There are many factors which influence the overall cost of your business insurance policy, including:
- The type of business you run
- The structure of your business (whether it’s a partnership, you’re a sole trader or have numerous directors)
- Your business size and turnover
- Where your business is located
- How many employees you have
- Your finance and credit history
- Your insurance claims history (how many claims you’ve made in the last five years)
However, perhaps the main factor which will affect the cost of your insurance is the industry you’re in. This is because all industries have known risk factors, which are well documented and used by all insurers to calculate the comparative risk of any one business type. The way that insurers classify risk is through a premium rating classification system. All industries in Australia are classified according to the risk their industry and type of business is known to pose.
For example, agriculture, forestry and fishing are considered the riskiest business in Australia in terms of claims of injury or damage to property. Transport industries and postal and warehousing businesses are also considered to be a higher risk, as are construction industries and manufacturing businesses. The lowest-risk industries are office-based workers such as IT professionals, financial advisors and legal professionals.
Risk ratings are used as a basis for any insurance quote. Set formulas are applied when calculating the cost of insurance premiums, so whichever insurer you ask, the cost for a fisherman to insure their business will naturally be higher than someone running a marketing business. Despite this, quotes can vary widely, which is why it’s important to compare offers frequently.
The location of your business is also important. Areas of northern Australia, including north Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Northern Queensland, are the most expensive places to get business insurance. This is because these areas are most prone to natural disasters such as cyclones, which can devastate large areas during the yearly cyclone season.
If you want to know the exact cost for any one type of small business insurance, you can apply online today to instantly get a range of quotes to compare. For example, if you just require product liability insurance, you can get quotes for that type alone or get product liability included as part of a general small business insurance package.