Business Insurance guide

For many people, owning their own business is a dream come true.  Having the freedom to work for yourself doing something you love can be enormously rewarding.  Being a business owner brings responsibilities and risks, though, which is why it’s important to have business insurance in place.

Getting the business insurance that’s right for your company can be a complicated affair. As well as finding cover to protect your stock and contents from things like Fire and Theft, or having Employers Liability to compensate your workers in the event of an injury at work, there are lots of other risks for you to think about. Do you need professional indemnity insurance?  How long does the indemnity period on your business interruption policy need to be?  How much do your business premises need to be insured for?  And is cyber insurance something that you should consider as part of your business insurance quote?

To help you ensure your business has the protection it needs, here’s Jensten Insurance Brokers’ Business Insurance Guide.  We hope it will prove useful, but if you’d like some personalised business insurance advice, please call us on 0800 368 9018 or contact us and we’ll call you back.

What is Business Insurance?

The term Business Insurance refers to a wide range of products and services, that can be tailored to your specific cover requirements and are sometimes packaged into a single policy to help keep things simple.  For example, cover through Jensten Insurance Brokers can protect your premises, stock, and employees and can be tailored to your business’s needs.  Business insurance commonly includes covers such as:

• Public liability insurance.
• Employers’ liability insurance.
• Professional indemnity insurance.
• Commercial property insurance.
• Business Interruption insurance
• Stock insurance.
• Fleet insurance.

Who needs Business Insurance?

Firms and other organisations that need protection from multiple risks can benefit from business insurance.  Some classes of insurance, such as Employers Liability are compulsory by law for any business with employees, other insurances can be a contractual requirement imposed upon you, but many are optional and simply designed to enable you to run your business with less worry about the risk of losing the money you have invested or may be held to account for by a customer or member of the public.

The range of covers available and its overall flexibility means it can be tailored to meet the needs of:

• Builders.
• Shops.
• Manufacturers.
• Online businesses.
• Distributors.
• Hotels.
• Charities.
• Pub and wine bars.
• Accountants.
• Lawyers.
• Wholesalers.
• Beauty and hair salons.
• Consultancy firms.
• And more!

That is to name but a few, so please get in touch if you’d like some business insurance advice.  Our friendly insurance specialists will be happy to give you all the help you need to protect your business financially.

What can Business Insurance cover?

Business insurance offers a package of protection that allows you to cover multiple risks on a single policy*.  It can be tailored to your needs and can cover risks such as:

• Public liability– provides cover should a member of the public injure themselves or have their property damaged while you are working.  It covers the cost of claims made by members of the public for incidents that occur in connection to your business’s activities.
• Employers’ liability – this is a legal requirement if you employ people. It provides cover in the event of your employee injuring themselves or if their property is damaged while at work.  The law says that if you employ at least one person, you must have employers’ liability insurance (sometimes called ‘E.L. insurance’) to protect your employees in case they are injured or become ill as a result of working for you.  Your policy must:
  – Cover you for at least £5 million
  – Be with an authorised insurer
  – And employers must provide a safe working environment
• Product liability – if the products you use, recommend, manufacture, or sell cause problems, you can be liable for damages. For many businesses, products are central to what they do.  Product liability insurance can protect you if these products cause injury or illness and legal claims are brought against you.
• Commercial property insurance – if you own the building in which your business operates, you’d be wise to have commercial property insurance in place. Buildings insurance insures you against the cost of repairing or rebuilding your building if it’s damaged by risks such as floods, fires, or vandalism, and it can also cover business contents should they be lost or stolen.
• Business interruption – if your business was forced to close for a while, the effects could be catastrophic due to mounting bills and no income.  Thankfully, business interruption insurance can be there for you at the worst of times.  It will continue to provide you with an income while your business’s doors are closed, giving you significant peace of mind.

If you’re thinking of taking out business interruption insurance, it’s worth considering the period it covers.  Typically, a policy will give you a year’s worth of coverage, but many insurance experts now advocate having a two-year limit.  This is because businesses are finding it takes longer to return to normal after significant issues.

• Directors’ and officers’ insurance (D&O) – as the business’s leaders, senior figures can be personally liable for a business’s actions and face hefty financial losses should legal action go against them.  Directors’ and officers’ insurance – or D&O insurance as it’s also known – protects your senior members from the costs of legal action, allowing them to focus on their jobs.
• Professional indemnity – if you advise your customers – even if that advice is given free of charge – you should consider having professional indemnity insurance.  Professional indemnity – I. insurance as it’s also known – will shield you financially should you be sued for losses by a customer for giving them poor or misleading advice.
• Stock insurance – if your business has stock – raw materials, parts, or finished goods – you’ll want to protect it from theft, loss, or damage.  Stock cover assists with the costs of replacing or repairing your inventory if it’s damaged, lost, or stolen.
• Cyber insurance – most organisations can benefit from having cyber insurance in place, as the number of attacks is on the rise.  According to Gov.co.uk, 32% of all businesses and 24% of charities were attacked in 2022, with 59% of medium and 69% of large businesses being targeted.  Cyber insurance can help you repair damaged systems, pay ransomware demands, and help with reputation management following a breach.
• Fleet – do you have two or more vehicles associated with your company?  You can save time and money versus individual vehicle policies by insuring them with fleet insurance.  Fleet insurance offers extra versatility, too by, for example, allowing any named driver to drive the vehicles on your policy.
• Personal accident insurance – this will protect you should someone be involved in an accident at work. It will pay out in the event of death, bodily injury, or disablement.  The compensation provided can pay for temporary staff or cover the overtime cost for other team members

How to save on Business Insurance

When you’ve been providing business insurance quotes for as long as we have, you learn a few things about cutting the cost of cover.  Our top five tips for cutting the cost of business insurance are:

1. Look at your options – or better still, get an independent insurance broker such as Jensten Insurance Brokers to do the review for you. An independent broker will have access to a range of providers.
2. Have your policy reviewed by a specialist – businesses change, the value of its assets changes as do the risks they are exposed to. Getting an independent insurance broker to review your policy ahead of renewal can be a good way to reduce your business insurance quote.
3. Pay annually – paying in instalments is good for cash flow but usually incurs interest payments. If you can pay annually, it will usually work out cheaper.
4. Increase your excess – upping your excess – the amount you pay in the event of a claim – can reduce your premiums and can act as a deterrent to making claims for small amounts. Making a claim, even for a small amount, can push up premiums in the future.
5. Implement risk management procedures – insurers evaluate premiums on the basis of risk, and if you can demonstrate that your business has robust risk management procedures in place this can reduce your risk in insurers eyes and reduce your premiums.

*Policy information is correct at the time of writing.  Policy details, limits, and exclusions are subject to insurer’ changes.