Read the insurance small print

"Again, I'm offering a tip based on my own personal experience. Generally speaking, most export personnel will be well covered in terms of insurance when they are working in the field.

You should ensure you have all the following in place:

• Medical insurance

• Medical evacuation insurance

• Personal accident insurance

• Long-term disability insurance

• Travel insurance

• Group life insurance

It's equally important to check out the small print, or to get your broker to do it for you.

A colleague of mine was once in a bad car crash in the Middle East , after which he was detained in a local hospital. Complications set in, and it became apparent that the local hospital simply refused to acknowledge that their patient could get better treatment elsewhere.

Eventually, after a struggle, we managed to get him medevaced out and home for treatment. So make sure you have this option in your policy - even in the best case scenario, convalescing in a remote hospital away from family and friends is a situation best avoided if possible.

Make sure, too, that someone trawls through your policies to ensure there are not dangerous limitations, like alcohol-related injuries.

It's just a fact of business life that many exporters work hard and play hard, and you don't want to find problems in treatment if one of your colleagues or employees has had the misfortune to trip or fall during their precious R and R!"