions answered and this will give you the quote you need.

As a service standard, we aim to provide a full written quote, via email, within two hours of your call in 90% of cases.

So, we are not saying that you should look for a quote when you should be hiding and finding your Easter eggs, but when you are back at work, fully refreshed after the Bank Holidays, give us a call and see what we can do for you.

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One tip to get a great deal on small business insurance

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Anyone who has used the Internet in the past six months for a bit of web surfing will have come across the adverts to amazingly shrink your body.

Most people know that there is no miracle cure, you just need to do two things, reduce your food intake and do more exercise.

If you are looking for a small business insurance quote, you will also have seen many adverts promising to save you money, guaranteeing to beat any other quote or offering to compare business insurance.

Buying insurance can be a confusing process to go through. Because it is not the most interesting of topics (except to those of us who work with it day in, day out) people don’t generally have the time to read through 10, 20 or 30 page quotations.

Yes, you may have got a better premium, but at what cost for cover. All policies, apart from the name and branding, physically look the same. They are pieces of paper with a cover. But, it is a legal contract between you, the business owner, and the capacity provider, underwriter or insurer. If the terms and conditions are not favourable (compared to others) you are stuck in the event of a claim because you chose the policy.

There has only ever been one way to get a great deal, speak to a broker. Don’t waste your time filling in pages and pages of web forms, get on the blower and speak to a human being. They will discuss what you need, what you can afford and what is available, then they will look around on your behalf to get the best deal.

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Small business insurance – protect your assets

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

You have two simple choices when looking for a small business insurance quote. Do you go for just liability cover only, or do you extend this to include cover for your business assets?

When we are describing business assets, we mean tools, computers, stock and other equipment which the business has legal title to. You do not have to be a limited company,  this will apply equally to sole traders and partnerships.

A basic policy can provide you with your business liability insurance covers for a few hundred pounds. However, if you sit down and list all of the current business assets and their current replacement cost. Then, add up your current stock holding and you may be surprised at how much it would cost to replace the physical assets that belong to the business.

It depends on the type of policy you have whether you can additionally include portable items such as laptops, mobile phones and P.D.A’s away from business. These items are more likely to be damaged or stolen. If you do have the occasional business trip to Europe or elsewhere, make sure that you policy covers you for this.

As with all quotes and covers, speak to a professional broker and get some free advice and a few different premiums so you can decide what cover you will take out.

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Small business insurance – spreading the cost

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Looking back over the past ten years in the UK financial service industry and we can see the problems caused (to Bank of Scotland and RBS) by providing too much credit.

Basic economics was ignored in the pursuit of growth at all costs. The banking industry has had a wake up call, and the alarm bell continues to ring. Maybe in 2012 to 2015 things may get better.

But, there are other sides to the UK financial services industry, which are not at such a disdvantage. Commercial insurance has been a mainstay of British financial services, long before banking raked in the profits.

Some people consider the insurance industry as needing a shake up, but those if us that work in it, whilst we accept there are faults, are quite happy most of the time to work in an industry that plods along.

There are some innovations though and as young blood comes into the industry, these are happening more often and nearly always they are to the benefit of the customer.

If you are looking for a small business insurance quote, one of the main things you look at is the premium. You will usually also want to consider spreading the cost of this premium. One of the recent developments we have seen is that insurers are quite keen to allow you to spread the cost over 6, 10 or 12 months.

Many of the newer, more modern insurers, are prepared to provide credit to allow this to be interest free, so you do not pay extra. Unlike the banks, they are not giving away vast millions of pounds credit, without much chance of getting it back.

What they will do is allow credit for your insurance premium, they are able to do this because, if you default, the insurance is cancelled so there is no loss of money for the insurers.

So, if you are looking to spread the cost, look for the 0% option.

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