Small business insurance consists of a number of different types of commercial insurance options that are designed to protect your company from suffering severe financial losses. Without small business insurance coverage, if you are sued by a customer and they win, your company could go bankrupt. Likewise, if an accident damages an important delivery vehicle you may be unable to conduct business and earn money in addition to having the added expenses of fixing the vehicle. Small business insurance is a wise investment in your company, to ensure that it can continue operating, growing and flourishing regardless of what surprises come about. Here are some of the unexpected events that small business insurance can help your company weather.
- Customer Legal Action – When a customer or client is unhappy with your company, they may bring a lawsuit against it for any number of reasons. Sometimes lawsuits arise just because the customer hurt themselves while they were at your business location, and they cannot pay the medical bills that arose due to that incident. Sometimes a customer finds fault with the products you have sold to them, or the services you have rendered in the past.
For example, if an electrician accidentally snips a wire at a customer’s house, the cost to fully repair everything back to its normal working operation may be extensive. The customer rightly feels they should not pay for these repairs since they did not cause the problem. Your company will have to pay for those repairs instead. If you carry general liability insurance, or errors and omissions insurance, that coverage would pay for the damages instead.
- Disasters and Unexpected Events – Whether a natural disaster rips the roof off of your building or a water main breaks and ruins the furnishings, your company is left to pay for all repairs and replacements when events like this arise. If instead, you carry small business insurance that covers these types of risks – such as a business owners policy – then your insurance policy will pay for the repairs and replacements instead.
- Employee Issues – Sometimes employees are dishonest. They may take money from the store cash register or they may help themselves to products off the shelves. Your company losses money every time an employee does this, and the expenses add up. Small business insurance can protect you from losses caused by a number of different types of employee dishonesty.
Employees can also get injured while performing their work duties. All small businesses must carry workers comp insurance to protect against potential injuries caused on the job. This coverage pays for the employee’s medical expenses and related costs of care if they’re injured.
- Commercial Auto Insurance – When you use a vehicle for any purpose related to your business, you need to protect it with a commercial auto insurance policy. Business auto insurance can pay for the repairs and replacements to a vehicle that is damaged by an uninsured driver for example. It can also pay for the replacement of a vehicle that is stolen, or pay for repairs when the vehicle is damaged by a falling tree branch. Commercial auto insurance can be tailored to provide protection for vehicles that your company rents, leases or borrows as well, so this type of small business insurance is not reserved for only those companies who own the vehicles they use.
