When should I review my business insurance?

Your business has changed. Has your insurance?

Twelve months later you might have hired someone, won a bigger client, bought new equipment or started offering a service that didn't exist when you first arranged the policy.

That's why yesterday's insurance doesn't always match today's business.

Here are seven changes that should prompt another look.

1. You've hired your first employee.

Taking on your first employee is a big milestone, and it's also an important insurance trigger.

Most UK businesses employing people are legally required to hold Employers' Liability Insurance, although limited exemptions apply.

If you've recently become an employer, don't automatically wait until renewal to look at your insurance.

2. You've landed a much bigger client.

Winning a major client is great news, but before opening the champagne, take a look at the contract.

Larger clients can require higher levels of Professional Indemnity, Public Liability or other insurance than you've previously carried. The scale of the work itself may also create a larger potential exposure.

Check the insurance clauses before signing.

3. You're doing something you didn't used to do.

Businesses evolve, sometimes without anyone really noticing.

A designer starts providing marketing strategy. A trades business begins producing designs and specifications. A retailer starts manufacturing its own products. A recruiter moves from permanent placements into supplying temporary workers.

Those aren't simply new revenue opportunities. They can change the risks the business faces.

Your insurance should reflect what you actually do now.

4. You've invested in equipment.

One laptop becomes six. A few tools become a van full. The business buys machinery it never previously owned.

The value of equipment can creep upwards without anyone revisiting the amount insured. If the business has invested significantly, think about what replacing everything would actually cost today.

5. You've moved premises.

Perhaps the spare bedroom has become an office. An online business has opened its first shop. One location has become two.

New premises can bring more customers, employees, equipment and contractual responsibilities, making this a natural point to reconsider your insurance.

6. You're holding much more data.

One hundred customers can become 10,000 surprisingly quickly. Two employees become twenty.

Growth usually means holding more personal, financial and commercially sensitive information, while becoming increasingly dependent on the systems storing it.

If the amount of data has changed significantly, your cyber exposure may have changed with it.

7. The business has simply got bigger.

Sometimes there isn't one dramatic change. You've just grown.

More turnover, more clients, larger contracts, more people and greater responsibility can mean that the information used to arrange your insurance two years ago no longer describes the company you're running today.

Renewal shouldn't be the only time you think about it.

Renewal is an obvious checkpoint, but it shouldn't necessarily be the only one.

If something significant changes during the year, check whether your insurer needs to know. Keeping your insurance aligned with the way the business actually operates is more important than simply renewing the same cover every twelve months.