Now that we have seen a change in political leadership in the UK, we are starting to see more effort devoted to reducing the countries super deficit. There are reasons why the deficit is high, with some parties still believing it is the way that we should operate with the others basing their arguments on not wanting to go back to the 1970′s when the country was nearly bankrupt.

Whether the previous government liked it or not, you cannot continue to trade as a country with less money coming in (through taxes) than you are spending on services and running the country. Everyone knows that at some point, if the differential remains negative you will run out of loan providers to help you plug the gap. By the time you get to that stage you are in so much debt that you cannot go on.

As we are still in the tail wind of a very bad recession, not only is the country now looking at cutting cost, so is every business. It does not matter whether a business has been trading for dozens of years or only for a couple, costs need to be reconsidered, year in, year out.

All businesses have four main cost bases. One is salaries, two is premises, three is the cost of actually buying in the products they sell or raw materials and lastly is the services they business buys.Business insurance is one such service. Whilst in the event of a physical loss the business will actually receive a replacement of their assets, the insurance cover is actually a financial service. In return for the payment of a premium, the business is transferring the majority of the risks they face to an underwriter.

We keep banging the drum about the ease with which you can get alternative quotes and we still say that any business should look at comparing business insurance costs every three years as an absolute minimum. During tough times though, this is something that needs to be considered every year.

But, and it is a big one, do not simply buy the cheapest product that is available. If for example you are paying £1,000 a year on your pub or restaurant insurance, we can guarantee that within 10 minutes on the net you can find a cheaper price. There are a couple of small caveats. Firstly, that you have a reasonable claims experience and secondly that you are just a restaurant (ie not a nightclub).

The problem is that in most cases you will find that the cheaper alternative will be either for lesser cover or the terms, conditions and warranties will be more onerous and the excesses are almost guaranteed to be higher. So how do you sort the proverbial insurance wheat from the chaff, to get that elusive cheaper business insurance quote? The simple answer is, to let someone else do it for you.

There are thousands of insurance broking firms across the land who are, just as you are, suffering the after effects of the recession and doing everything possible to get new customers in the door. A simple and quick five minute telephone call to them and they will then happily trot off to do the searching for you. They know who to speak to, who to get quotes from and more importantly, which providers offer better cover, rather than lesser cover.

The key to getting a cheaper quote is not to do it yourself, that is so old fashioned, get someone to do it for you, and they will do this for free!