Small businesses that buy insurance alone pay more. Those they buy as a group pay less.
"Life isn't fair" is a lesson that many mothers and fathers teach their children at an early age. It begins with the child's earliest request for an explanation as to why they can't stay up later or go outside to play with their friends.
As a small business owner you may ask yourself, "why is it fair that companies of my size, who are having the hardest time in this economy paying the highest insurance rates?"
Well, the truth is that life is not fair but that doesn't mean that you are helpless and without opportunities to leverage are buying power if you are smart about how you go through the insurance quoting process. The key is to look for opportunities to join business insurance buying groups to put your insurance premiums up to a level that is competitive with that of the larger companies.
Insurance companies are no different than any business, yours included. The bigger the customer the more attention they get and the more demanding they can be with service and pricing requests. If a large group of your customers bid together into buying group, you would likely give them the same rates and terms that you had previously reserved for your largest clients.
The good news is that insurance buying groups have existed for a long time and continue to flourish. You can find business insurance buying groups for health insurance, auto insurance, property insurance, workers compensation insurance, liability insurance and just about any other coverage that you may need.
Getting access to insurance buying groups has often started with businesses joining their local Chamber of Commerce or looking into other small business associations in their region or state. This will involve some time searching for the insurance discount buying groups using your phonebook, word-of-mouth and of course, the Internet.
Innovations in insurance buying groups have been slow in coming, but there are new options created seemingly everyday. As you might expect, the Internet is increasingly becoming a valuable resource in locating new and innovative approaches to leveraging your buying power.
The time that you invest in finding and accessing business insurance buying groups can pay off in real dollar savings. Not looking into business insurance buying groups can save you time but may cost you a great deal in the end.
It is a good idea to obtain quotes from at least one business insurance buying group at each of your insurance quoting opportunities. You shouldn't assume that your insurance agent will do this for you as many of the groups get additional savings by selling insurance directly.
Whether you find options through your trade association, the local Chamber of Commerce or any other resource you'll be doing yourself, your employees and your customers all a favor by pursuing every option to lower your expenses. Don't forget that your employees and customers are sharing in the pain of this bad economy.