The Australian industry landscape is regularly changing. Currently, businesses are grappling with high running costs, rising labour, energy costs, and policy uncertainty; all major factors that can impact your bottom line and your success within a highly competitive, global market. As business owners and managers, you are forced to keep up with being innovative and adaptable, to secure your business and to ensure its viability over the short and long-term.  There will always be threats to your business - unfortunately there are some things you can’t control.

If we shift our focus to the smaller costs that can provide an immediate impact to your bottom line, you may be able to regain some of your expense control. Let’s talk about the 3 C’s. Cutting current costs can have an immediate, positive impact on your bottom line whilst also letting you gain greater control of your business and ensuring its long-term sustainability.  But where to start? There are smaller costs that you can review, to ensure you are only spending what you need to. Think about the following areas within your business:

• Computer security and program maintenance. Are you paying someone to monitor your computer security? Security monitoring, finding the right antivirus and security software and protecting your privacy are all things that businesses need to consider, especially with cyber-crime at an all-time high in Australia.
• Do you engage in website SEO, and other ways to get your business noticed? Are your advertising costs effective and reaching the right audience? There may be things you could be doing differently and more effectively, with less effort and less expenditure.
• Consider your employees and current benefits payable. Are you getting them the best deal for their life cover, income protection and other insurances? What if you switched to a group cover instead of individual covers? Buying cover in bulk for organisations can help reduce the costs of insurance, whilst ensuring you are taking care of your people.
• And what about your business insurance program? Do you monitor your insurances as your business grows and evolves? Do you make changes to your insurance cover throughout your policy period, as your business situation changes?  

A major area of expenditure for businesses is Workers Compensation Insurance. You are required to have this by law and need to ensure you remain compliant, but keeping up with ever changing rules and regulations can be time consuming and stressful. You can have your Workers Compensation reviewed to ensure you are paying the right amount. A review can provide you with peace of mind knowing that you are providing your employees with adequate cover, whilst also protecting one of your biggest assets, your business. Furthermore, you may have matters brought to your attention that otherwise would have gone unnoticed; like paying too much, or being classified incorrectly, resulting in years of over payments that you are entitled to get back.

There will always be external and internal factors contributing to the costs of running a business. Determine which of these factors you can control and seek advice from experts in these areas so that you can focus on growing your business to ensure it will be around for many years to come.

To discuss your specific insurance needs contact AB Phillips on 1300 242 136 or email info@abphillips.com.au