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Sep 16th 2026
Article by PolicyBee
Like most businesses in the UK, yours probably relies on gadgets.
Laptops, phones, computers, printers. All these modern technologies have become necessities for day-to-day work.
94% of small businesses rely on this kind of tech to be efficient. And the larger your business, the more technology and gadgets you need to manage it.
But what happens when they break? Or they’re lost? Or stolen?
A broken laptop or a lost phone can leave you in the lurch. And the costs to replace them have never been higher.
One thing’s for sure: problems will happen at some point.
The right business gadget insurance can prevent a problem from becoming a disaster.
Damaging or losing a gadget is worryingly easy to do. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most common types of claim we get.
Any business that relies on them would benefit from insurance. It doesn’t matter if you’re an estate agent moving from site to site with a phone and tablet, or an online retailer operating a number of high-spec laptops.
The reality is that even the smallest businesses use gadgets every day. And even though they might not need as much cover as larger businesses with more employees and kit, it’s important to remember that accidents happen. As do burglaries and theft.
Not being insured can open you up to tough situations. Like an employee leaving their laptop on a train and being unable to access crucial client data. Or dropping their phone, losing their lifeline for communicating with their customers.
You also need to think about the cost of replacing gadgets and tech. A basic laptop might not cost too much. But a top-of-the-range iMac or some portable AV equipment might cause some serious damage to your budget.
Especially given how inflation and the post-covid chip shortage have affected the price of electronics. Whilst chip prices are slowly coming down, they are still almost 10% higher than they were in 2020. Making replacing computers and laptops pricey.
Business gadget insurance protects you from the cost of damaged, broken, or stolen gadgets and tech by paying to repair or replace them. So you’ll be able to get back up and running quickly.
The type of insurance you need depends on what kind of gadgets and tech you want to insure.
And whether you take them out and about with you. Like to a client meeting or a conference.
Here’s a quick summary of the insurance you might need:
Now you know the kind of insurance you might need, you might be wondering…
You should have enough cover to repair or replace all your gadgets and tech.
This is probably making you think: ‘But how likely is it that all my gadgets will be broken, stolen, or damaged at once?’
Well, let’s say your office is flooded by a burst pipe. There’s a good chance this would put all your technical kit out of action.
If you don’t have enough cover to repair or replace them all then you’d be underinsured. Your claim wouldn’t cover your losses.
You’d have to pay out to get anything fixed or replaced that wasn’t within the limit of your insurance.
Some policies will even reduce your claim amount proportionally if it turns out you’re underinsured. So you might find yourself only getting half of what you expected. Or worse.
Always assume the worst-case scenario when you’re buying insurance. If it does happen, you’ll have one less thing to worry about.
There’s a few other factors that can affect how much gadgets and tech cover you need, and how much you’ll pay:
Hopefully, that should give you a good starting point for insuring your gadgets and other tech.
Insurance probably isn’t at the top of your priority list, but it’s an upgrade to your business you won’t regret.
Sep 7th 2026
Running a business on your own means your attention is often pulled in different directions. Between serving customers, managing admin and finding new business, answering the phone is another demand on your time.
But letting calls go unanswered isn’t always an option either. It could be a new customer, an existing client or an enquiry that needs a quick response. Having a simple system in place can help you stay contactable without letting the phone take over your working day.
You don’t have to respond to every non-urgent call the moment it comes in.
Setting aside one or two points in the day for callbacks can help you stay on top of enquiries without repeatedly breaking your concentration. For example, you might return calls before lunch and check again towards the end of the afternoon.
Using the same number for work and personal calls can make it difficult to switch off or know which calls need your attention.
A dedicated business number makes work calls easier to identify and helps create a clearer boundary between your business and personal life. Setting business hours can also let customers know when they can expect to reach you, rather than leaving you feeling available at all hours.
There will inevitably be times when you can’t answer, so make sure your voicemail gives callers clear instructions about what to do next.
Keep your greeting brief and ask them to leave the information you’ll need, such as their name and reason for calling. This gives you useful context before you respond and can make returning calls quicker and easier.
Remember to check your messages regularly too. Someone looking for a quote, appointment or service may contact another business if they don’t hear back within a reasonable amount of time.
When you’re answering calls while running the rest of your business, it’s surprisingly easy for a promised callback or customer enquiry to get forgotten.
Have one place where you record anything that needs further action, whether that’s a CRM, diary or simple list. Note who contacted you, what they needed and what you agreed to do next rather than relying on memory between other tasks.
If the number of calls you’re receiving is making this difficult to maintain, it may be a sign that your current approach needs some additional support.
There are probably certain parts of your working week when you already know answering the phone will be difficult.
Perhaps you spend mornings with clients, regularly attend meetings or are frequently on the road. Planning around these periods means you can decide in advance how calls will be handled.
Depending on how long you’ll be away from the phone, you could redirect calls or arrange for someone else to answer during that time.
Working alone doesn’t mean you have to handle every incoming call yourself.
A telephone answering service can provide support without the need to employ an in-house receptionist. Calls can be answered in your company name, caller details and messages collected, and selected calls transferred to you when necessary.
It can also help reduce unnecessary interruptions by filtering out cold callers and spam calls before they reach you. This means you can spend less time dealing with unwanted calls while genuine customers and enquiries still have someone available to speak to.
When you work alone, you can’t be available to customers and focused on your work at every moment. The key is finding a way to manage calls that works around how you actually spend your day.
With the right approach, you can remain easy to contact without allowing the phone to dictate your schedule.
Need help managing your business calls?
MYCO Connect provides 24/7 UK-based telephone answering services for businesses that can’t always get to the phone.
Our UK-based receptionists can answer in your company name, take messages, filter unwanted calls and provide additional support when you’re unavailable.
Explore our telephone answering services to find the right level of support for your business.
Aug 28th 2026
Article by PolicyBee
Most insurers’ policy wordings are littered with insurance jargon and legalese, leaving them (and their readers) mired in a muddle.
This begs the question: why is the most important information made the least accessible?
How do you know what’s covered by your insurance if you don’t know what the words mean?
Yes, we know these are legal documents. And yes, we know they have to be watertight and unambiguous. But that’s no excuse for making everything unintelligible, is it?
But until insurers realise times have changed and insurance jargon is neither wanted or needed, it looks like we’re stuck with it.
In the meantime, we’ll help you cut through the waffle by explaining a few particularly tricky pieces of jargon. So that next time you’re faced with a policy wording, you won’t have to google something every other sentence.
The conditions in your policy set out everything the insurer expects from you. Like making your payments on time or reporting incidents to them within a certain timeframe.
Medical malpractice policies in particular can come with lots of conditions so it’s important to read these properly. Miss a step somewhere, and your insurer might just step out of paying your claim.
All professional indemnity insurance policies cover your professional negligence. But some limit their cover to just that, while others pick up any other civil liability claim against you too.
This means you’re covered for claims made against you in a civil court, and subject to civil damages, not necessarily related to your professional negligence.
More commonly called an ‘excess‘, it’s the part of a claim you pay. Fairly obviously, the amount of money involved in a loss must be higher than the excess for your insurer to cover it.
‘Deliverables’ are defined as software, hardware, firmware, cabling or electronic equipment. They’re usually only specifically covered under an IT professional indemnity policy.
If part or all of your contract involves designing, producing, or supplying these things, and they’re either not up to spec or are proven defective, you’re covered if your client sues you for breach of said contract.
A professional indemnity insurance extension that comes into effect when the policy expires. Often called run-off cover or just run-off.
If a claim is made against you after your policy’s ended, it’s not covered – even if it relates to work you did when your policy was running. Having run-off cover means it is. How long you have it for is up to you, but at least a year is a good idea (unless you’re a chartered accountant or an architect, and then it’s six years).
This shows (some of) the information about your business your insurer needs to calculate how much to charge you. Broadly, it notes your turnover and payroll figures at the time you bought insurance, as well as things like the industry you work in.
It’s a good idea – and a condition of your policy – to keep an eye on these figures and to keep your insurer updated throughout the year. A significant revenue increase, for example, could mean you’re suddenly underinsured without knowing it.
Contains the same information as a schedule and is issued if you change something about your insurance mid-term, before your renewal’s due. It notes what’s changed and sits alongside the rest of your documents.
Pretty explanatory, this one. It’s a clause within your policy that sets out which activities, circumstances, or types of damages aren’t covered.
The basic principle of insurance. If you suffer a loss, it’s your insurer’s job to make sure you’re not out of pocket. In reality, this means paying you money or replacing an item.
The idea is you’re returned to the same financial position you were in before the loss/claim happened.
If a client alleges you’ve been negligent, and sues you for their losses, your professional indemnity insurance covers it.
But if, because of your negligence, your client (the ‘principal’) is sued by their client, an indemnity to principals clause in your policy means your insurer has to cover your client’s client’s losses too (the ‘indemnity’).
If you’ve spotted an indemnity to principals clause in a client’s contract, you’ll need to ask your insurer if they’re happy to cover it. Whether they will or not depends on the work you’re doing, and how much it’s worth. Don’t assume it’s covered.
Sometimes called ‘sub-limits’. These are conditions within a policy which are effectively a payment cap on how much your insurer will pay out for certain items or to fix certain categories of claims.
They’re found in all types of policies, including in contents and professional indemnity insurance, to stop insurers from paying out a bundle for ‘risky areas’ that might have the knock-on effect of raising the overall cost of their insurance.
Anything that influences the insurer’s decision to cover you, under what clauses/exclusions/warranties/terms and conditions, and for how much, is a material fact.
You’re expected to ‘disclose all material facts’ when you get your insurance. If you’re not sure what constitutes a material fact, you could do worse than tell your insurer everything about you and your business. They don’t like surprises, after all.
The bits in your policy wording that define what’s covered.
A document containing information specific to you and your policy. It details your policy number, your business’s details, the cover you’ve bought, how much you’re paying, when your cover runs from/to, and the subsections of cover included within each type of insurance you have. It’s all about you, really.
An important one, this. It’s a list of statements confirming the things your business does and doesn’t do. Your insurer’s decision to cover you, and under what specific terms, is based on this information.
If it turns out you do something when your statement of fact says you don’t, and there’s a claim, your insurer has every right not to cover it. Better make sure it’s right, then.
If you’re sued by your client for something that’s not actually your fault, and your insurer pays out, your insurer can recover their losses from the culpable third party. This is called their right to subrogation.
Essentially, it’s passing the cost of the claim on to the person or organisation that’s actually at fault.
Usually only relevant to recruitment and employment agencies, vicarious liability covers both an agency’s negligence and that of the people it places.
Non-vicarious liability, by the same token, limits the cover to just the agency’s negligence.
Whether you need it or not is determined by your contracts. Whether your insurer offers it or not is determined by what your placements do.
A very strict condition – sometimes called an ‘obligation’ – in your policy, set by your insurer. It’s not to be ignored. Breaching it means your insurer has the right to chuck out your claim, no questions asked.
Hopefully that busts a few tricky bits of insurance jargon that have been plaguing you.
We know how frustrating jargon can be. That’s why we always try to cut it from as much of our communications with our customers as possible. That’s one of the advantages of using us as your insurance broker.
Unfortunately, you will still find it in your policy documents. The insurer writes these themselves, so we can’t change them. But we are always here to help explain them in plain English.
For more jargon explanations, feel free to check out this handy insurance jargon-buster.
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