All in a Name: UK's 'Most Careless' Business Owners Unveiled

Leo and Brenda the most accident prone business owner names

Norman and Frances are the UK's most careful business owners

Men more likely to claim than women



Leo and Brenda have been labelled the UK's 'most careless' business owners according to Simply Business, with research revealing the top male and female names most likely to run into trouble in the workplace.

Analysis from the UK's largest business insurance provider, based on the claims data of almost a quarter of a million businesses, pitted Leos at the very top of the table, with 7.7 per cent of owners with that name claiming on their business insurance last year - nearly five times the national average (1.6 per cent). Brendas followed closely behind with 6.3 per cent.

Other men's names featuring in the top five included Giuseppe, Desmond and Perry, while for women June, Gaynor, Naomi and Cheryl also proved among the most accident-prone.

On balance, men emerged as the most careless business owners - comprising 80 per cent of the top ten names most likely to make a claim. At the other end of the scale, Norman took the title as the most careful name in the country - just ahead of Henry as the least likely to make a claim out of all the UK entrepreneurs studied. Frances was named most careful female business owner, narrowly pipping Hilary to the post.

Amongst small business trades, the mobile phone retail industry made the largest number of claims with 11.8 per cent of phone shops claiming in the last year, compared to an average of 1.6 per cent. Sweet shops, ice cream parlours and laundrettes also made it into the top ten most 'careless' trades, while masseur is statistically the 'safest' profession, receiving the least claims per business owner out of all the trades covered.

Jason Stockwood, CEO of Simply Business, commented:

"We conducted this research to investigate any correlations that might exist between people, places and professions in insurance claims behaviour. While we wouldn't generalise this to all business owners, the results do seem to suggest that certain names can have less luck than others, even if it's through no fault of their own.

"The data was also interesting at trade level, revealing the extent to which certain retail business owners are particularly susceptible to theft.

"We discovered some interesting businesses with exceptionally low claims data, such as masseurs, florists and jewellers, suggesting these businesses are particularly adept at safeguarding themselves. Any of these trades run by people with our 'safest' names such as Norman and Frances might well offer the winning formula for the UK's safest business ventures."  

About Simply Business

Simply Business is the UK's largest business insurance broker.

Launched in 2005, Simply Business provides tailored insurance products and services to landlords and small to medium size businesses. Due to its extensive internal underwriting capability, Simply Business can cover over 1,000 different trade types and currently insures almost 200,000 customers across the UK. A Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company for the past four years and named in the 2011 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA, Simply Business is a profitable company, which has grown revenues from £4.2 million in 2006, to £16.1 million in 2010.

Simply Business' has a team of 150 insurance specialists based in offices in London and Northampton. The company also provides business insurance services to price comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.com and Gocompare.com.