Cutting business costs shouldn't mean cutting your cover

In hard economic times, it's no surprise that cutting costs is a priority for many Australian businesses.

For some however, the quest for improved efficiency may be coming at the expense of comprehensive business insurance cover.

Gavin Wray of Elders Insurance Gawler, South Australia, can see that everybody is feeling the pinch at the moment.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a big corporate business or you're a small cafe," says Mr Wray.

"Everyone's finding it pretty tough."

He gives the example of a car manufacturer that decides to shut down a shift, or doesn't proceed with production of a new model.

This doesn't just impact the employees of the plant, but also small businesses on the side which make vehicle components and other firms which play supporting roles in the manufacturer's operations.

With pressures like these, and a public not spending as much as they used to, some business owners may start to reconsider the value of their various covers.

According to Mr Wray however, an ad-hoc approach to insurance policy is not the solution, and insurance which doesn't cover all your assets will cost more in the long run should an incident occur.

The regionally-focused agent says that in the event of a destructive fire, for example, businesses may need to replace not just their building, but also their contents and stock, and business interruption insurance will be needed to cover any loss of profit in the meantime.

"That's when we need to invest some time with these clients and sit down with them and say, taking up covers isn't the solution. Let's make sure we get this right."

By spending time with clients and by going to their work premises and having a good look around, Mr Wray says that he can get a better understanding of their business, who they are and what they need.

"The end result is that they will have a really good, comprehensive cover for their business and [they're] going to have less problems should something go wrong."