Economic uncertainty has sparked an increase in people setting up small businesses, advisers have said.
According to a Zurich poll, 55% said more clients were starting small enterprises and 71% cited the economic climate as the driver of the trend.
The vast majority said there was an opportunity alongside the trend to look into opportunity for advisers to focus on business protection advice for SMEs.
Stuart Miller, associate consultant at Mercer, said: "I have not seen a significant organic or natural increase in this space but that could be more reflective of Mercer. Our main focus is on larger enterprises.
"But we have seen a few new start-ups coming through as referrals from other clients where we have been asked to sort out the protection side of things."
He added that the firm's business protection growth had been mainly down to increased marketing in the last three years to get the message out and make the most of the opportunities.
Zurich's quarterly SME Risk Index showed that three quarters of SMEs were worried about the economy and 80% were not confident that it would improve in the next quarter.
But a third of advisers said most small business clients did not realise the consequences of no business protection.
Peter Hamilton, UK head of retail propositions, said: "With the latest figures showing that the economy continued to shrink in the last quarter of 2012, and with SMEs ongoing concern about the state of the economy, the need for them to protect their businesses has never been more important."
