May 2010 has seen some of the highest inflation figures in the past 15 years. This is a bit of a double whammy, as the real cost of the money in your pocket, or savings account, is going to decrease over time.

It is important therefore that you look around as much as possible to see what exactly you can do to save as much money as possible. This applies to both business and personal life. Everyone, apart from some overpaid civil servants and mad bankers, is still reeling from and feeling the effects of the credit crunch/recession.

Business owners have suffered enough over the past few years and they are still continuing to feel the pain as people have less and less money to spend. If you have a small business insurance policy then there are different options for you to reduce your overall annual insurance costs.

The main one is to speak to your business insurance broker to review your policy cover and if necessary, reduce some figures to save costs. Of course, you should bot reduce figures unless absolutely necessary and your broker will deal with this in a professional manner. If they feel you are reducing figures too far, they will let you know.

Another way to get a reduction in the overall costs, is to pay the premium in monthly instalments. This means that your cash flow is better, but watch out for the hidden costs of paying monthly.

You may visit one of the websites that offer promises to compare business insurance to give you the best deal. They may offer you a  cheaper price, but potentially you could have less cover, higher excesses and the instalment charge could make it uneconomic.

Look out for the deals that offer interest free instalments. Whilst your bank may charge a few pounds for every instalment, across the year, 0% is the best way forward.

For anyone lucky enough to have some savings set by, particularly in the form of an ISA, you may be in for a shock when your statement comes in this year.

Over the past 5 years we have been pushed and pushed to buy these products and this is usually because of a headline grabbing interest rate. These have fallen by the wayside, unless you are sensible enough to move your money around. For a £10,000 investment, you could be receiving as low as £5.00 as your bonus for leaving money in for a whole year.

How does this relate to small business insurance you may ask. There are two ways that this will affect you, when you come to renew your policy.

Firstly, the banks and financial services companies (including commercial insurance underwriters) are desperate to get your business, either in the form of renewal or a new policy.

Secondly, as a sign of this, they are prepared to offer you some fantastic deals. One of these is interest free instalments.

Of course, interest free is not “free” because you may need to pay 20 or 30 pence per direct debit. But, you do not pay any interest on your premium, whether this is £250 or £25,000. Now that really is a good deal when you consider that some insurers have traditionally charged interest rates of nearly 10% on top of your insurance premium.

What you need to do is to set aside some time. Think of shopping for a nice new suit to go to a wedding. Not many people will go to one shop, try on one suit and buy it. You need to look around and decide what is best, price and quality wise, for you. It is the same with your annual cover, the more time you spend looking, the more chance that you can save some money.

Goldilocks and the three bears, takes you back a bit I know. Of course, in 2010 you wouldn’t let your daughter wander through the woods doing a bit of illegal entry to Mr and Mrs Bear’s house and damaging their property. However, that aside what did she do. She tried the three types of porridge before she found the one that was, just right.

Believe it or not, you will find the same problems when looking for a small business insurance quote. You can look around for a quote and, with the internet available easily, you can find hundreds of companies that can get you a premium and terms in double quick time.

But, you are running a business, you have got a never ending list of things to do, the last thing you want is to sit there and read, word for word, through a dozen different quotes to decide which is best for you.

Now, Goldilocks did not have an intermediary to hand to go and taste the porridge for her. You do though, there are thousands of us throughout the UK and our job is to look around the insurance market for you to see what is best.

Who are we? Independent commercial insurance brokers, we have to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, we are legally obliged to offer you, the purchaser, the widest cover at the best premium, from our range of insurers.

You don’t have to waste your time reading, researching and learning about insurance products. That is our job and, given the past history in the industry, you are always better speaking to a broker.

So, if you don’t have time (which you won’t) to get yourself a better deal, just speak to a broker and let them do the work for you. We cannot guarantee to get you the best price in every single case, but 90% of our new enquirers do find that we can offer then a better deal once they have seen the light.

Every business, whether a large corporation trading across the world or a sole trader just starting out, will have a requirement for good quality commercial insurance.

There are two main types, the cover that the law of the land says you must have and the cover that you make a deliberate choice to buy, even though it is not legally required.

The majority of small business insurance policies will fall into the latter category. Many smaller ventures and sole traders do not employ anyone, so there is no requirement for employers liability insurance (legally required). There needs to be a balancing act for the business between choosing what is sensible cover at a competitive price compared to being 100% risk averse and insuring every possible eventuality.

The first step in this balancing act is, thankfully, free. You need to speak to a business insurance broker to discuss what you need, what you want and how much you can realistically afford. The broker will then, for no charge whatsoever, duly go away and source a whole range of quotes and premiums for you. They will then present this to you, in the form of written quotes and you can then decide which of these policies, or covers, you will take. You may decide in the first year of trading to take out skeleton or basic cover, you can then add to this in future years as your business grows due to your continued efforts and hard work.

In the unlikely event that a broker try’s to charge you an up front fee for doing the quote work, walk away very, very fast. For every one broker that does this there are 100’s of others who will do it the proper way, for nothing!