What Are You Actually Paying For?

Every insurance client eventually asks the same question: 'What am I actually paying for?'

Fair question. Most of the time, nothing happens. No claim, no incident, no drama. It can look like money spent on nothing.

Then something does happen and the answer becomes obvious - very quickly.

The right cover was in place because someone reviewed it properly last year, not just renewed it on autopilot. The claim gets paid because the policy was matched to how the business actually operates, not to a generic template. The gap that would have left them exposed, a change in premises, a new piece of kit, a director who joined the business, got caught before it mattered.

None of that shows up on an invoice. It shows up in what does not go wrong.

So, when a client is comparing a quote to a cheaper one online, they are comparing two policy documents. What they are not comparing is who is going to notice the changes in their business over the next 12 months and flag them before they become a problem at the worst possible time, i.e. mid-claim.

Cheap cover looks identical to good cover, right up until you need it.

If the only thing being sold is the policy, the price will always look too high. The advice is the part worth paying for and it is on us to make that visible before the client has to find out the hard way.

The same thinking applies to accountancy clients.

You lose a client to a cheaper accountancy firm, a cheaper bookkeeper.

They compared the price on your invoice to the price on someone else's. What they did not compare is the risk of what happens when nobody is watching their numbers properly.

Here's the truth, paying for accountancy is not paying for VAT returns, payroll runs or annual accounts. Those are just tasks. What you are actually paying for is someone catching the problem before it becomes expensive.

A corporation tax bill that would have blindsided them, spotted and planned for months in advance. A director's loan account creeping into being overdrawn, flagged before HMRC flags it for them. A late filing penalty that never happens because someone was tracking the deadline, not the client.

None of that shows up as a line item. It shows up as the disaster that never happened.

So, when a client says 'I can get this cheaper elsewhere' they're right, they can. What they can't get cheaper is someone actively looking out for them every month. A cheap service does the paperwork. A good one prevents the £3,000 surprise.

If a client only ever asks 'how much' then it's because we have not told them clearly enough what they'd be losing. So let's say it plainly, cheap accountancy costs less until the year it costs you a lot more.