As a business owner or entrepreneur, you have a duty to protect your business and yourself from potential risks and liabilities.
This means that you need to be thinking about the insurance you need long before you have your first customer. From the time the first employee starts work, you are exposed to risk. One small mistake or problem can quickly turn into a large lawsuit or another penalty that can kill your business before it even has a chance to get started.
Luckily there are several insurance options available to commercial enterprises and medium to small businesses that can help them protect their assets.
We’ve put together everything you need to know in this guide below:
The Insurance Types Commercial Businesses Need
General Liability Insurance
The first kind of insurance your business will need is general liability insurance. This provides coverage in the case of bodily injury or other damages that you could get sued for. It also covers issues of libel and slander.
Say that a customer was to fall in your store and try to claim for their medical bills. Your general liability insurance would cover this cost, meaning you don’t need to pay anything out of pocket. Or if someone was to try to slander your business in an online review, you would have the finances available to deal with it legally.
Commercial Property Insurance
You’ll also need to think about how you would protect the physical location of your business and all the things it may contain. This means you’ll include things like business equipment, inventory, and even furniture in your policy. Anything that relates to the physical business you conduct will be listed under your commercial property insurance.
Say some sort of property damage was to occur, like a fire or big leak, your insurer would help you to cover the cost of replacing any lost stock or furniture due to the damage.
Business Income Insurance
If you ever were to need to close your business due to an event like theft, damage, or more, you are stuck losing money until you are able to reopen. But with business income insurance, your missed earnings can be regained through your insurance policy.
This ensures that you don’t lose all your revenue at once, and your insurer can help you to re-establish your business financially.
Workers’ Compensation
If you have employees in your business, you’ll need to get workers’ compensation insurance. This type of coverage helps you to pay for things like medical care or lost wages if an employee was to suffer from a work-related injury.
Workers’ compensation also has options for disability benefits and funeral expenses that will cover your employees in the case of any eventuality.
Things To Keep In Mind
The business environment is constantly changing and that means that insurance needs will be changing too. Say you run a business from your home - in this situation, your home insurance policy won’t cover any of your professional activities. You’ll need to take out an additional policy for your business, separate from your homeownership policy.
If your business makes use of transportation, that will need to be factored in too, especially if an employee will be doing driving for you. You should at minimum be insured against third-party injury and get coverage for the vehicle itself.
Having the right insurance in place from the get-go means that you get extra peace of mind. You are no longer personally liable if anything was to go wrong, and you can rest easy knowing you have also put the needs of your employees first by ensuring they are protected as well.
At Richard Dean Insurance, we offer a variety of options for General Liability, Business Personal Property, Commercial Auto, Commercial Umbrella, Workers Comp, Keyman, and more.
We believe that by offering you the best insurance policies for your business, we’re actively helping you to become a better, safer entrepreneur. Contact us today to learn more about our insurance coverage options for commercial businesses.