One of our existing customers, who has had a pub insurance policy with us for over 10 years, asked me to look around for an alternative renewal quote. I explained that we go through this process as a matter of course.

Each renewal, we will either seek alternative quotations, or through our understanding of the market, be able to confirm whether or not they will get a better alternative. In this second part, we may not even seek alternative quotes. For example, if we have a customer paying the lowest minimum premium from all our providers (£424.00 inclusive of ipt) then we know that it is not worth looking for an alternative, as they are getting the best price deal (and we are happy with the level of cover provided).

To be fair, our customer, hereinafter known as Mr Green, had said he was always happy with the cover provided and the odd free of charge (increased public liability) extensions we had arranged. But, he had been pursued by an online business insurance broker who had guaranteed to beat his premium. We had sent out our renewal,with a couple of percent more than last year on the premium (due to index-linking and increased ipt). And, they had beaten the price, we were £1,279.78 and they came in at £1,215.79. Those mathematicians out there can work out that they had gone to great lengths to work out the exact premium to charge (not). Instead, they just took 5% off his price.

He asked if we could match this. I agreed, but on one condition, I matched every aspect of the quote, not just the price. As a result, I asked for the quote to be sent through so I could review it.

When the quote came in, there were numerous cost, cover and excess differences. He pays his premium in interest free instalments, they were charging 4.9%. His excess with us was £200 and £100 for glass. Their excess was £350, all claims. Their cover insisted on their being a digital communicator intruder alarm, ours was for audible only. There were more, but you get the picture. The other company had beaten the quote, but you only get what you pay for. Was the 5% saving worth moving his cover? Thankfully he realised that it wasn’t and stayed with us.

In answer to the question posed, where is the best place to get a business insurance quote? Is it the internet, is it a local company, is it a word of mouth recommendation? It can be any of these, but usually one of the best places to go, is to your existing provider to see what they can, and have in the past, do for you.

Ordinarily, you would only expect the property owner, who has a full financial interest in a property, to arrange commercial building insurance. But, this is not always the case.

If you are in a leased, or rented premises, (commercial only) then you can have a full insuring and repairing lease. What this means is that you are required to arrange suitable cover, for the buildings, under contract. It is of course not a legal requirement, but a contractual one. If you do not arrange the relevant cover, then the other party to the contract can start to enforce the particular contractual terms to either make you take out the policy or allow them to do this themselves. The problem with them doing it themselves is that they are not usually going to search and search for the best deal. All they want to do, quite rightly, is get their business asset insured.

Normally you would get yourself some sort of commercial property insurance policy. There are different options though, you can, in most cases, add cover to your business insurance package policy. We are not saying it will be, but there is the potential of this being cheaper.

As long as you do it the correct way, and have the interest of the actual building owner correctly noted on the policy, then you will be satisfying the terms and conditions of the lease.

So, the 20/10/2010, nice easy date to remember, will go down in history as the day George Osborne either made the best speech for the future of the UK, or the worst.

As everyone has been blogging, commenting and giving their opinions, we thought a humble business insurance broker could give their take on the situation.

The one thing that everyone will agree on is that we knew it was coming. Even the previous Labour cabinet ministers will have to admit that, if they had got in power then they would have had to do something very similar, although of course they would have not wielded the axe so high and so fast. More a gentle tap, every three or four months that would not even produce a scar.

We started our business in 2001, using private savings. We were contacted by the local authority at the start and they said we should speak to the Small Business Gateway, here in Scotland, as we could receive funding. I booked a meeting and turned up only to be told that as we were selling financial services we were not suitable for any funding.

The reason I have made this point is that we have received no financial support whatsoever. We did not even look for support, it was only when it was suggested to us, that we looked into it, and what a waste of time that was. So, we started the business and soon started paying not only PAYE and NI, but corporation tax and rates. We didn’t cost the taxpayer a penny, never have done and never will.

Whatever the individual figures are from the CSR, it needed to be done. Bob Crow was chivvying up the troops last night by blaming it all on the banks. Whilst the banks have cost the country money, the CSR is about reducing the bloated civil service and reducing other costs such as benefits. It is not about reducing child benefit to pay for bankers bonuses. Anyone with a single brain cell can work that out.

The private sector will take up the slack, of course they will.  But the difficulty will be, do we take on civil servants who have been used to their own way of life, 9 – 5, three weeks sick every year and a final salary pension – or do we just employ like we always have done straight from the private sector? I thinks we will stick to the way we have always done it.

The other thing about the CSR is that it will lead to public sector job losses. But don’t forget this is over a four year period, when natural wastage will have a majority impact. If you listen to some of Ed Milibands comrades last night, it would appear that 500,000 civil servants were going to get a P45 in the post today.

If you earn £100 a week and spend more than this, then you will get in to trouble. If a country, UK plc, is spending more than it receives in (tax) revenues, then it cannot borrow indefinitely. We have the worst budget deficit of the G20 countries.

George Osborne, like him or loathe him, we think will go down in history as setting UK plc in a position to become one of the fastest, consistently, growing G20 economies.

We have not had pay rises in the past four years, we don’t get bonuses and contribute to our pensions. I am afraid, for some of the public sector, yesterdays announcement was really just, welcome to the real world. The UK needs to get tougher, leaner and more profitable. The private sector will fuel this, but we are not happy to continue if our taxes just go to subsidise an over large public sector.

Well done George we say, but stick to the letter of your announcement. If you don’t follow through the tough choices, you will regret it.

Walk down any high street and you will see a glut of mobile phone shops, all the big brands are usually there, plugging their wares.

If you are prepared to sign up to a contract, the longer the better, you will get a mobile phone for free. Everyone know this and we are all aware that the phones are expensive items. Lose one of the phones or get it stolen and you can be shelling out up to £500 for a replacement.

A lot of businesses have corporate accounts for phones, but what about the smaller business? Many owners simply have a phone, in their name, but it is purely for commercial use. Where you are looking at up to £500 to replace, this is an item that needs to be covered, usually under your office insurance.

All policies offer this option, it is not something that is automatically included. So, unless you specify it or ask for it to be included you may find yourself out of pocket in the event of a loss.

Just be aware that some, we feel unfairly, companies have a huge excess of £250 each and every claim. If you look around or speak to a business insurance broker, you can usually get an excess of £100 each and every loss. Yes, £100 is a lot of money, but it is lot less than £500.

Typically, expect to pay around £30 per annum for a £1,000 worth of cover. Just make sure that it provides cover without the need to specify individual items. This way all you phones are covered, as long as the overall sum insured is accurate to replace all of your portable telecoms.

Imagine going to the shops and buying a box of cereal. You pay £2.00 for it and on the way home it falls out of your bag, into a puddle and is ruined.

To put you in the same position that you were in before your loss, you would need to spend a further £2.00. This is the reinstatement cost.

Now, imagine if you bought a laptop in 2008, it had a 50GB hard drive and cost you £750. If you dropped it in the same puddle (careless I know) and went out to buy a new one, you would probably only pay £400. This is the because, to get the same type of computer is cheaper 2 years later.

Now, you have a property that you paid £250,000 for and you are looking for a commercial building insurance quote. Do you insure for the purchase value? the answer is no. You may have got a good deal, it may be an old Grade II listed property or it may be that you have paid a premium for the property because it is in a nice area. So, in this case if your building is destroyed by fire, it may cost £400,000, £200,o00 or any other amount.

The problem is, that you need to find out exactly what it would cost to reinstate the property. The only way to be sure, is to get a valuer to come and see the property and give you an accurate reinstatement figure. There are so many different factors that affect this that a business insurance company cannot give you any sort of help or advice, you need someone to come and see the property.

A quick valuation may only cost you a few hundred pounds and if it shows that you have been insuring for the wrong figure then it may save you money in the long run.

A very (and I mean very) rough rule of thumb, is £100 per square foot for modern industrial (block and steel) premises and £200 per square foot for other properties. This cannot be applied to properties that are listed, of non standard construction or built prior to 1900. Then, you definitely need to get an expert involved.

The simple answer to this, is get someone else to do it. We have had to get used, over the years, to a plethora of price comparison websites.

Now, we think they are a good idea, but you do need to tread carefully when visiting, and using, one that offers to compare business insurance for you. There are reasons why we suggest you tread carefully, and these are as follows:-

I could set up a website tomorrow, that offers this service. But how do you know that I am looking at the whole range of providers. Insurers don’t offer agencies or the ability to sell their products to any Tom, Dick or Harriet. So, my website may only have two companies. I am offering a very restricted comparison but legally, it is ok.

If we extrapolate this a bit and I have ten companies to compare, how do you know that you are getting good cover? You may put in all the details, fill in all the boxes, but at the end of the line, it is the price that comes up in biggest and brightest letters. They are hoping that you will think, phew I have told them everything, this must be the best deal around.

Hold your horses! The website, if you look around at the small print, does not offer to give you the best or even market comparable cover.

So, what is the best, and only way, to go through this process correctly? Speak to a business insurance broker. This is how you get the process done correctly, you talk to an intermediary (who is independent) give them your details and then, you go away and let them do all the running.

If they are any good, within one day at the latest, they will call or email with the best price/terms they can get. True, a broker may only have two companies to compare (legally) but ask them the question. If it is only two, then why?, if you are not happy with the answer, then look elsewhere.

Thankfully, the Great Recession is coming to a very slow and painful end. It will be a long, long haul out of the other side and everyone, except maybe our Prime Minister, will come out of it having learned a lot more.

The Great British pub has been hammered for years, the supermarkets, the smoking ban, brewery rents and the tough economic times have sadly caused many to go. However, there is a resilience and many have decided that in order to survive, they must diversify.

This means for many licensed trade premises that they start to sell food. As the prices charged to the licensee for beers have been increasing, the margins on food have made this an attractive proposition.

But, if you do now sell food on your premises (and didn’t in the past) you need to look at all of the angles. One of these is making sure your pub insurance company is aware of what you do. In addition, you may need to advise your local health and safety department or local authority that you are now cooking and selling food.

As far as your business insurance policy is concerned you need to consider two areas. Firstly that you are covered for all the business activities as some underwriters do charge more money if you are selling food. Secondly, if you are involved in deep fat frying, there may be certain policy conditions that apply. These may be that you have to clean the ducting and equipment in a certain manner at least once a month.

Speak to your broker and just check that they and your insurers are fully aware of what you do.

In more and more UK cities, we are finding that the local authorities are insisting on most licensed trade premises having door staff. Go back to the late 80’s and early 90’s and it was only nightclubs or rough pubs that needed this. Nowadays, the local council sees this as a away of preventing under age drinking and trouble. The nicest establishments may still need to have door staff.

What happens then, when you get a letter from a solicitor alleging that one of the door staff has caused an injury to a customer (which happens more and more). The first thing you need to do is to consult your pub insurance policy. This will, unless you have been mis-sold the cover, include public liability. Any injury to customers would fall under this section of the policy.

You are not obliged to respond to the initial solicitors letter at all, you send it as soon as  possible to your broker and ask them what to do next. This will usually involve a claim form and a visit from a loss adjuster.

What the loss adjuster will check is whether the door staff are direct employees of your business or whether they have been sourced from a third party company. With the licensing laws on security staff, it is more common that a publican will source them from a 3rd party. If this is the case, it may be that the claim is passed directly over to this company. If not, your policy will need to provide the cover. But, be warned you must notify your broker if you employee door staff, whether direct or agency. If you do not and you have a claim, this may invalidate your policy and result in a claim not being paid.

UK commercial insurance companies, when looked at as a whole, have literally thousands of different insurance products. Whatever trade you are involved and however you earn your money (legitimately of course!) you can, if you look around find a policy that will protect your business.

But, it is not the easiest of topics to understand. I am not saying it is too complex for everyone to understand, far from it, what I mean is that if Joe Bloggs is starting out in business and decides to look for a restaurant insurance quote, how does he actually know he is getting what he needs?

You can but a policy from company A, B or C – how can you be sure which is best? You can guarantee that every quote you get will be different in price, but this does not necessarily follow that all the covers will be different.

What you need, to set you on the right road, is professional advice. The good thing about it is, you can get this for nothing. You do not need to pay an expert to come in and assess each of the risks. You should speak to a broker. The emphasis there is speak. Don’t fill in boxes, don’t send off forms – phone someone up and talk to them.

This way, they will review what risks you face, which ones you are legally obliged to cover and which ones you can choose to cover. Then, they will go away and using their knowledge of the market, source you the best price they can for the widest cover. And you only pay once you incept the policy.

Quality is what counts. It doesn’t matter what industry you are involved in, if you are supplying quality, people will appreciate it and will pay a margin for it. Now, we are not saying it is easy charging more than a competitor but this is all part of the sales process.

Financial services is one area where it is incredibly difficult to justify differentials in price, particularly in the current economic climate. Business insurance is one such area where it never was easy to sell and 2009/2010 made it even harder.

But, going back to the first point, if you sell quality you can add a margin. But, for financial protection, if you are quality then  you can bargain for a better price.

Take shop insurance for example, as a nation, excluding the major (10 or more outlets) chains, we have over 150,000 shops. From an underwriting point of view, some of these are good and some are bad. The bad ones are the ones that are at higher risk (ie theft of attractive contents) or they have had and will continue to have, claims.

If you have not had a claim in over three years and all other things from an insurers point of view are good, then you can still get bargains. Of course, the major companies do not have sales, in reality there is a sale all year round. If your business represents the risk quality that they are looking for (see below) then the insurers want your premium and will price their quotes accordingly.

Good points:-

1) Low, or no claims, over the past three years.

2) Trading for more than three years.

3) Family owned.

4) Good security, including roller shutters.

5) Not involved in highly theft attractive stock (ie mobile phones/designer wear) although a restricted number of companies will fight for this business as well.

6) In a nice rural, flood free location. If you are in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc, we just need to be more selective in which insurers we apporach.