The IA Risky Business

30th September 2011 and after a month of preparing and relaxing we turned on the lights of The Manning Valleys' newest Service Provider. 2 years ago today the business began with so much flare and fan fare that everyone missed it. In fact aside from some family the only person who knew we were open was Photography by Linda's Linda Bryant as we were booked in for mug shots.  Whilst 30th September was the official opening day the origins of the company go way back. We looked at options about 4 years earlier and came close to starting the company on The Gold Coast where we were living. We loved The Coast and had some good friends there. From a business perspective there's an Insurance broker in just about every suburb so it didn't make sense to us to try and make a sustainable business in a saturated market. Nikki's family have been long term residents of The Manning Valley on The NSW Mid North Coast. We would visit a couple of times a year and as the years we

'It wont happen to me!' Short and sweet. 5 little words that either directly or said in the same context that we hear at least once or twice a week. 'My building is tilt slab concrete, it cant burn.' There's nothing in my warehouse that can ignite.' 'I keep my house clean nothing will ever happen!' These are comments that we regularly hear from clients or prospective clients. Well, surely the past week in Australia should change everyone's minds about fires in the home or in businesses. Every week without fail there is a large fire in the news. Scrolling back through news sites we've counted over 18 fires in Australia since August of some description. This actually excludes Bush fires! However last week it was basically every night. Let's see if we can recap the last week in Ozzie news. 1. Tuesday 17th September: A Norlane (Victoria) home is found alight. Allegations of resident starting fire deliberately. 2. Wednesday 18th Septemb

We've been discussing Management Liability alot this year and for a very important reason. Look let's be honest Management Liability (ML) is just a title and to you would mean very little. To break it down though it is basically the goalkeeper for your business. It is NOT used as a substitute to compliance and correct practices but a full stop on your business protection. In business there are potentially thousands of individual pieces of legislation that have an impact on your business. We challenge you to name them all! We don't know them all and we too have to comply with them. Depending on your industry you may have as little as 50 for example, but still, even if 50 compared to 1,000 do you know them all? Over the past decade Australia has become a red tape nation. There is more red tape to cut through to run a small business then at any other time in our nations history. Non compliance on one piece of legislation can potentially ruin a business. The Insurance

Our blog today is lifted in it's entirety from a recent article featured in the online version of Insurance Business magazine dated Tuesday 5th September. It's a very opinion and snapshot on the future of the motor industry and innovations which seem out of the movies but in reality are in the market right now. ' Zurich  discusses future developments in motor insurance – from driverless trucks to flying cars. A world of driverless trucks and trains is more fact than fiction these days. It’s a common feature on our mine sites and it’s only a matter of time before passenger and freight trains are also driverless. Developments in real-time monitoring could see every vehicle fitted with telematics devices-...- linking to a centralised control system that constantly checks and controls speed. Blackbox technology is already popular in the UK and is likely to become a standard factory setting in Australia too. In five years’ time, mobile phone networks - connected to