You know how important insurance is for your family in case tragedy strikes. But do you have quality insurance in case of a business disaster?
BizEngine anticipated that your answer would be yes. Every small business owner knows you need disaster insurance for tornadoes, volcanoes and even the dreaded volnado. You probably have health and life insurance available for yourself and your employees, assuming the rates are something you can afford. The question becomes how comprehensive that coverage is and whether you’ve covered yourself against all eventualities.
The Importance Of Comprehensive Coverage
Nothing in the world is more frustrating that finding out your business insurance coverage doesn’t handle something you were sure it did.
There literally is no such thing as being too prepared, as we found out during the horrible February tsunami and earthquake in Japan that claimed so many lives. But even if you can’t stop a flood or an earthquake, you can make sure your insurance covers those worst-case scenarios.
Before you sign the dotted line on your insurance paperwork, make sure you can check off the following three items:
- I’ve thought about the area I work in and its unique challenges, and my coverage has been tailored to reflect that.
- I’ve obtained enough coverage to get my business back on its feet should a disaster strike.
- I’ve thought about both the building I operate in and my employees when it comes to coverage.
If you’ve satisfied those three things, you should be well-covered when something goes wrong. Again, you’ll never be prepared for every eventuality, but you’ll be prepared for most. That’s just smart.
Insurance Types Your Business Ought To Have
Now we get outside of health, life and disaster insurance and into the less headline-grabbing types. What else do you need?
Here’s a handy list, with a hat tip to our friends at Business News Daily. You’ll want to check them out for a full accounting:
- General liability. Chances are good you have this, but it’s good to be sure. General liability will save you from lawsuits in the event that you spill a giant pan of curried chicken on your restaurant’s carpet, or if someone falls down your stairs. Given the zeal for litigation that pervades this country, you’d be wise to have this, even if it’s not outright required by your landlord.
- Professional liability. Consider this mistake insurance. If your workers install the wrong piping or something else gets messed up along the way, this will protect you from lawsuits. Again, very important to have.
- Cyberinsurance. Business News Daily suggests this as something to keep an eye on, but I’d suggest you explore it right now if you have any kind of web presence. This insurance can cover you if your website is hacked or (in the doomsday scenario) if someone accesses your database and steals business or customer information. It’s expensive, yes, but if you can afford it you’ll buy yourself considerable peace of mind.
If you explore everything in this post, you should be in pretty good shape, but I’m sure I missed something. Let us know what else we should include in the comments.
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