Business insurance is there to protect the assets of a company and to also provide legal protection for any injuries that occur on the business property.
When searching for new business insurance, or updating your old contract, it is important to know what will get you the best deal for your needs.
Types of Business Insurance
There are different types of insurance that cover the different needs of the company. There are general plans that cover broad areas of insurance, or there are more personalized plans for more specific needs.
Make sure you figure out which type is more essential for your business, you may need a combination of both.
General Coverage for Business
This is a plan that will provide reimbursement for any expense related to the company, such as damage to equipment, assets or any other items on the company property.
There will be comprehensive policies that cover many aspects of insurance such as property insurance, liability insurance and vehicle insurance if you have company cars. There are great car insurance companies for this purpose.
Personal Insurance for Business
This type of insurance plan will cover a single person who is employed at the business.
Sometimes there is an individual or a few employees who have specialist needs, perhaps they travel a lot or have a disability that gives them unique needs at the enterprise.
Consider if there are any special requirements at your company and consider personal insurance for these cases.
Property Insurance
There will be essential equipment that you need to fulfill the company’s purpose, for example, a cashier till for a shop or specialist IT equipment in a design studio.
If this equipment is lost, destroyed or damaged, then the cost of replacement can be huge depending on the nature of the business. For more information, check this guide to the things you should know when buying commercial real estate insurance
Don’t overlook items that seem innocuous either; cabinets, filing space and even office chairs are all essential for the running of a business.
If you think that all work would stop in the event of stolen goods or destroyed assets, then also consider business interruption insurance. This replaces the profits lost due to the interruption in workflow.
Employers Liability Insurance
You must have an insurance plan that protects your employees, whether they are full-time or part-time.
This plan will cover any claims that occur as a result of any injuries that occur on the company site or as a result of their work.
If an employee seeks compensation, this can be for workplace burns in a kitchen for example, or repetitive strain injuries in an office, it is essential to have this insurance to help them.
Public Liability Insurance
This plan covers the public, as in, anyone who is not an employee of the company, and any injuries they may suffer on your company premises.
This could be essential for places where there are higher risk activities for injury, such as on a building site, but is also useful for more sedate office spaces.
If someone trips over a loose rug, for example, he or she may be able to make a claim for resulting injury.
Amount of Coverage
This is the amount that the insurance company will cover per claim. This is at the heart of an insurance quote and the nature of the company’s assets will alter how much coverage you will need.
You may get full cover per insurance claim if you are claiming for small amounts, whereas for something larger, like the cost of rebuilding the damaged property, the amount may only be partial.
Cash Value or Replacement Value
When your assets are insured, then figure out which type of coverage you will receive when you need to make a claim.
Cash value can be problematic for items that depreciate in value quickly, such as electronic items or vehicles, so it is better to choose replacement value for these sorts of assets. This way, you get brand new, market price items and don’t have to make up the new price tag.
So make sure that you are not underinsured since even a partial expense can devastate a business. Make sure that your company doesn’t struggle in the case of an incident because it is uninsured.
