Owning a small business, even one that operates out of a home means ensuring that you’re protected from the unexpected things that may happen while working, or unpredictable situations you can’t have control over them.
That’s where the concept of insurance for small business owners comes into the picture, and no matter how sure you are that everything is fine, you should consider signing up some contract that will cover the potential risks and harmful situations, so you can protect your job, and ensure you won’t leave everything behind you in a case of emergency.
That’s where the concept of insurance for small business owners comes into the picture. What sort of protections do you need? Here are a few of the basics that should be part of your planning. An agent can help you decide what else needs to be added to these essentials.
General Liability Insurance
General liability coverage is easily the most common type of insurance that business owners of all types need. This is particularly helpful if you operate a business that employs someone other than yourself and is open for the public to enter into your store, office, or similar space.
General liability insurance covers a number of different risks. These risks include physical injuries, property damage, medical payments, legal defense, and much more. Because this type of insurance is able to help businesses avoid trouble should these risks occur, it is crucial for entrepreneurs to purchase an insurance plan. Click here to learn more about different insurance policies, especially for candle-making businesses.
Essentially, this coverage comes in handy if you or one of your employees should act in some way that leads to the injury of someone visiting the space. If often applies if some possession of the visitor is damaged while at your place of business. You’ll find that the exact terms will vary based on different policies offered by various commercial insurance companies.
Some businesses found this type of contract very useful during the first months of the pandemic. Sadly, it came unannounced, and no one was ready for that, which resulted in layoffs or salary cuts.
But, those owners who were smart enough and tried to predict every unpleasant situation that may occur, they already covered some of the expenses using their insurance pack, especially if they had COVID positive employees, who got the virus while at work, or while traveling to work.
Property Insurance
Property coverage should also be part of your small business insurance package. Should something happen to the building proper, the equipment that you use to do business, the inventory of raw materials or finished goods, or even tools used in the production process, it could be costly to replace them. This type of insurance protects you if the loss is due to a covered natural disaster, theft, or damage due to a fire or flooding that took place when the plumbing or electrical system broke down.
Some property insurance plans do more than replace whatever you lost. There are sometimes clauses that refer to the expenses incurred when you can’t conduct business for a time. Often called a loss of earning clause, this can help you pay the bills and meet the payroll even if the business can’t operate until the replacements show up.
No one can estimate the potential risks when opening a new company, so they often forget to sign a proper contract that will be helpful if (or when) something bad happens. There are a lot of examples of business collapsing due to flood, or fire when the whole inventory was destroyed, and the owner didn’t have the property insurance document, and with that, no money to recover from it.
Paying monthly or yearly fees for that may look costly, but it’s nothing compared to the possibility to help you recover if something bad happens to your company’s property.
Commercial Auto Insurance
If your business owns a vehicle or two, there’s no doubt that you need this type of commercial insurance. The coverage can extend to any employee who is authorized to operate a company vehicle. Any time they use one of your cars or trucks while acting on the behalf of the company, they are covered. This can come in handy if there’s damage due to an act of nature, an accident while making a delivery, and any other event covered in the policy terms and conditions.
So, we recommend you not to think twice, because like everything else, you can’t predict the conditions on the road. You sure believe the people you choose to work in your company, but no matter how responsible they are, if someone else on the road isn’t, the risk is here, and you shouldn’t ignore that. Just add a few paragraphs (and of course, pay a little more dollars) to your insurance contract, and make sure you have all the company’s vehicles covered with that.
Errors and Omissions Service
This type of coverage is a lot like the liability protection you have with a general liability policy. What’s different is the setting. Errors and omissions coverage protects the business if you or an employee’s actions lead to the injury of a client away from the business site. That includes financial harm as well as physical harm.
No matter how sure you are nothing like this can happen, you can’t exactly know that, so it’s always a better choice to be ready for everything. As we said, it’s always better to cover your monthly or yearly fees to the insurance company, instead of large amounts of money you will have to provide if something like the things described in the previous paragraph happens.
This type of coverage is often essential for professionals who offer services like accounting, real estate sales, consulting, and notary support. If you’re not sure if this type of coverage is needed along with general liability, an agent can help you determine what benefits it would provide.
There are other types of insurance that a small business owner may need, based on the nature of the operation, the number of people employed, and other key factors.
Getting an insurance policy is one of the most important things you need to do as a business owner. Be professional, and do that, even if that means you will have to cut off a nice part of your initial profit. Natural disasters, fires, robberies, and all the other situations that are harmful to you, the employees, and the property, can’t be predicted, and you can never be completely ready for that. But once you have your policy, you can sleep calmly at night, knowing that if something happens, you got it, and there will be nothing to stop you from completely recovering, and proceeding with the great work and service you provide.
The best move is to talk to an agent with Guthrie Insurance LTD among the top commercial insurance companies
and identify the scope of coverage that’s best for you. Once that’s done, it will be easier to provide a business insurance quote that includes everything that you might need in the future.
