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.

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!

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.

In the past five years, more and more people have gone online and broadband is now commonplace in most UK homes and businesses. In addition to this, most mobile phones nowadays allow you the option of fast access to the internet, wherever you are.

We have learned that, when searching on the net, you do not simply pick the first company that appears. Our searching habits have become smarter and we know how to sort the wheat from the chaff, in most cases. But, as far as commercial insurance is concerned, it may appear that many of the companies advertising are exactly the same.

So, you have started a small business and you don’t want to pay over the odds for your insurance cover and, you want to make sure that you get the right cover that you and the business needs. Any new business start up will be faced with ongoing costs and excluding salaries and premises, your insurance can be one of the bigger costs you will face, depending on exactly what the business does.

You want to be able to make sure therefore, that you are paying the most competitive cost possible. Given the huge amount of choice you are faced with, as noted above, you want to select an independent business insurance broker. In the UK, a broker will search for you, to find the best deal. Going direct to an insurer will not get you the choice you need, they will simply offer you the best choice from their range of one product! A broker will actually choose from a range of products and providers. If your requirements are more specialised, then they may only be limited to one or two providers, if this is the case the broker will tell you that the choice is limited.

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.

Most business insurance companies have essentially two types of policies. A packaged (with a range of sections) policy suited to your trade, or a bespoke one (where you pick and choose the sections of cover) that is built, or put together, specifically for you.

As far as small business insurance is concerned, most of the forward thinking, progressive insurers have a packaged product. These usually include business assets, contents, stock, liabilities and money cover. As there are numerous insurers offering these policies, there are as you would expect significant variations in the type of cover and the prices you will pay.

Whilst it may take some time, it is always worthwhile getting more than one quotation, this is in addition to your existing insurers renewal offer, if it is not a first time policy.

How you can tell if it is a quality policy is a combination of the professionalism of who you discuss it with and the actual quote you receive. If you really have no faith in the person selling you the policy, you have to question whether they are going to provide you with the actual cover you need, or whatever limited range of covers they have available. For this reason, shop around and see what is available. Do not be afraid to barter or mention alternative quotes you have received, you may be asked to prove an alternative quote but in this day and age of instant email, it is easy to do so.

You do need to be careful to look at exactly what is covered and what is no. You may not think that you can have different cover, but nearly every insurer will offer different limits and have different terms and conditions.

One of the main differences is the out of hours money cover. A lot of businesses, particularly over a weekend will not have time to take their cash to a bank night safe and will have to leave this on the premises overnight.

Cash is of course king to not only the business but also to thieves. A lot of policies will restrict cover to a low limit, such as £100 unless the money is kept in a locked safe. If you have cash in a safe limit, this can be for thousands and thousands of pounds. For limits in excess of two or three thousand, you may need to specify the type of safe and/or whether this is cover only if the safe is bolted into the floor or the wall.

You should always check with your business insurance broker and ask them to review you policy wording and cover with you.

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.

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.

If it comes to it, the policy will be considered in the minutest detail between legal parties in a UK court of law. If your policy does not pay out for a claim which you believe is covered then you have every right to contest this.

Thankfully, there are avenues you can go down without having to end up with a huge legal cost. These avenues, in the main, apply to what are termed small business insurance policies ie those businesses with a turnover of less than £1,000,000. In reality, this covers approximately 98% of businesses in the UK. You can refer a complaint in the first instance to the adviser, your business insurance broker, who sold you the policy, then to the insurer and then to the insurance ombudsman.

But, at all times the latin phrase Caveat Emptor must be borne in mind. Simply translated, this means “buyer beware”. The general rule is that it is up to the buyer to to check out or find out about what they are buying. This does not mean that you need to become an expert in policy wordings, but as a business owner you are deemed to be sensible enough to make a decision based on looking at the options.

You will have a come back if you have been mis-sold a policy, but if referred to the ombudsman then it may be that the phrase caveat emptor is quoted to you. When you receive a policy or a quote, you will be advised to read through this and if there are any errors to go back to your broker or provider. We urge you to spend just an hour or so reading through your policy, especially the terms and conditions, to make sure that it is suitable for you.