Running a business comes with great responsibilities. One of them is to protect your organization and your customers against potential risks. This is where insurance enters the picture. Generally, insurance is designed to provide protection to the policyholders against damage or losses.
As a business owner, having insurance coverage can be important in several ways. For example, despite your company’s efforts to stay out of difficulties, accidents will happen. Whether it’s a customer tripping over a loose tile or an unforeseen natural disaster, your business can be totally destroyed if you do not have adequate insurance cover. Moreover, insuring your business can also minimize financial losses by repairing or replacing what has been damaged or lost. When this happens, your company can save more money in the long run.
Every company needs insurance, and if you’re a first-time business owner, it can be challenging to know where to get started. There are so many places offering unique plans and policies. The process can be overwhelming.
If you’re feeling a little lost, keep on reading.
Below we are going to take a look at five types of insurance your business may need.
Liability Insurance
When you’re starting a business, liability insurance is one of the first things you should look at. However, it’s important to remember that there are many types when you shop for insurance, which cover different things. Some of which include:
Public liability: This covers the cost of legal action if an individual is injured on your property. A typical example of this would be falling on a slippery service.
Product liability: Provides your business coverage if an individual is injured by your product or service. This could be due to a manufacturing, design, or label defect.
Cyber liability: Protects you from financial losses as a result of data breaches, generally involving sensitive and personal customer information.
Professional indemnity: This is taken out by a business that offers professional advice to its customers. It covers action against you in case an individual suffers a loss after following the advice.
Group Life Insurance
Offering benefits to your staff is essential, and one way to do that is with life insurance. Group policies show your team that you care and can even help retain those with outstanding talent.
Alternatively, you might also look into something like key person insurance, which provides coverage to a crucial member of the business. This could be a partner, founder, office manager, or top salesperson, for example.
Business Interruption Insurance
Business interruption insurance assists your company in the case of a natural disaster or catastrophic event. It can provide coverage to help with rebuilding and other ongoing costs such as outstanding invoices and staff wages. While you may think, “what are the chances of this happening to me” it’s always better to be prepared. One unexpected circumstance could lead to your business’s downfall.
Property Insurance
Just like your home, it’s important that you have your workspace protected, whether it be a small office or a large building. Property insurance covers losses from theft and damage so that you don’t have to cope with such an enormous impact. If you are one of the many small business owners investing in rental properties as part of your retirement planning, then having buy to let insurance also needs to be on the list. It’s a type of insurance designed to cover and protect your investment from the risks arising from leasing or letting properties. It generally covers liabilities and damage caused by unpaid rent, vandalism to the exterior, fire, flood, and other similar perils.
Vehicle Insurance
Finally, if you own a business vehicle or fleet, the correct vehicle insurance is a must. Accidents can always happen, and you’ll want to have the coverage there to protect you and any of your employees. Make sure you shop around and look at different options. In some cases, a company will allow a fleet to be as small as two vehicles.
If you’re looking to prevent your business from having to pay for unforeseen expenses, you should have the right insurance coverage in place. If you want to make things easier, you might look at business insurance which generally comes as a package with everything included.
You should now better understand the different types of insurance your business needs. However, there are other policies out there that can also be beneficial, particularly if your business is particularly specialised or risky. It all depends on the type of business and services you will be offering. So make sure to do your research and get professional advice from an insurance broker if necessary.