Insurance and risk management structures can be vitally important to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to one expert.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said today that recent natural disasters such as flooding and the foot and mouth epidemic have given a wake up call to many SMEs and other new enterprises.
Simon Briault, spokesperson for the FSB, said: "I think the summer that we've had, with foot and mouth and blue tongue and the widespread flooding, has brought these issues into the open a bit more and made them more of a concern for small businesses."
He added that many SMEs are now aware of the reality of the costs involved with not having a secure risk management structure but that some may still struggle deciding what resources to devote to such measures.
"That's a decision that all small businesses have got to make … that's just the way it works."
A study conducted by Populus found that during 2006 almost half of UK businesses said they had no plans to deal with the impact caused by flooding.
