As a business owner, there are many threats that can negatively affect your company’s day-to-day operations. All business owners face uncertainties and risks. It is part and parcel of any financial endeavour.
Business owners have a wide range of insurance products to choose from. Various types of insurance products are available to protect your business.
Here are five insurance options for business owners:
- Professional Liability Insurance
If your company provides professional advice or services, or if you are a professional that operate your own business, you should get professional liability insurance. This kind of insurance protects your business from lawsuits filed against you by clients due to malpractice, negligence, or errors. This is also called Errors and Omissions Insurance. Depending on the type of business, coverage for professional liability insurance may include advertising harm, copyright infringement, or damaged equipment.
For instance, a photographer could get professional photographer insurance to cover for lost, stolen, or damaged equipment, client injury, property damage, or medical payments just in case someone gets injured during a photo shoot.
- Product Liability Insurance
If your company manufactures, retails, or distributes a product, you need to have product liability insurance. This type of insurance covers claims that arise from product safety issues and defective products that have caused damage or injury. The most common products that need this type of insurance are clothing, food, medicines, mechanical equipment, and cosmetics.
Product liability claims are usually based on a manufacturing or product flaw, design defect, or defective warnings or instructions.
Product liability claimants usually receive compensatory damages which include payment for medical expenses, loss of income, and punitive damages.
- General Liability Insurance
General Liability Insurance covers some of the most common lawsuits arising from everyday business operations such as interacting with customers and working with clients. It basically covers bodily injury, accidents, personal injury, property damage, reputation damage, and copyright infringement.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has helpful guidelines to assist business owners in determining their coverage needs and how general liability insurance works. As a business owner, you might notice that clients, venues and other parties that acquire your services usually ask if you have General Liability Insurance.
There are other major liabilities that general liability insurance does not cover. For more specific coverage, you should get other types of business insurance.
- Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Workers’ Compensation policy covers expenses incurred when your employee gets injured at work. It pays for medical bills, recovery costs, and missed wages. It also pays for legal expenses in cases when employees sue over work injuries. This business insurance is a requirement in almost all U.S. states. The requirements may vary from state to state, but the legal repercussions for non-compliance are the same.
As a business owner, it is a good idea to acquire this business insurance because it protects your company from legal complications. Companies that have not acquired workers’ compensation insurance may face severe fines or even criminal charges.
- Commercial Property Insurance
Commercial Property insurance pays for the repair or replacement of your company property such as office space, fixtures, equipment, supplies, furniture, and inventory. Commercial property insurance covers the building where you conduct your business and the contents of the building, which also includes movable property. The coverage may also extend to certain company property outside the building such as the company sign or logo and other external structures.
They cover loss or damage due to fairly common occurrences such as theft, fire, vandalism, wind and hail damage. However, it does not usually pay for damages caused by floods and earthquakes.
As a business owner, you need to be able to protect your source of livelihood. Your company is worth protecting. One way of doing this is to acquire insurance for your business.
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