Should you use a broker?

Published: 9 July 2014

When insuring your cafe, is it better to use an insurance broker or approach the insurance companies directly?

This is a common question asked not only by cafe owners, but by owners of all sorts of small and medium sized businesses.

In this guide we'll take a look at the arguments for both options, and some of the common factors affecting the decision.

Cost should never be the sole factor when dealing with your business insurance, but let's be honest, for any business cost is a major factor.

Many people wrongly believe that it is more expensive to use a broker, and that contacting an insurance company directly will be cheaper.

Sometimes this is the case, but it is definitely not always the case.

The policies available through an insurance broker are generally priced in a very similar way to those available directly from the insurance companies.

Furthermore, a broker will be able to do the shopping around for you in order to find the most competitively priced cover.

When you use a broker who specialises in cafe insurance, you'll be able to rely on their knowledge and experience to find competitive and suitable quotes.

There are arguments both ways when it comes to service.

For example the insurance companies often have call centres which operate outside of hours, so if you have an issue on the weekend you can still contact them.

But if you have a good insurance broker, they should give you their mobile number and be contactable in case of emergency on the weekend anyway.

Although call centres can be convenient, it is likely that you'll be speaking with a different operator every time you call them.

With a broker on the other hand, you will speak with the same person every time, whether it's for a simple change of contact details or a complex claim issue.

Broadly speaking, most cafe owners would agree that a good insurance broker will be able to provide better service than an insurance company call centre.

This is perhaps the factor with the biggest gap when it comes to broker verses insurance company.

Whilst an insurance company employee can give you information over the phone, they will not be able to give you personal advice.

This is because they are only licensed to provide general insurance advice, whilst a broker is licensed to provide person insurance advice.

So the insurance company can tell you facts about insurance for your cafe, but only a broker will be able to tailor that advice specifically to the needs of you and your cafe.

This is especially important when taking out insurance for a new cafe, as the broker will be able to guide you through exactly what you need.

Of course you could spend the time to conduct your own thorough research on which insurance types and which policies are most suited to your cafe, but to do properly this would take many, many hours of reading.

Given that we at CafeCover promote the use of insurance brokers, it should come as no surprise to hear that we recommend using an expert rather taking the 'DIY' approach.

But this is because we 100% believe that using a broker will lead to better insurance outcomes for owners and operators of cafes and similar small businesses.

So to answer the original question asked in the title of this article, yes we believe that you should use a broker to handle your cafe insurance needs.

Australia Wide Service

We can assist cafe owners and operators throughout Australia.

Wherever your cafe is located, our team can assist you via your preferred contact method.

Expert Service & Advice

Our network of insurance advisers and brokers specialise in small business.

They know the risks that cafe owners face, and they know how to get the right insurance in place for you and your business.

Personal Protection

We understand that whilst it's important to protect your business, you also have to protect yourself.

That's why our team also consists of a personal risk specialist who can help you with cover including income protection and life insurance.

New Cafe Specialists

One of our areas of expertise is helping new cafes and first-time owners.

Business insurance can be daunting if this is your first business, but our team can help you through the process to make it as easy as possible.

Get a Quote!

Want to know how much insurance is going to cost your business?

Simply get in contact with us or complete our online quote request to receive quotes on your cafe insurance needs.