All entrepreneurs need to avail of insurance for their businesses. This is used to pay for damages and liability claims on your business without the pressure of using personal funds. Because certain foreseen but unaccounted-for events can happen anytime, business insurance will help owners save cash in the long run. But the many types of insurance can confuse business owners, especially new entrepreneurs.
Business Owner Policy (BOP) is an insurance package that combines property and liability insurance into one. This package is made for the convenience of business owners who prefer to avail of insurance that covers most of the basic business needs all at once instead of availing of individual insurance for different purposes. But as mentioned before, BOP only covers the basic needs, which means that there are more specific kinds of insurance that you have to avail separately for your business’ safety.
Here are some of the most important kinds of insurance that a small business owner must look into.
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General Liability Insurance
General Liability Insurance (GLI) is the known type of insurance that covers payment for common damages and accidents while business transactions occur. Customer injuries obtain while inside your store, property damages to the space, furniture, or equipment you are renting, and copyright infringement and defamation lawsuits are all usually covered by this kind of insurance.
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Property Insurance
Property insurance is needed by businesses with physical stores. Commercial property insurance can cover a variety of damages to your store caused by certain events and situations. But different insurance companies may define this policy in different ways. Some property insurance only covers costs for damages inside stores and not the outside. Others specifically define damaging events as fires and storms but not floods and earthquakes. Check the property insurance policies of your chosen company to get the most suitable deal for your business location.
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Workers’ Compensation Insurance
This kind of insurance seeks to take care of all hired workers by covering the costs of medical treatments if they obtain some kind of injury caused directly by their line of work. This will also provide compensation for workers while they are recovering from the said injury. Workers’ compensation insurance also includes payment for funeral fees if an employee dies because of their work.
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Professional Liability Insurance
Professional Liability Insurance or Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance is a must for businesses that provide any service. Typically, E&O Insurance for insurance specialists, lawyers, and accountants cover costs in a lawsuit brought by mistakes or failures that caused more harm than good to their customers. But this applies to any small business that promises service. This is used to protect them from claims of underperforming and not delivering the proper services.
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Cyber Insurance
Cyber insurance will help your business in case of a data breach. For every business that collects customer information, there is always a risk of having these files leaked or lost. When this happens, the company may be held liable for the damages, especially when sensitive and highly confidential customer information is involved. This insurance will help cover costs from legal defense, customer communication, system check, and many others after data loss.
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Business Interruption Insurance
Business interruption insurance seeks to compensate businesses when they are rendered unable to operate due to other insurance-covered events like fires, natural disasters, and crimes. This will help businesses continue paying for their essential bills and their workers after losing income from the unforeseen event.
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Commercial Auto Insurance
Commercial auto insurance focuses on vehicles driven by you or your employees for business purposes. This insurance will cover the costs of damages from vehicular accidents caused or obtained by your company-owned vehicle. The workers involved are also insured for medical treatment of their injuries.
It is important to have separate commercial auto insurance from personal auto insurance because accidents caused by commercially-owned and -driven vehicles are not covered by the latter.
Having different kinds of insurance for your business will help to prevent substantial financial losses. Some entrepreneurs might think that insurance is just another business expense because they only pay to prevent a possibility. But having insurance can draw the distinct line between a business surviving a catastrophe and a business shutting down because tragedy struck and wiped out all its assets. Make sure to follow good practices in running your business to avoid increasing your business insurance costs.
References:
Boop, Gregory. Bad Practices that Raise Your Business Insurance Costs. The Balance Small Business, 23 Aug. 2018, https://www.thebalancesmb.com/bad-practices-that-raise-your-cost-of-insurance-462554. Accessed 16 Aug. 2021.
Kagan, Julia. Business Owner Policy – BOP. Investopedia, 28 Nov. 2020, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/business-owners-policy.asp. Accessed 16 Aug. 2021.
