Owning a business can be one of the most rewarding experiences of one’s life. Self-employment allows freedom from the standard 9-5, you are in control of your career, and your ability for growth is endless.
In 2018, more people are starting their own business as they want to feel that sense of autonomy. However, as new business owners get excited about seeing their business flourish, it becomes easy to ignore certain aspects of a business that are very integral to its success, such as insurance.
It’s quite clear that operating without the proper insurance can do more harm than good. But what if your business engages is extremely low-risk work, do you really need it? For example, amusement parks and healthcare related industries – it’s an absolute necessity from the get-go, but what if you run a freelance business? Is business insurance a requirement?
In this article, we’ll help you navigate these questions and figure out which insurance makes sense for your business.
9 Types of Insurance a Small Business Owner Should Have
1. Property Insurance
Property insurance reimburses you for damages to your small business. This type of insurance covers damage to:
- Property
- Furniture
- Computers
- Inventory
Property insurance covers any item you require to run your small business successfully. It’s important to ask your insurance agent if they also cover damages to property occurred after a fire and do they provide you with money to keep your business running until all the repairs have been completed and your property restored.
2. Home-Based Business Insurance
Do you operate your business from home? Do you receive clients at home?
If so, you need to obtain home-based business insurance. Your homeowner’s insurance will not cover your home-based business. Inquire with your insurance company about home-based business insurance and after seeing the terms and conditions, obtain it.
For more information on whether you should purchase home-based insurance, check out our latest article: The Ultimate Guide to Insuring Your Home-Based Business
3. Business Interruption Insurance
Unexpected interruptions to your business will decrease productivity and the output of work.
You will experience loss of income, but if you have business interruption insurance in place, your insurance company will reimburse you for lost income during the time your business was closed down due to unfortunate circumstances.
4. Leaseholder Business Insurance
Are you renting a part of business to another business? If you have an extra office space that you can rent out to another business or individual and earn extra money out of it, why not take advantage of it, right? Perhaps, you bought the property to rent it out to potential businesses.
In that case, you need to insure your property from financial loss and damage.
5. Life Insurance
Life insurance is a type of insurance that you should never overlook. It is important you take out life insurance, as life is unpredictable.
You never know when you might pass away suddenly. If you have life insurance, you can write the name of the person you deem fit to run your business after your unexpected demise. Your business even after you pass away will not incur losses, but continue to thrive under new leadership.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to Use Life Insurance in Your Retirement Planning
6. Liability Business Insurance
As a small business owner, you always have to take prevented steps to reduce risk. General liability protects you and your business against third-party claims such as customer injuries, customer property damage, and lawsuits relating to both of these.
With this coverage, you will be protected from immediate medical expenses, as well as legal costs if an incident leads to a lawsuit.
7. Business Auto Insurance
If you are one of the 88,000 business owners in Connecticut that use a company-owned vehicle to get your products or service to existing and prospect customers then you will want to consider commercial vehicle insurance.
Once you or your employee hit the road in your company-owned vehicle you add a degree of risk, either bodily injury or damage to other vehicles which could create a major financial issue that would fall directly on your business.
Check our prices on Commercial Auto Insurance here: GET A QUOTE
8. Business Data Breach Insurance
Most businesses have several sensitive files saved on their computers or other electronic devices they use for business purposes. Even though it is unethical for employees to leak your data on to the internet or your competitor, incidences like this still happen no matter how much you trust your employees.
Therefore, it is important you take out business data breach insurance to protect you from such employees and hackers who might steal sensitive data in the form of hard copy and soft copy.
For more information whether you should consider data breach insurance check out our blog post: Does my company need Cyber Security Insurance?
9. Workers Compensation Insurance
Most states, including Connecticut, require small, medium-sized, and big business owners to obtain workers compensation insurance. If you have anywhere from three to five employees, you may be required by your state to take out workers compensation insurance.
This type of insurance will pay for lost wages and medical care in the event one of your workers sustains an injury while on the job. However, small businesses may not be legally required to offer this insurance their employees. Even if you are not, you should consider offering this to your workers, just to be on the safe side.
To see how much it would cost for your business to purchase worker’s comp. insurance in Connecticut, simply CHECK OUR PRICES.
Digital Marketing Director