Superscript, one of our Marketplace partners and an independent online broker for business insurance, talks about getting the right cover for your business.
Business insurance is designed to cover the costs incurred by a claim against your business. Without the right cover, you could find yourself in financial difficulty.
As a business owner, you are responsible for ensuring your policy is fit for purpose, to cover the risks your business may face.
Why is it important to get the right cover?
“Surely some cover is better than no cover?” you may think. Actually, this isn’t necessarily the case.
Purchasing a policy that doesn’t meet your needs could lead to you overpaying for unnecessary cover or, even leave major risks uncovered. In fact, not having the right type or amount of cover in place is one of the main reasons claims are declined.
How do I get the right cover? Cover types, limits and excess
Getting the right insurance starts with determining what you need in terms of cover type, limits and excess.
So, let’s start with the cover types. Business insurance is an umbrella term encompassing all the covers available to protect against different risks a business may face. When you purchase a business insurance policy, it will be made up of one or more of these covers, depending on what risks your business needs protection for.
The most common business insurance is public liability insurance. This covers incidents that could be caused by your business activities, for example if you’re a tradesperson and someone trips on your equipment and hurts themselves, they might sue. Other types of coverage include property insurance, invoice insurance and cyber insurance (all discussed in the Starling business guide “What is business insurance?”).
Limits and claims
Next up, limits. These refer to the maximum amount that could be paid out if you need to make a claim. Not all covers require you to choose a limit, but for example, when purchasing public liability insurance you may be able to choose a limit of either £1m, £2m or £5m, depending on the level of risk you expect to face. This will likely impact the cost of your policy, with higher limits typically costing more, so it’s economical to understand what limits you require.
Insurance excess
You may have come across these in the context of car or travel insurance. An excess is the amount you’ll be required to pay towards the cost of any claim you’re making. Sometimes you’re able to adjust the excess amount of your cover and this will typically be reflected in the cost of your cover. Generally, the higher your excess, the lower your policy cost, or ‘premium’ as it’s often known.
It’s really important to remember that as your business changes, its cover may need updating. Factors such as taking on new employees, changing premises or offering new services could expose your business to new risks. Renewing year after year without properly reviewing cover is a common pitfall and can leave you over or underinsured.
Superscript’s monthly subscription model allows you to adjust your cover needs from month to month - if you need to. Starling customers can connect to Superscript though the Starling app, where it’s easy to view all your policy details and documents.
Selecting a business insurance provider
Once you’ve decided what insurance your business needs, it’s time to pick a provider and set up your policy. Superscript is one option, available through the Starling Marketplace, where customers can connect to third-party products and services.
When choosing an insurance provider, it can be helpful to think about the worst case scenario - what’s going to happen if and when you need to make a claim? Is the provider available via online chat, or only over the phone? Checking out customer reviews via respected third-party platforms, such as Trustpilot, can help you to understand what a provider does well and perhaps doesn’t do so well.
Superscript in the Starling Marketplace
If you’d like to look into Superscript, you can find us in the ‘insurance’ category of Starling’s business marketplace on their app. From there, we can take you through a quick but thorough process to help you determine what cover your business needs.
This is intended as general information and doesn’t constitute advice. Make sure you take independent advice if you’ve got any questions about your specific circumstances.