Insurance questions from business owners often follow a similar pattern. As a business owner you want to know where you can get the best coverage for the least cost. You want to know what policies you’re legally required to have and which policies could save you money.
In contrast, most insurance agents are much more interested in risk, because the first step in any insurance strategy is to identify risks. Once your risks have been identified you can work with an insurance agent to create a risk management strategy.
So instead of the standard insurance questions about premiums and coverage, these are the first insurance questions business owners should ask themselves.
How does our Process Work? – This question should be applied to every process within your organization. From manufacturing to delivery, you need to understand how each step works. You’ll only be able to identify risks by looking at the process step by step.
What Risks does it Create? – When you’re analyzing how each process works, you should be identifying each risk that creates. These risks could be safety risks, liability risks or even brand risks. You should identify anything that could go wrong within a process and anything within that process that could have a negative effect on the business.
What Risk Management Measures are in Place? – You will already have some risk management measures in place, like safety equipment or customer service procedure to manage reputational risk. You need to identify each of these for each step in the process.
How are those Measures Managed? – Once you have identified those measures, you need to identify how well you manage them. To do that you need to ask more non-standard insurance questions. Are your staff following all required safety procedure and using the correct equipment? Are corners being cut with data storage? Is that actively managed?
What Can we do Better? – This is the most important insurance question. Once you have a picture of your process, your risks and your risk management procedures, you need to figure out how to improve. That improvement will usually mean a combination of procedures, training and insurance.
There are many valid insurance questions that business owners need answered. The most important questions will be a lot clearer once you’ve answered the questions above.