Small business owners should keep their own risk profile

As a small business owner most of you are accustomed to having your agent or another agent shop for you to obtain the best price and coverage. While this is the standard and usual way to go about this, it is a good idea to create a risk profile on your business as well. You know the standard drill, the agent requests to review current policies and asks for loss runs. While this is an important aspect of the process, how much does that agent or company know about you and your business? A good idea would be to put together a folder containing the following items - a short history of your company; a resume of key management; sales brochures and web page addresses; audited financial statements if applicable; estimated sales figures; workers compensation payrolls; property values; vehicle values; workers compensation mod and loss runs for the past five years. This is all information that should be gathered by the agent or company anyway, but by having this information readily available it will shorten the time frame for the acquisition of a quote and also give you valuable insight into your insurance program. By annually gathering and reviewing this information in detail, you will have greater control over your insurance program and be able to exercise better management of your insurance needs.

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