How to find the right insurance for your business

When you’re a tradesperson running your own business, there are a million things you have to think about - filling your calendar, managing your books, preparing quotes, dealing with suppliers - and that’s without even thinking about just getting on with doing any actual work. All this admin can be a big headache: in fact, in a recent survey of more than 2,000 tradespeople carried out by MyBuilder, more than a third of respondents said paperwork was one of the biggest stresses about the job.

But as stressful as paperwork can be, there are some things that are worse - such as finding yourself out of pocket if your van is broken into and your tools go missing (another massive source of worry according to our poll).

That’s where insurance comes in. There are many types of insurance policy to consider, and many ways to go about finding the right one for you. Whether you need public liability insurance to protect you in case of causing damage or injury to the public while you’re on a job, or a more specific policy like tool and equipment protection, it can be hard to sort through all the options available to you and your business. We’ve broken down some of the ways you can find the right coverage for your needs.

Comparison sites

你很难避开大型比较网站的广告，比如Compare the Market、Go Compare和Money Supermarket，它们有令人难忘的猫鼬或大胆的歌剧歌手。这些网站汇集了来自大量供应商的政策，以帮助您看到不同的可用报价，并相互衡量它们。虽然这些网站提供免去了访问不同供应商并从每个供应商那里找到报价的麻烦，但也有风险，你不会通过他们找到最好的交易，因为一些供应商宁愿避免在比较网站上展示，以直接接触客户。

General insurance sites

There are many large insurance providers across the UK, which you’ll no doubt be familiar with from insuring your home or vehicle - names such as AXA, Direct Line and Zurich. These big name firms often offer good deals, and while they may offer some services aimed at tradespeople, they do not specialise in working with tradespeople and small businesses. To find the right policies which work best for you may require some digging and comparisons between different offers - which takes you back to using comparison sites to try and work out the best available options.

Specialist insurance sites

While most insurance companies have built their brands on appealing to the general consumer with car, home and life insurance, others have built their businesses on offering a more specialised product, aimed specifically at tradespeople and their unique circumstances. Brands likeTradesman Saverfocus on products that work for tradespeople. Tradesman Saver, which began more than 30 years ago, was one of the first brands that offered trade-specific insurance online, covering more than 200 different trades. It offers public liability insurance specifically aimed at tradespeople, with a range of complementary policies like tool and equipment insurance and short term income protection.

If you’re concerned about your insurance situation, it’s always worth seeing if yours could be improved. We might all hope that we never need to use it - but we’ll always be glad that it’s there if we do.