Insurance you do need and insurance that you don’t!
Assessing which insurance policies you need and which you don’t can be a confusing business. www.endsleigh.co.uk is a great source of information in finding which policies are most relevant to your needs.
To summarise, when it comes to Business Insurance there are three main areas: Public Liability, Employer Liability and Professional Indemnity. Whether you need these or not is dependent on the nature of your business, so I will quickly outline their attributes:
Public Liability: This form of insurance isn’t a legal requirement but many would suggest it would be irresponsible not to have it. Your business is very much a public arena, with a constant flow of people passing through and surveying your product. If a member of the public is injured in your environment, you will be liable to a big compensation claim if you are found negligent. This could ruin your business and render all of your work worthless. If you work with government contracts or local authorities, you may find Public Liability is compulsory. Find prices and further details at www.endsleigh.co.uk.
Employer Liability: If you actively employ people, even if it is a sole employee, this is the insurance that is compulsory under the Employer Liability Regulations Act. You must protect the needs of your employees, and you do that through Employer Liability insurance. Any UK company must have a minimum of £5m worth of cover. There’s no cutting the cost of Employer Liability Insurance.
Professional Indemnity: This type of insurance is specific to a certain type of business: those that give advice, professional services or guidance. It may not apply to all business owners and specifically geared towards Accountants, IT consultants, or anybody in a general advisory role. Many modern businesses come under this banner so do your research at www.endsleigh.co.uk.
It’s easy to think that you can cut costs in avoiding unnecessary insurance policy costs. In some cases this may be not far from the truth but you really need to research which policies your business will require as fundamental to your area of operation. Ask questions like; ‘do I employ staff?’ ‘Am I working closely with the public?’ ‘Am I providing advice that could make me negligent?’