Business continuity planning could reduce your insurance premiums

If the worst comes to the worst, having a thorough business continuity plan will save you a lot of heartache and reduce your business downtime.

By Lisa Clarkson, company director, West Craven Insurance

Basically a business continuity plan enables you to continue trading if your place of business is affected by a crisis. The first step is risk management - the process of identifying, quantifying, and managing the risks that your business faces. This will let you understand the required tasks to get you up and running and who in your business takes responsibility for each of them.

This came into sharp focus during December’s floods. The memory of those events may be fading, but there are many other types of crises that can afflict your business and it’s worth making provision long before you anticipate difficulties.

Albeit unscheduled, we decided to open on Boxing Day, so we could support our customers. We reported incidents immediately in order for them to be at the front of the queue for assessment and the total of our claims reached over £750,000.

• Contact your insurer immediately there’s a problem for advice on what to do next. In some cases an inspection of possessions may not be necessary.
• Dispose of stock – like rotting food, or any other items - that could present a health hazard.
• Before throwing things away, take photos of damaged items.
• As accurately as possible, make a list of damaged items.
• Take a cutting from carpets or soft furnishings, as it may help your insurer in providing a similar replacement or cash payment.