Protecting your business from a myriad of different potential accidents is an essential part of staying open. Arguably the best way to accomplish this is to be certain that your company is up to date on all of the different kinds of insurance that are needed to be successful.
Of course, for many small business owners, deciding which types of insurance are necessary and which aren’t can be half of the challenge. There are numerous options that can lead to thousands of questions about which covers specific accidents and which doesn’t. Some owners may find themselves asking ‘do we even need business insurance?’
Required Business Insurance
For every business, there is some level of mandatory insurance that will cover the cost of serious injury that could befall you or your employees. The most important of these is likely workers compensation insurance. This insurance types protects employees if they are injured on the job, and helps to make sure they are able to still provide for their families if they cannot work for a period of time.
The insurance also help reduce the impacts of legal issues between employees and their employers over injuries, in some cases covering workers compensation attorney consultation sessions or the attorney’s fee entirely. Workers compensation insurance is a policy generally provided by a licensed insurer. Prices are typically determined based upon how dangerous the job is to begin with.
Additional types of insurance may be mandatory depending upon the type of business you are running. For instance, if your business requires work vehicles you will need to have business vehicle insurance. Likewise, you will need general, or public, liability insurance if there is a chance your employees could injury or damage the property of a private citizen while at work.
Optional Types of Insurance
A growing number of small businesses are acquiring and customizing their company insurance policies through commercial insurance brokers. Although this is a great way to simplify policies and organize, business owners are still required to make important decisions about which types of insurance they are going to use to cover themselves in case of an accident.
For example, your business could purchase revenue protection insurance, which will protect your company in event of a serious natural disaster or damage to computers brought about by any number of things. For small business owners dealing with food, such as farmers, revenue insurance can also protect against bad crop years.
Many companies also choose to purchase asset protection insurance. This type helps to cover any damage that could occur to company property such as within the office, personal vehicles, or any equipment in event of a fire, theft, food, etc. This type of broad protection is one of the most common for many small business owners.
Finally, if you are manufacturing products to sell on the market, it is a good idea to think about getting product liability insurance. Product liability insurance will protect you if a consumer has an accident while using one of your products and decides to pursue a lawsuit. Often times, this type of policy can be customized for specific types of products to protect against issues that may arise.
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There are so many different types of insurance that are useful to businesses. Understanding the types of insurance policies that will be relevant to your business is an essential part of ownership. Preparing with the rights types of insurance can help reduce expenses when accidents do happen and they can keep you afloat if something serious does occur.
