The Small Business Owner's Guide to Individual, Company, and Employee Insurance
The Need to Insure Your Business
Insurance exists so you can be covered should a disaster, lawsuit, or other unexpected event occur. Insurance involves premiums paid over a course of time. Should you never need to use your insurance, you’ve paid a bunch of premiums. However, you shouldn’t look at it this way. If you fail to have insurance and one of these events does occur, you’re going to really wish you had subscribed to a policy. Even more important than having insurance for yourself, you should always carry an insurance policy for your business. If you do not carry insurance, or if you cannot afford to carry insurance, you should not be doing business.
Insurance Overviews
When trying to figure out what you need business insurance wise, it’s important to understand what the different types of insurance are and what they do. For example, getting a property insurance policy is fine, but will it cover employees on the premises? Before purchasing a policy and beginning to pay premiums, you need to make a careful list of what you will need in order to run your business. It’s important to know what the differences between policies are, what you should look for in a good insurance policy, and how to determine what your business needs - and doesn’t need.
- Where Obtaining Business Insurance Fits into the Scheme of Starting Your Business
- What Are the Different Types of Business Insurance?
- Comparing the Different Types of Business Insurance Policies
- What is an Insurance Deductible?
- If You’re Self-Employed, Do You Need Insurance?
- Should You Consider Purchasing Special Event Insurance?
Business Liability Insurance
If you’re trying to keep yourself out of a possible financial problem, you’ll need to carry business liability insurance. Business liability insurance is not negotiable. If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford to do business (as I said already). Business liability insurance protects you from going broke when you’re being sued in the event that a product or service does damage. It also protects you in the event that a fire or other hazard occurs at your work place. I’ll say it one more time - liability insurance is absolutely necessary.
- How Much Does Liability Insurance Cost?
- How Much Business Liability Insurance Does a Small Business Need?
- Protecting Your Business from Lawsuits
- If You Have a Home Business, is Homeowner’s Insurance Enough
Property and Rental Insurance
When it comes to insuring your office space, it’s a no-brainer. You should definitely carry some sort of insurance policy. A good insurance policy will cover you in the unfortunate event of a fire, should you have a break in, or should there be some other structural damages that causes damage to your property and equipment. It’s important to do your research and find the best deal. Don’t overlook the importance of earthquake or flood insurance. You never know what may happen, and you’ll want to be able to recover quickly from damage. A good property or rental insurance policy will help you to do that.
- Calculating What Your Property Insurance Payments Will Be Like?
- Purchasing Rental Insurance for Your Business - What to Keep in Mind
- Do You Need Special Driving Insurance for Your Business?
- Do You Need to Purchase Business Fleet Insurance?
- Managing Risk in Your Small Business
Employee and Health Insurance
When you have employees, not only will you need to worry about taxes, but you will also need to think about health insurance and federally required insurance. You’ll want to have good and loyal employees, so it will be important to provide them with a benefits package that is attractive. It can be overwhelming to put together an employee benefits package, so we’ve done the research for you to make your task much easier.
- Coming up with the Best Health Insurance Options for Your Business
- Life Insurance Plans for the Business Owner
- Should You Take out Insurance on Your Business Partner?
- Workman’s Comp and How it Works
- What You Need to Know About Employee Dishonesty Insurance
Other Types of Insurance
It’s really important that you research any further insurance you think you might need for your business. Don’t spend more money than is necessary, but don’t skip either. You might also want to think about disability insurance beyond what’s required by the federal government. The thing is, with insurance, it might be expensive, but it is far better to have it than to not have it.
- Key Man Insurance and Buy Sell Agreements
- Reducing Business Risks in Your Startup
- Ethics and Your Business - How Insurance Comes into the Discussion
- What Happens if You Borrow Against Company-Owned Life Insurance
- What Business Owners Need to Know about Cobra
Have a question about business insurance? If so, feel free to use the comments section below - ask us a question and we’ll do our absolute best to find the answers you seek. Or, have a business insurance nightmare you can tell our readers to aid them in avoiding the same? Start a discussion using the comments section!
References
- Image courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1043013