Best Business Insurance

The best business insurance for you will be one that covers the most risks your business faces. Since no two businesses are alike, these risks aren’t the same either. That’s why there’s no standard small business insurance policy that will be the best option for every business.  

For instance, the insurance policies a professional painter will need are entirely different from that required by a retail business. 

Some of the ways to help you find the most suitable policy (or policies) for your business are: 

Look first at what insurance is compulsory 

Some forms of business insurance are mandatory. Examples where insurance is compulsory include: 

• If you employ anyone – all employers in Australia are required to have workers compensation insurance. This is regardless of whether your employees are full-time, part-time, casual or permanent. Workers compensation is a must for all workers. 
• If you are in certain professions – there are many forms of insurance that are compulsory for specific occupations. For example, nurses and allied health professionals are required as part of their registration to have professional indemnity insurance. If you’re a plumber wanting insurance in Victoria, it’s compulsory to have a type of public liability insurance which includes plumbers' warranty cover. 
• If you present a risk to the public – situations in which a member of the public could get hurt often come with a compulsory requirement to have public liability insurance. This may include if you’re the operator of a fairground or want to hold a public market or put on a live show. Getting the necessary permits to hold your event will include proving you have current public liability cover of between $5 million and $20 million. The cost of this public liability insurance is often covered by the cover price of the tickets for the public event. 
• If you share a building – you may be required to have commercial property insurance, glass breakage insurance or general liability insurance by the property owner, landlord, body corporate or strata title management authority. 

Consider a risk assessment 

Finding the best business insurance is about identifying the risks faced by your company and matching the insurance you take out to cover those risks. This can best be achieved by carrying out a risk assessment. You can either conduct one yourself or employ a risk auditor to carry out one for you. This audit will look at all the risks faced by your business to: 

• Your assets – including your building, contents, stock, vehicles, plant and machinery 
• Your people – including employees, customers, clients and the public 
• Your business intangibles – which covers things like cyber security, intellectual property, patents and your business reputation 

The best business insurance will offer protection for those areas which are most valuable to you in all of these categories, offering your business all-round protection. 

Think worst-case scenario 

Once you’ve identified what assets you need to protect and the risks which are possible, think about the worst-case scenario. Your risk assessment may have listed fire as one risk to consider. You may be able to cope with a small fire in your delivery yard, but consider what would happen if your entire premises burnt to the ground. Make sure the small business insurance you choose covers you for all the scenarios where your most major assets need protecting.