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Booted & Suited

It’s a building, so what’s the problem

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It can’t get up and hurt someone, or can it?

When you take out property owners insurance, in addition to the cover for the building, you get cover for your liabilities, for injury to people or damage to other people’s property.

Public liability covers members of the general public, including tenants, visitors and the like and employer’s liability takes care of people you employ, such as, gardeners, handymen and cleaners.

If someone were to trip up on a loose paving stone, or a stair carpet, then they may have a case against you for the injury sustained, private treatment and any loss of earnings. The total could run into tens of thousands of pounds.

The same applies to employees who are injured whilst doing work at your direction and would extend to and the provision of a safe working environment, PPE, scaffolding, cleaning and garden equipment.

Cover also includes damage done to property, for instance if tiles fell of a roof which had not been maintained properly and crashed down on a parked car, god forbid landing on a person.

Public liability cover is included, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time, whereas employer’s liability is optional, so check carefully.

Have a great week 😎

Booted & Suited

It can’t be that simple, can it?

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I constantly talk to my clients about business, it’s what I do.

Whether that is on the business continuity, insurance, risk management or consulting side of life.

I always try to add value, so my clients get more than they expect. I want to educate them so they can make better informed decisions in business.

40 years of knowledge and experience, often distilled into a single sentence, bringing clarity and awareness.

Lightbulb moments are often a thing!

My mission in consulting is simple: –

“I help founders and directors create detailed plans, to support growth and development in their businesses.”

Pretty neat, eh?

Well, it would be if all businesses were the same, but of course they are not.

They will however all go through 6 distinct phases, and understanding what is needed at each stage is key.

  1. Start-up
  2. Expansion
  3. Stable
  4. Mature
  5. Exit
  6. Sale

First you need to know where you are, evaluate how much have you achieved, and what is left to be done, before you can move on to the next stage.

I can help you avoid the common mistakes, that you don’t need to make, but will, when you don’t know, what you don’t know.

If you follow this simple model supported by detailed plans at each stage, and then execute them effectively, I can almost guarantee success and a profitable and happy future.

Accountability is guaranteed through every stage, so you don’t wander of the path to success.

Advice and guidance are available 7 days a week, at the end of the phone.

Prices start at very affordable levels, £100’s per month, not £1000’s and there is no contract tying you in, regardless of effect i your business.

You engage for as long as you like and find value, in business or personally.

If you’d like to know more, then just message me here.

Have a great week 😎

 

Severn Bay Logo

GOLDEN NUGGETS!

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Business Interruption cover, or Loss of Profits Insurance as it is more commonly known does one thing!

It provides you with a monthly payment, when you can’t trade, following a significant damage to property which prevents you from operating your business.

Fire & Flood are probably the worst case scenarios, but there are others.

In all cases you need to specify 2 factors

  • The Gross Profit or Gross Revenue figure over 12 months
  • The indemnity Period, 12, 16, 24, 36 months

Gross Profit should be TURNOVER less the cost or raw materials (If there are any)

The indemnity period needs to be long enough so you can fully recover your business in any situation.

Get these two numbers right and after the insurers have remedied the damage or loss to your physical assets, they will pay you until you return to the same level of profit and turnover, up to the length of the indemnity period, if necessary #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

Get it wrong and your business may never recover!

Have a great week 😎

 

 

Solicitors

Solicitors and Legal Firms beware!

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Its that time of year again!

 

Professional Indemnity for Solicitors is always a hot topic at this time of year.

 

Traditionally all firms renewed on the Law Society scheme on 1st October, but since that scheme was broken up, at least 60% still renew on that date, with another chunk who chose 18 month policies, renewing on the 1st April and a smattering of new start-ups at other times.

 

This is a nightmare for firms and for the insurers.

 

Firms looking for alternative options to the existing provider are asking the limited number of underwriters not only to deal with their existing customers, but also prepare terms for the ones they don’t hold, all in the run up to 1st of October. In total there are over 600 firms.

 

The secret is to start early and I mean NOW!

 

That way we can approach insurers when they aren’t quite so busy with renewals. We can get a commitment to quote, which means if an existing broker then approaches them to “block off” that market, with a fake request for terms they can’t, because we already have commitment.

 

Also don’t fall for the option to “ONLY” consider a short declaration to get renewal terms. These short declarations do not hold enough information for alternate terms to be obtained. You’re just going to get the terms they want to give you, secure in the knowledge you’re not looking elsewhere.

 

It also means they don’t have to give claims experience to anyone else, because you signed a declaration to them. This is particularly prevalent at times when premiums are likely to reduce, like NOW!

 

If you want to get lower premiums work with a broker who works for fixed fees, or a % of the reduction achieved, and is not commission focused, with an interest in seeing your premium rise and their earnings with it.

 

Want to know how we can save up to 20% on your total spend?

 

Just message me here and don’t wait, there isn’t much time and the weeks are passing quickly.

 

Have a great week

 

Savings

Big savings all around!

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We are really passionate about our fee over commission model which is open, honest and transparent.

What’s more it delivers real savings to our clients, often between 20%-30% and that just by discounting the commission which would have been available and replacing it with a tax free fee, that is reasonable.

We recently saved one client with a multi-site retail business over £7,000 on an original spend of over £25,000.

What’s really disheartening is that the broker they had been using for many years kept them on a high commission paying product, which was actually missing an essential piece of cover.

We gave them the right product, at the right price and not only included the essential piece of missing cover, but also added full commercial legal expenses and loss recovery insurance as well.

If you’re going to do the job, do it well, and we always do 😎

Have a great day.

Busy Day Today

Busy Day Today!

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Mondays are always busy, as we have a round of meetings first thing to set up our working week.

We cover everything that is important, so we all know exactly what we are doing, whose responsible for what and what needs to be done.

We set an agenda and follow it through, it includes:

  • Diary Check
  • Strategic Management Matters
  • Renewal work
  • Claims status
  • Financial Matters – Aged debtors
  • AOB

Everyone gets to participate and everyone’s input and opinions are considered, discussed and addressed.

By the end of the meeting I know I can leave all my colleagues to get on and do the necessary work for the week to be a success.

If they need me (wherever I am) they know my door is open or I’m only a phone call away.

This week I will personally be dealing with:

  1. An importer and reseller of kitchen and bathroom fittings
  2.  The fleet of a local bakery, with multiple shops
  3. Statutory Inspections for a plant and seed business in Paignton
  4. The combined solution for an international packaging company, specialising in retail bags
  5. And Private Medical Insurance for an accountancy practice

Have a great and busy week, the alternative is not attractive 😀😀

Risk analysis

Corporate Continuity – Part 3

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The devil is always in the detail.

And now the real work starts, we get down to the nitty gritty.

We’ve got management buy in and explained to the whole organisation why business continuity is important and now we have to deep dive into the organisation and look at the events which could interrupt it activities and the income stream.

In stage 3 we start off with and Analysis of key vulnerabilities. Some are easy to spot, like major physical damage and are taken care of by insurance, such as fire or flood. In almost all cases things we hadn’t considered, turn out to be the ones that need the most planning.

Here are just a few:

  • Death, incapacity of key personnel
  • Important team leaves to start a business
  • Loss of a major supplier or customer
  • Increased competition
  • Failure of critical machinery
  • Long lead times on key equipment
  • Political environment
  • New and more restrictive regulations
  • Major protests and civil disorder

The list is almost endless, but most important are the ones that will significantly interrupt the income stream of the business.

We grade each on for frequency and severity as well as potential impact in a detailed assessment and then rank them so we can start planning for these events, to make sure you can #justkeepgoing

What might appear obvious, often tends to be the lowest risk, and the things you never thought of are the worst.

Once identified we can start to consider these risks in detail and plan accordingly.

Have a great day

Board

Business Continuity Part1

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Policy & Programme Management

Are you up for this?

Occasionally when I meet a client to discuss continuity planning, I am met with a board who have another agenda, but it becomes clear quickly. I either get enthusiastic buy in from the board or just one director has been delegated to deal with it and the remainder can’t get out of the room quick enough.

In these cases, the organisation is often “ticking a box” for a regulator or a customer. They want a continuity plan, because they need to show it to someone else, but they aren’t really interested in its impact within the business and certainly don’t want to waste time, personnel or resources on it.

I will always try to get the organisation to understand why resilience is so important and what my part is in achieving a solid result, so that continuity becomes “business as usual” within that organisation.

If I can’t, then I will respectfully decline the opportunity, as I will end up doing a bad job, purely because the client isn’t fully engaged  and that’s not good for my reputation.

The first step is always policy & programme management, and without enthusiastic buy in from the board, including a desire to achieve enhanced resilience and allocate appropriate resources to the task, the opportunity is lost on day one!

Want to know more just message me here.