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Five insurance tips business owners should know

3 July 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Whether you’re a high flying business owner or a budding entrepreneur starting out with a great idea, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself wandering aimlessly in the minefield of business insurance. Dangerous stuff!

No superhuman IQ is required, but you’d be fooled into thinking a simple phone call will leave you ‘feeling epic’ like Action Man. This five-step guide will help business owners make a more informed decision and save cash.

1) Meet your legal requirements

You MUST meet your legal requirements. The only business insurance mandatory under UK law is employer’s liability insurance. This is required by all businesses that employ staff, whatever their contracts.

However, if your business operates vehicles, it’s mandatory by UK law that you have third-party insurance vehicle insurance to cover claims made against you from third parties. Some industry regulators may also require you have insurance cover in place. For example, solicitors and accountants are required to have professional indemnity insurance. To discover the legal requirements of your business please refer to Gov.uk for information or talk to your local council.

2: Understand your risks

Next, you should assess the risks within your business. These are unique to each company. It’s best to make a list here. Always look at risks that are ‘reasonable’ and could happen. Here are some example scenarios.

If you run a logistics company, it’s reasonable that one of your vehicles could be involved in a road accident. This could injure a member of the public, your staff, or damage the goods being transported. This could help inform your insurance needs.

By Callum Watkins

See Full Story at www.smeweb.com

5 Tips To Keep Your Business Insurance Premiums Low

18 January 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

If you own a small business, you have to be extremely mindful of your expenses. It is important to be vigilant about your costs so that your business is as profitable as possible. However, since businesses are faced with uncontrollable factors and risks, business insurance is an important expense to prioritize. Nevertheless, you can still keep your business insurance premiums low enough to maintain ideal profit margins. Here are some tips on how to keep your small business insurance premiums low:

Increase Your Deductibles

Insurance should be viewed as a life raft, not a crutch. One way to save money on your insurance policy is to “self-insure” by increasing your deductible to a level that may seem uncomfortable. Deductibles are the amount of money you are required to pay in the event of a claim before your insurance plan kicks in. A higher deductible serves two main purposes: one, to lower your premium, and two, to ensure you don’t file frivolous claims. Insurance is all about risk, and higher deductibles tell the insurer you’re willing to take on some of that risk. So, how do you know what is the right deductible? Determine what amount makes you uncomfortable but won’t wreck you financially. If that figure is $1,000, $2,000, $5,000 or more, that’s where you start.

Bundle Your Insurance Products

Combining your coverage can result in rate deductions as well. If you need general liability, business property, and cyber liability insurance, you can combine those policies with the same company to save money. That is, instead of paying for insurance policies separately, you can bundle them into a single policy such as a Business Owners Policy. This policy can combine income loss, liability, and property insurance, among other coverages, into a policy with a lower rate. However, evaluate the policy first to make sure that you don’t pay for insurance you won’t need.

Reduce Your Risks

One of the factors that insurance companies use to determine the amount to charge you is the level of risk of your business. Therefore, the higher risk your small business is, the higher the amount you will pay. Reducing your risks can simply involve implementing smart risk management strategies in your business to decrease the likelihood of accidents occurring. For instance, you can implement workplace safety measures, theft-prevention programs, human resource training, and disaster preparation programs.

BY JERAMY GORDON

See full story at brashearsinsurance.com

Guide to Business Insurance

13 August 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Murat Erturk

As a business owner it is sometimes difficult to know what insurance you need and how much of it to buy, so we’ve put together a guide to help you.

To start searching for business insurance cover, hit the ‘get quotes now’ button.

Get a new business insurance quote

The type of insurance policy you buy may differ depending on the size and type of business you are running, your insurance budget and whether any of your customers have requirements about what insurance cover you should have.

Public liability insurance

Public liability Insurance protects you against claims for compensation from people outside your business who have suffered an injury or whose property has been damaged because of your business.

It can also cover more serious claims resulting from construction accidents which cause serious damage to a building or injuries to a member of the public.

If you come into contact with members of the public – including your customers – either at their premises or yours you should think about getting a public liability insurance quote.

Employers’ liability insurance

If you have employees, even part-time or on a short-term basis, you must buy employers’ liability insurance – if you don’t you are breaking the law.

If you are an employer make sure that you stay within the law and buy employers’ liability cover.

Property insurance

Most businesses would find it difficult to work without the tools of their trade or with no access to their place of work – whether you’re a consultancy business and rely on your IT equipment or a plumber who couldn’t work without their tools.

Could you afford to replace all of your business equipment or stock in the event of it being destroyed, lost or stolen?

When buying this cover, it is important to ensure that the sum insured on your contents list is equal to or greater than the value of your equipment; not just the items you think are important (so don’t forget about the boring stuff like office chairs and filing cabinets).

This also applies to your own or hired-in plant if you work in the construction industry – could you afford to replace it if you didn’t have business insurance? If you do buy cover make sure you insure the plant to its full value.

If you own the building you work from you should make sure that it is properly protected.

Another cover to consider is business interruption insurance. This will make up for the money you lose if you can’t work because your property has been destroyed, stolen or damaged.

Professional indemnity

Professionals are effectively selling their knowledge and expertise to their customers – you may be doing this in a number of different ways including providing advisory and consultancy services and producing designs.

If your client loses money because of a mistake you’ve made or because your work is late or not up to scratch, you may be faced with a claim for compensation.

Professional indemnity insurance can protect your business by paying for this compensation and legal costs.

What else do I need to know about business insurance?

You may feel confident that you know what insurance to buy but not how much.

For public liability and professional indemnity you will need to choose a limit of cover which is right for your business.

Employer’s liability insurance is required by law if you have employees and you must purchase a minimum of £5 million in cover – although many policies will automatically cover you for £10 million.

When buying property insurance the most important thing is to make sure you are not under-insured. Be sure to calculate the total value of all the entirety of your property – you can’t pick and choose what you want to be covered.

To compare business insurance cover, please click on the “get quotes now” button.

See Full Story on moneysupermarket.com

Small Business Owner Should Have These 13 Types of Insurance

11 August 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user The Elite Ayrshire Business Circle

1. General Liability Insurance: Every business, even if home-based, needs to have liability insurance.

2. Property Insurance: If you own your building or have business personal property, including office equipment, computers, inventory or tools you should consider purchasing a policy that will protect you if you have a fire, vandalism, theft, smoke damage etc.

3. Business owner’s policy (BOP): A business owner policy packages all required coverage a business owner would need. Often, BOP’s will include business interruption insurance, property insurance, vehicle coverage, liability insurance, and crime insurance.

4. Commercial Auto Insurance: Commercial auto insurance protects a company’s vehicles. You can protect vehicles that carry employees, products or equipment.

5. Worker’s Compensation: Worker’s compensation provides insurance to employees who are injured on the job. This type of insurance provides wage replacement and medical benefits to those who are injured while working. In exchange for these benefits, the employee gives up his rights to sue his employer for the incident.

6. Professional Liability Insurance: this type of insurance is also known as Errors and Omissions Insurance. The policy provides defense and damages for failure to or improperly rendering professional services.

7. Directors and Officers Insurance: this type of insurance protects the directors and officers of a company against their actions that affect the profitability or operations of the company.

8. Data Breach: If the business stores sensitive or non-public information about employees or clients on their computers, servers or in paper files they are responsible for protecting that information.

9. Homeowner’s Insurance: Homeowner’s insurance is one of the most important kinds of insurance you need. This type of insurance can protect against damage to the home and against damage to items inside the home.

10. Renter’s Insurance: Renter’s insurance is a sub-set of homeowner’s insurance which applies only to those whose who rent their home. The coverage is protects against damage to the physical property, contents of the property, and personal injury within the home.

11. Life Insurance: Life insurance protects an individual against death. If you have life insurance, the insurer pays a certain amount of money to a beneficiary upon your death.

12. Personal Automobile Insurance: Another very important type of insurance is auto insurance. Automobile insurance covers all road vehicles (trucks, cars, motorcycles, etc.).

13. Personal Umbrella Insurance: You may want some additional coverage, on top of insurance policies you already have. This is where personal umbrella insurance comes into play.

See Full Story on forbes.com

Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance