Insuring your new small business is a necessary evil. Well, it’s actually an angel in case something happens that you need coverage for, but when your doling out the incredibly high insurance premiums before your business is even making a profit, it seems quite hard. However, a reliable insurance is unavoidable for a small business owner as the risks of such a business runs pretty high, and coverage will allow you to focus on your work without worrying about expensive mishaps.
Depending on the type of business you run you will need to invest in a few different types of policies:
- Disability Insurance: Every small business owner should invest in disability insurance, which will take care of continuing your lost income in case you get in an accident and are disabled or for whatever reason are unable to carry out your work.
- Business Interruption Insurance: In case you are unable to work and have lost income due to a natural disaster such as a flood, tornado, fire, etc, this type of policy will recover your lost income.
- Malpractice Insurance: This kind of insurance is not reserved for healthcare professionals, as commonly thought to be. It covers any profession that involves giving treatment including beauticians, hairdressers and the like. If your business involves providing a service where something could potentially go wrong, this insurance will cover you.
- Errors and omissions insurance: If you are a consultant providing professional or technical advice to clients for a living, this insurance policy will ensure that in case the client complains of any negligence of oversight on your part that caused them damage, you will be covered. The policy will not only cover your defenses it will also take care of any damages awarded to the client.
- Completed operations coverage: If you ever have to provide services at client’s homes, offices or other location, this insurance will protect you from liability in the case that something goes wrong after you have left the premises does not affect you. If whatever you have done stops working for whatever reason, you will be covered.
- Product liability insurance: If your business involves selling something, this is the insurance that will cover you in case your product malfunctions, or otherwise leads to complaint or dissatisfaction.
- Vehicle or car insurance: If you use any vehicle for your business, it needs to be properly insured to cover you in case of accidents during business use. Any damage to your vehicle will be covered, as also your liability to others involved in any accident.
Make sure you carefully consider the types of risks involved in the work that you do. Whether you run a home-based business, provide a service, or sell a product, you need to ensure that you are adequately covered, especially if that business is your primary source of income. Insurance is expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. However, there are some policies you absolutely will need. Shop around to find the best possible business insurance coverage you can get in a deal that works for you, and rest assured.