If you’re new to the world of business or if it’s time to renew your business insurance and you’re currently shopping around, a little research goes a long way. Business insurance may be an expense you wish you could do without, but truth be told it could quite easily turn out to be one of the most important things you’ve paid for this year.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what it is that you’re looking for. Are you looking for an insurance policy which simply covers against theft, or are you concerned about fire or flood damage, too? Depending on your postcode the risk of flooding (and the associated cost in your insurance policy) will vary wildly.

If flooding is a concern of yours, make sure you read the small print before you sign any policies or you could be left with a bigger bill than you bargained for should another flood hit the UK.

The second thing you need to figure out is what exactly it is that you’re looking to insure. Are you worried about everything in the building – your PCs, your monitors, your telephones – or is it only the big things that you’re worried about? Printers and photocopiers can be exceedingly expensive. If you’re hiring a photocopier, fax or combi machine, the cost of these machines gets higher and higher.

Should your office get broken into and these hire machines go missing, you’re likely to be responsible for the cost of the machine. Again, make sure you read the small print – not just on the insurance policy you’re looking at, but on the rent agreement for your large office equipment, too.

If your rent agreement states that you have a certain insurance policy as minimum, make sure you get the right policy; if the policy says it doesn’t cover rented pieces of office equipment, don’t get that policy.

This is how you cover your back financially.

Finally, you need to decide who is going to do your legwork. Traditionally, many people use brokers to help find the perfect insurance policy for their company.

Unfortunately this can add as much as 20 per cent to the insurance premium, costing you a lot of money in the long run. In recent years many businesses have sought to take the direct route and search out the right policy for themselves, meaning that they can save a lot of money along the way, but only if they do ample research to ensure that they’re getting the best possible policy.

At the end of the day, business insurance can be a minefield of liabilities and legalese. Keeping these three things in mind should help you down the path towards finding the right insurance policy for your office equipment.

With a level head, careful cost comparisons and a fair amount of maths, you’ll soon be on your way to being fully and properly insured should something break or go missing.