There's a good chance you've done it. You've typed something like "what business insurance do I need in Australia" into Google, clicked through a few results, and come away with a general list of policy types and maybe a comparison tool pointing you toward the cheapest option.
It's a reasonable starting point. But here's the thing: Google doesn't know your business. And when it comes to business insurance advice, that gap matters more than most people realise.
The internet is full of information about business insurance in Australia. There are articles explaining what public liability covers, guides breaking down professional indemnity, and comparison websites that will give you a quote in under three minutes.
None of that is inherently wrong. But it's built for the average business, not yours specifically.
Your business has a particular way of operating. You work with specific clients, take on certain types of contracts, and carry risks that might look nothing like the business in the example article you just read. Two businesses in the same industry can have completely different exposures depending on how they're structured, the size of their projects, and what they're actually responsible for when something goes wrong.
Generic business insurance advice can't account for any of that. And policies chosen on the back of it often have gaps that don't show up until there's a claim.
One of the most common things we see is businesses that have insurance but aren't covered in the ways they think they are.
They've read that public liability is essential, so they've got it. But they haven't thought about whether their policy extends to the subcontractors working on their sites, or whether the limits are high enough to satisfy a commercial contract they've just signed.
Or they've taken out a business pack because it seemed comprehensive, without realising that several of their regular activities fall outside the policy definition of what counts as their business operations.
These aren't unusual situations. They're the kind of things that come up in almost every new client conversation we have. And in most cases, the person wasn't doing anything wrong. They were just working from incomplete information.
When you talk to an insurance broker, the first questions aren't about which policy you want. They're about how your business works.
Those questions shape everything that comes after. The type of cover recommended, the limits that make sense, the exclusions worth watching out for, and whether there are gaps in your current setup that need addressing.
It's a different kind of conversation to typing a question into a search engine, and the outcome tends to be quite different too.
People often ask whether working with a business insurance broker costs more than going direct or using a comparison site. Sometimes the premium is similar. Sometimes it's less. But the more important question is what you're actually getting for it.
A policy that doesn't perform when you need it isn't saving you money. It's just a document that felt like insurance until it wasn't.
The businesses that end up in difficult situations after a claim are rarely the ones that did something obviously wrong. They're usually the ones who made reasonable assumptions based on limited information, and didn't have anyone in their corner to ask the questions that would have caught the problem earlier.
If you've relied on Google to help you figure out your insurance, you're not alone. But it's worth having a proper conversation at some point, particularly if your business has grown or changed since you last reviewed your cover.
At Smith & Lane, we're always happy to have that conversation with no strings attached. If everything looks fine, we'll tell you. If there's something worth looking at, we'll explain why.
