business insurance
Understand Business Insurance for Small Business
Many small business owners rely upon their personal insurance to cover their small business. This is, especially true, of home business owners. However personal insurance is not designed to cover a business, and if you do need to make a claim, you may find yourself under insured, or even uninsured!
For instance, your home property insurance may have a limit of a few thousand dollars for the contents of your home. If you have computers, other business machines, or especially, business records, a loss can be much larger. It would be tragic to have an accident or damage to your home that also destroyed your business assets, and then to find that you cannot make a claim to cover your business loss.
Another common example is for auto insurance. If you bought a personal insurance policy several years ago, you may not remember the mileage or use you claimed. If you claimed that your mini van was only used for errands and soccer games, and then had an accident while using that vehicle to transport business supplies, the insurance company may have a reason to deny the claim!
Many small business owners even allow employees to use their personal cars for business. But if an employee is involved in an accident while doing your business, can you rely upon their auto insurance to cover it? This is a risk you probably do not want to take.
Now you may be able to go back and adjust your personal auto insurance policy to include business use, or you may need a commercial insurance policy.
And if you do business, you are always vulnerable to liability claims. If you do not have proper business liability insurance, one cliam can ruin your business. Even if your business is innocent, the cost of lawyers can run into thoousands of dollars. When you have a liability policy, you also have an insurance company who will work on your side to fight claims.
You really need to look into the common types of business insurance. Commercial car insurance, business property and liability insurance, and if you have employees, workers comp insurance, are three policies you should look into.
If your business depends upon the talents of one or more key employees or partners, a key man life and disability policy can protect you from ruin in case of a death or accident. Personal group life insurance provides a benefit that will attract and retain quality employees too!
And of course, we can hardly talk about business insurance without talking about group health plans. Now if you are the only employee of your small business, you will not be able to get a group health plan. You must take out an individual policy or rely upon a spouse’s health plan.
However, if you have two or more employees, you can find group health insurance. You need to look into the need for a business health benefit plan. A good group health insurance plan can be the one benefit that qualify employees are looking for, but it can also be a major expense for your business.
How do I add my landlord onto my business insurance policy as an adition insured?
I just moved into a new business location. My lease states that I must list my landlord as an additional insured. Is that easy to do? Do I just call my insurance and have them add right away or do I have to wait until it is time to renew? Also, approximately by what percentage will that cause my insurance to go up? I have already had a rate increase because I live in Louisiana (Katrina). It is still affordable but I am scared that adding on the additional insured may cause it to double, which I can’t really afford.
Talk to your insurance agent. Should not be a big deal but it might change your rate.