1. When did you start the business, why, and what were you doing before this?
Curated Digital was formed in 2014 to provide brands with a complete cross-channel strategy to achieving their digital marketing goals. Before I launched Curated, I worked at Google as a global account manager working primarily with large technology clients, before cutting my teeth agency side for a few years.
I worked for Google for almost seven years, and once you do that I think you always get a bit of an itch to try something new. I wanted to have a go at working more with businesses on their digital marketing strategies. Having worked on both sides, I saw the gap in the market for an agency which offers a complete ‘curated’ approach, and thus went on to form my own company.
2. Talk about when you first attempted to insure your business.
Insurance is something that I had a long think about before making any decisions. Instead of diving right in, I chatted to quite a few people including friends who run their own businesses about what steps they had taken. When you start out everything you do represents a risk so I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make any mistakes, and instead was more meticulous with my research and selection.
Luckily one of our clients was an insurer who provided professional risk insurance and he’d worked with digital agencies before. This was great as it meant that I already had a relationship with him and trust had already been built. He went on to put together a bespoke package for us based on what he felt I needed as a small start-up agency, covering professional indemnity (PI) as well as public and employer’s liability insurance, all three of which prospective clients enquire about when we’re putting together proposals.
In addition he gave me lots of other options and add-ons so I could pick and choose the cover I wanted. I was happy to trust his judgment on this as it wasn’t an area I had too much experience in and so far I have no complaints!
3. How have your insurance needs developed?
When Curated started, there were only two of us in the business and there were three clients with which we already had a relationship. It was only when we started pitching to new clients that we needed to consider insurance, and a certain level of cover.
In the last three years we have grown considerably so our needs have changed somewhat, especially when we started attracting larger more established companies. We realised that we needed higher amounts of professional indemnity and liability insurance. Some of the risks we have to ensure against are: data protection, intellectual property etc. Thankfully we have not had to claim anything yet but it is a comfort knowing that should the need arise we are covered for pretty much everything.
4. What advice would you give to other business owners looking to put the right insurance in place?
I think the most important thing is make sure that you think about what you do, what products and services you offer, and go from there; it may sound obvious but writing it all down will help the insurer decide what level of protection you need.
As your business grows and you need certain elements to change or be increased/decreased, don’t be afraid to go back to your insurer to check. And don’t forget that armed with additional information, you could also shop around for a better deal.
Further reading on insurance cover
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