3 Tips for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Looking to Open New Markets
You might be thinking of starting an innovative new business or introducing a new product range or service to your existing business. Wonderful, the world certainly needs more creative ideas and entrepreneurs.
Tip #1: Check into business insurance options
You’ll probably be eagerly preparing your business and marketing plan. However, before you get far down the line, it is vital you check whether what you’re planning to do is covered by insurance. And if it isn’t covered by insurance, a) whether you’re prepared to manage the risks of proceeding with your plans or b) whether it’s worth pursuing at all.
Ausure has an extensive network of insurance experts who are skilled at finding insurers for hard-to-place risks. However, unfortunately, not everything can be covered. It’s advisable to check before you invest millions in a new product or market.
Tip #2: Ask yourself, are you a good insurance risk?
As a client, you’re asking for insurance for a set of risks. You and your business actually have to be well-researched and understood by your insurance broker and then marketed to a potential insurer.
If your broker knows you well, knows you follow good, safe and ethical business procedures and policies, and that you carry out regular maintenance on insured items and take all precautions to protect your assets, getting good insurance coverage is usually a lot surer.
Your insurance broker might ask a lot of questions to gain as much information as possible before approaching insurers as they need a full picture to assess risk.
Ausure brokers can arrange surveys for your premises to identify any areas of concern or risks so that these can be improved before presenting to an insurer. A survey also helps identify and highlight good, clean, well-maintained premises or business which often is the difference between an insurer writing the risk or not insuring it.
As your broker will also explain, it’s essential to be absolutely honest when taking out insurance and when claiming.
Tip #3: Don’t underinsure
This is a common error when taking out insurance as underinsuring a building or business might seem to offer a cheaper premium upfront. However, this won’t help you financially, in the long run, should you have to make a claim.
People often assume they will get the amount they are insured for, should they suffer a loss and need to make a claim. In reality, the insurer can penalise you for not accurately insuring the replacement value of your property. It can reduce the amount you are paid out, proportionately to the percentage you are underinsured.
Naturally, it’s often hard to get a precise value and values can change as various factors including building costs change. Insurers compensate for this by saying they will usually allow for the risk to be insured for a minimum of eighty per cent its value. Take note that anything less than this will be penalised at a proportionate rate of the underinsurance. This can actually result in a huge difference from what you expected at payout time.
With regards to values, Ausure brokers can arrange a professional valuation of your property or business to ensure you are adequately insured and that underinsurance is minimised.
Your Trusted Ausure insurance broker will be able to explain all this to you and help you ensure you insure your property and business at the correct values so you are well covered should there ever be a claim.
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