Protect your Business during Winter

Business insurance is there to protect your business should disaster strike!  Of course it is preferable that disasters don’t occur in the first place.  With dark evenings and bad weather, the risks to your business increase during the winter.  Here are our top tips to reduce risk:

• Keep a supply of grit for your footpaths, entrance areas and car park to minimize the risk of a fall during frosty weather and so avoiding personal injury claims.

• Check that pipes are properly insulated. A burst pipe is more likely to occur in cold weather and can prove very costly.  Not only will pipes be damaged but most likely ceilings, flooring and furniture too, due to water damage.  There may also be a cost of having to close the business to repair.

• Ensure your roof is in good condition. Missing slates can lead to leaks and an old roof may be too weak to hold a fall of snow!

• Flooding is an all too common problem for business in recent winters. Reduce the risk of water entering your premises as much as possible by having a supply of sandbags, flood guards.  If your business is in a flood prone area, try to minimise the damage as much as possible by having tiled floors with rugs instead of fitted carpets, raised electrical sockets, shelving for electrical equipment, keeping stock, files and valuables on shelving.

• Be prepared for power failures. High winds can often equal no electricity supply.  Have a plan in place for outages, for example, consider investing in a generator or have a plan in place to hire one, have a list of non-computer/electrical based tasks to avoid time wastage, ensure laptop, phone batteries etc. are fully charged during high wind periods.

• Ensure you have remote access to your network and email.

• Break-ins and burglaries are more common in winter under the cover of darkness. Make sure door locks and window locks are secure.  Test your alarm system.  Check all outside lights to ensure bulbs are working, sensors are working and vandal-proof covers are in place.

• Employee illnesses increase during winter – have back-up at the ready.

• Keep a list of all employee contact details off the premises.

• Cyber-attacks can happen at any time during the year. Try to avoid these by ensuring your anti-virus software is up to date.

• Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place that includes a communications plan to keep your customers and key stakeholders informed.

It’s impossible to predict and prevent all scenarios, so having insurance cover in place is a must.  Talk to us about:
Employers Liability
Public Liability
Buildings and Contents Cover
Business Interruption Cover

Get a quote today.