Business insurance helps secure you as a business owner from financial losses that could come via unforeseen accidents and problems that could derail your operations. It provides financial protection and helps secure your business from operational and financial risks.
Table of Contents
It is always advisable that you should have a form of insurance to protect what you labored endlessly to build all through the years. You should take intentional steps towards managing risks which can be insure to ensure continuity of your business.
Types of Business Insurance Plan
Since every business is unique and has unique forms of risks, there are various types of business insurance policies that could consider to take care of your need.
The average business insurance company in a place like the U.S. offers a wide range of policies that can help you protect your business, and what coverage you will eventually go for is based on factors such as the size and location of your business.
General liability insurance
Several business owners simply settle for this coverage type because it takes care of expenses incurred from bodily injury as well as property damage that came about from their day-to-day operations.
While general liability insurance is not legally required in several places, you will most likely find this beneficial as it can even offer coverage for copyright infringement, slander and libel that can taint your company’s reputation.
Commercial property insurance
If your business has physical assets, such as a building where the business operates from, equipment, and products the firm stores and sells, then you should subscribe to commercial property insurance, as it was designed to cater to the disruption of unexpected problems to these assets.
You will enjoy compensation for any damages and losses. It should also be noted that many times, commercial property insurance is included as part of the requirements for commercial leasing arrangements.
Workers’ compensation insurance
If you are in the United States, you can’t avoid getting workers’ compensation insurance if you have a good number of employees working for your business.
It has been designed to protect you from having to bear the financial burdens resulting from job-related injuries. It is necessary to note that business owners can’t make their workers contribute to the premiums, but must take responsibility for the full cost of coverage.
Commercial vehicle insurance
If your business has company cars and vans, this coverage, which is legally required, will cover financially should anything go wrong at any point.
Health insurance
Here is another type of coverage business owners can subscribe for, meant to take care of a portion of bills acquired from medical treatment. If you run a business in the USA, the law expects that you take out health insurance for your workers as long as you have more than 50 full-time staff.
Directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance
Popularly known as D&O liability coverage, it is meant to secure the directors and senior management of the business against financial losses that come from business-related lawsuits. In other words, in instances of legal action, the coverage will take care of the monetary losses.
Cyber insurance
Cyber insurance is becoming an increasingly popular coverage type that represents a sort of risk management tool for business owners, as it covers financial losses that come from cyber incidents.
Business interruption insurance
If your company suffered some loss as a result of a disruption of its operations that was caused by an unforeseen event you are already insured against, this coverage will cover the operating costs of the business while it is temporarily shut down.
Tools and equipment insurance
This coverage is highly recommendable to businesses that strongly utilize some forms of tools and pieces of equipment to get their day-to-day operations running. If the tools and equipment were stolen or damaged, tools and equipment insurance has been designed to cover the costs to repair and replace them.
Product liability insurance
This coverage can protect your business from patronizers of your products who are claiming injury as a result of using the product they bought from you.
If such should come up, the product liability insurance will take care of any expenses incurred by legal defense.
Excess liability insurance
This is a very helpful insurance type that secures business owners from losses that exceed their coverage limits. You also have the liberty to use this coverage as a condition for a lease contract.
Benefits of Business Insurance
Running a business comes with different forms of risks and uncertainties that can affect one’s profitability in no small way. An unforeseen calamity can snatch a large part of one’s revenue, and it is necessary to be adequately prepared for whatever may come.
If a business owner has the right form of policy for their business, the insurance provider can offer necessary financial assistance when something goes wrong.
Another benefit of having business insurance is for credibility purposes. Many times, clients and other investors are comfortable with a company they know is financially protected.