Business in today’s world can be ever changing due to external factors such as economic, legislative and regulative changes and internal changes to products, customers, employees and growth in the business.
Business owners are often so involved in the day to day running of their business, that they don’t always find the time to truly sit back and think about how these changes may affect other parts of the business.
Commercial insurance is one of the things that many business owners only think about once a year when it comes to the time of insurance renewal. But there is a huge risk of being underinsured or your insurance policy being invalid if changes have not been notified to your insurance broker or insurance provider. This shouldn’t just be done at renewal, but you should work with your broker throughout the year to consider any changes and if these may affect your policies.
At Harborough Portas we encourage our clients to actively discuss their plans and changes in their business with us. Don’t consider any change to be too small to discuss with your broker.
Here are just some of the areas to consider notifying your insurance broker of throughout the year if changes are happening in your business.
Changes to business premises
Whether big or small changes in your business premises can hugely affect your business insurance cover. Ask yourself these questions:
Have you added new locations or moved premises etc?
Have you made alterations to your current premises?
Have you assessed the value and rebuild cost of your business property recently? Read more about the risk of commercial property underinsurance here.
Do you have more people working on site or people like subcontractors on site?
Have you purchased new business equipment such as machinery, solar panels, IT equipment etc?
Have you undertaken a health and safety assessment recently?
Have you installed new security equipment to the premises? For example, a new alarm, window bars, shutters or upgraded your security cameras?
Changes to services / products
Have you changed or added new service lines or products that may affect your insurance policy? For example, a new product or service may affect product liability or professional indemnity cover.
People changes
Any changes to the way your staff operate means that your employer’s liability will need to be updated, such as working from home and having to cover multiple locations.
Have you changed your business structure by adding new directors, joint ventures, shareholders etc?
Do you employ more or less people this year?
Are you taking on seasonal workers or subcontractors to cover increases in workload?
Are you moving to remote or home working?
Changes to your stock
Has the value of your stock significantly increased or decreased?
Have there been changes to the type of stock you hold?
Are there changes to the place where you store stock?
Technology
Has your business technology changed that may make you more at risk, for example cyber-attacks?
Have you suffered any type of cyber attack recently?
Vehicle / fleet changes
Have you added vehicles or changed vehicles on your fleet?
Has your fleet mileage significantly increased or decreased?
Have you employed young or inexperienced drivers?
Are you making a switch to electric vehicles?
Changes in customers or territories
Are you planning to sell your products or services in other countries?
Has your type of customer base changed dramatically?
Ongoing dialogue with your insurance broker
Many business owners simply forget that changes in their business may affect their insurance cover, or they are worried that the changes may increase their premiums. However, some changes may increase your premium, but others may actually save you money.
Having ongoing dialogue with your commercial insurance broker throughout the year and not just at renewal time is key to knowing that your business insurance is up to date and valid.
Whether changes are big or small, it’s worth consulting your commercial insurance broker to see if the changes will impact any of your insurance policies before the changes happen.
For help and advice on all your commercial insurance needs contact us today on 0116 260 0506 or email us at mail@harboroughportas.com.
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