Understanding Small Business Insurance

When you’re starting up a small business, you invest a lot of time and money into getting it up and running. You’ll want to protect your business from any potential damage by taking out commercial insurance. The last thing you want after years of hard work is to lose everything because of an accident.
Without insurance on your establishment, if it were to suffer from a fire, you’d have to pay for the repair costs out of your own pocket. This event could potentially be disastrous and lead to you needing to close your business for an extensive amount of time or forever.

Types of Commercial Insurance

There is a range of commercial insurance options available:

Public Liability Insurance – This is the most common type of insurance that small businesses choose. It will protect you against any injuries that happen to a customer while they’re in your establishment.

Employer’s Liability Insurance – When you own a commercial property, it’s your responsibility to ensure the safety of your employees. If one of your workers were to get injured during their working hours, this insurance would cover you for any of their costs such as hospital bills.

Professional Indemnity Insurance – This insurance will protect your small business from accidental damage that is caused by a client.

Office Insurance – Office equipment such as computers, printers, desks, and more can be costly to buy. If the contents of your office were to get damaged on the premises, this insurance has you covered.

Shop Insurance – This type of insurance will typically cover the entire shop premises, all of the content inside of the shop, and has public liability insurance to cover customer injuries.

Business Property Insurance – If anything were to happen to your businesses’ personal property, whether it’s caused by fire, vandalism, disasters, and more, this insurance would cover you for the costs.

Commercial Auto Insurance – If your business has a company vehicle, for example, if it’s a food establishment and you deliver food, this auto insurance will protect your business out on the road.

Insurance Terms

All businesses should know about insurance terms when investing in coverage for their establishment. It’s important that you understand the language as it will help you when it comes to buying.

Business Insurance Quote – When you’re shopping around for your commercial insurance options, choose several policies that include all of the coverage you need. Ask all of the companies for quotes to compare.

Deductible – If something were to happen to your establishment before your insurance provider would cover the costs, you’d first have to pay your agreed deductible.

Claim – If a customer gets injured on your property, or if someone thinks that your business has done something incorrectly, they can make a claim.

The lawsuit – If an incident occurs in your establishment and it doesn’t get resolved to the other party’s satisfaction, they can file a lawsuit against you.

Endorsement – Also known as a rider, this is an attachment that can modify the terms and conditions of your policy.

Certificate of Insurance – This is proof that your business has insurance and states all of the necessary information such as what type of insurance you have, the name of your provider, deductibles, and limits.