Looking for business insurance can be a pain. It can guard your business against drops in sales and natural disasters, ensuring you have the right coverage to take time. But will your business insurance suit all the needs of your business and employees?
What happens if a customer sues you? There’s so much to consider; it’s easy to feel bogged down when choosing business insurance. So let’s explore this:
1. It’s the law to have business insurance
In most countries, laws require businesses to have specific insurance coverage. Unemployment and disability benefits are two essential types of coverage, as are workers’ compensation and other types of insurance, depending on your business location.
If you don’t invest in the coverage that you are legally obliged to, not only could you have to pay civil or criminal penalties or fines, but you could also receive a cease and desist order, as well as exclusion from public contracts. An insurance policy is a small price compared to these penalties!
2. Protects your business
It’s easy to forget that business insurance does, you know, insure your business. Say your company went through a natural disaster, for example. Your building gets flooded or otherwise destroyed or damaged.
If you have property and casualty insurance, this protects any equipment that gets damaged or even damage or loss of your building.
However, won’t you lose money when your business is closed? How can you protect yourself and your employees against this?
This is where you should consider Choosi’s business insurance options. Business Owners Insurance or a Business Owner Policy is a great way to protect your business from any disasters resulting in a significant loss of income.
With this form of business insurance, if your company cannot function, your insurer will pay out based on the income your company would have usually received.
This policy usually pays out the everyday operating expenses, like rent and other utilities. A few insurers will insure your lost income and even pay your employee’s wages for up to 12 months!
3. Protects employees
What’s the essential part of any business? The people who work there get the job done, right? Your brand is necessary, and your equipment needs covering. But the most valuable part of any business is undoubtedly the employees.
A company’s employees are the ones who make or break a business’s reputation. If the employees of a business aren’t happy, no one’s happy. Just look at brands like Amazon or Uber!
At the bare minimum, the law is that you provide workers’ compensation. This covers anyone injured at work, which means they can’t sue the business if they choose this payment.
However, if you want your employees to have maximum satisfaction in your workplace, you should think about offering at least disability coverage.
Even if you must charge your employees some of the cost, this extra coverage helps keep workers safe. After all, the happiness of your employees is vital in determining the workplace satisfaction scores and reputation that make your business look good to prospective employees and the rest of the world. Covering your employees is also a better alternative to your employees making lawsuits or placing liability claims!
4. Makes your business look good
Have you ever considered how having business insurance makes your business appear? Having good coverage makes your business look reliable and credible. Business insurance makes it clear to your customers and prospective clients that you’re a company they can trust.
People don’t need to worry about compensation if anything goes wrong when you’re working together or providing your services. Business insurance is one of the best ways to build trust and a good reputation today.
5. Prevents you from getting sued
Like it or not, people sue each other a lot these days. Without insurance, your business could go under simply from the sheer cost of legal defence, regardless of whether you win.
All it takes is just one breach of a contract, a workplace accident, or an unsatisfied employee, and everything’s over. Almost any minor accident could result in a lawsuit if someone pursued one against you.
Someone could trip over something and claim your lightbulbs aren’t bright enough. An employee could get a papercut from a printer paper that’s a millimetre too thick. The postman could even slip on your unsalted footpath.
You could get sued for wrongful termination, even if the employee you fired was always late or embezzling from the company. Why do you think companies have to warn customers that their cow’s milk contains the allergen “cow’s milk”?
If you don’t want to risk anything like this happening, you’ll need liability insurance. With liability insurance, you get the peace of mind to concentrate on simply running your business.
6. Certain contracts can request it
Do you lease or rent a business facility? If so, check whether your landlord’s policy covers insurance. If not, you may need to cover it yourself.
Contracts with your clients may also specify that you need insurance in case the project or deal doesn’t go as planned.
Even loan agreements for financing buildings or work equipment can stipulate that you must have insurance. Unfortunately, freelancers can also often lose a job because they don’t realise they need their own insurance.
7. Protects your human assets
You’re the business owner. It’s your job to keep your business running. But what if you have to stop running? What if you have a medical emergency or an accident that forces you to stop working for an extended period?
As we mentioned above, disability insurance and company-owned life insurance coverage offer you a limited form of payment if you have a loss of income. As the names suggest, in the event of your disability or death, these policies provide funds to purchase your interest.
This happens through a buy-sell agreement. However, there are also policies called “key person” insurance. Policies like these cover the death or disability of an important employee.
8. Protects against “Acts of God”
Do you know when phenomena just happen out of nowhere? Maybe lightning strikes your business office out of nowhere, or flash flooding wipes out the industrial estate! You can see why insurers call these unexpected phenomena “Acts of God”.
Two main types of coverage can protect your business against these impossible-to-anticipate smites from above. The first is all-risk. An all-risk business insurance policy mitigates against all events except for a few specific ones your insurer will mention.
Then there are peril-specific business insurance policies. For example, peril-specific protects against expressly noted risks and acts of God, such as fire or flooding.
9. You just can’t predict the future
Despite all your best intentions and safeguards, you can’t predict what will happen. You can replace all the lightbulbs in your office with ultra-bright ones to make tripping practically impossible, only for one of the lightbulbs to fall out and shatter everywhere.
You can fit flood-proof shutters and stock up on sandbags, only for the building to burn down instead. Someone could sue over a paper cut.
You can take all the safety measures in the world, but something you can’t predict is guaranteed to happen. So, just in case of this inexplicable event, you should have the right coverage.
When you know that you have the business insurance you need, you are free to focus on running a rewarding, productive business for years to come with the peace of mind that only proper insurance can bring.
10. Boosts employee retention and business attractiveness
Yes, business insurance protects you in those inexplicable situations. But insurance has way more benefits than just this. Not only does it make your business look reliable and trustworthy to clients and customers, but insurance coverage also helps you look good to people looking for jobs.
When you look at jobs, salary is generally the first factor. However, the top second thing most people look for is the unique benefits that your organisation can give them. Sure, a coffee station or weekly group yoga is a plus.
But disability, health, and life insurance are perks of growing importance today. Coverage relevant to the risks of the specific job is especially attractive. Offer these benefits, or lose excellent employees to your competitors!
11. Protects against incomplete services claims
To cover everything, you need to look at liability insurance. Also sometimes called an errors and omissions policy, professional liability protects your business if a client claims you provided incomplete services, a failed service, or were negligent. Errors and omissions policies are an essential protection for many companies, especially smaller businesses.
Whether you printed 10,000 copies of a book with a typo or a repair you made to a toilet fails and floods an entire floor, an error and omission policy will cover you against it. Liability insurance protects you against all claims of errors or omissions and negligent acts resulting in financial loss from a client or customer.
12. Shields you from online threats
Nowadays, there are more cyber threats than ever before. It’s not just the odd phishing email laden with spelling mistakes and a gibberish email address.
Online threats come from left, right and centre. If you process payments online or even have an online store, you’ll have data that would entice any hacker.
Cyber insurance protects your company from data loss, cyber-attacks, and malware. If your business so much as uses email, consider the benefits of cyber insurance.
The best cyber insurance policies are the ones that cover financial data on top of everything else. So, to avoid legal consequences, protect yourself with cyber insurance.
13. Aids employees during unemployment
Do you have unemployment insurance as part of your package? Unemployment insurance helps you stand out in a tight, crowded jobs market if you want to guarantee you can look after your employees.
If a job searcher can see you offer supplemental unemployment coverage, they’ll jump right on your job.
Also called unemployment protection insurance, unemployment insurance offers your employees a temporary income if they should have to lose their job for any reason.
This coverage can overlap with benefits your government may offer, but you should still consider offering this type of insurance if you want to appear attractive to prospective employees.
14. Helps business directors and officers
Did you know there is a special insurance policy for business managers? Mainly designed for people who want to gain and keep senior leadership with a non-profit status, director and officer-specific insurance suits a business with a board of directors or other board members.
This policy is essential in specific scenarios. For example, director and officer insurance covers the personal assets of corporate directors and officers, as well as their spouses, in case of being personally sued by customers, competitors, investors, employees, vendors, or any other parties. In addition, director and officer insurance protects against accusations of wrongful acts when you manage a company.
15. Keeps employees healthy
Health insurance is one of the biggest things people look for when applying for jobs. This type of insurance does nothing to protect your business but makes your company seem attractive to anyone looking to apply for a role there.
Health insurance pays for the cost of various private medical treatments and care of an employee. It can cover not only physical health conditions and physical care but also many mental health conditions and treatments.
Sometimes people apply to a specific company over another simply because that business offers health insurance for a particular condition.
For example, if an employee gets diagnosed with a health condition while working for a company, they may start to pay only a small excess while the insurer pays for the treatment.
Considering the health risks involved in any sector, offering health insurance to your workers is only fitting.
16. Protects company cars
If your business has vehicles for employees, you must insure them. Commercial auto insurance keeps your employees and vehicles safe on the road and provides peace of mind for you and your workers.
In addition, if any mishaps arise while your employees are out on the road, your commercial auto insurance will handle them.
Commercial auto insurance is brilliant for rideshare drivers, building contractors, real estate professionals and delivery drivers, and anyone who uses a business vehicle for any purpose.
17. Covers your legal costs
Do you have general liability insurance? This form of insurance can cover the legal fees and medical expenses from bodily injuries and any other problems your business could be legally responsible for. Sometimes general liability can even cover property damage with a personal injury clause.
General liability can even protect you from defamation and slander. Finding a way to cover legal costs is a big part of keeping afloat for any business, so it’s worth considering investing in liability insurance. Take a liability policy out, and you’ll take the considerable weight off your shoulders.
18. Compensates your workers for accidents
If there’s one thing you can count on in the workplace, it’s that accidents will happen. You can bet on it. So, how will you support your workers if they have downtime and medical expenses resulting from accidents?
Well, worker’s compensation is an excellent way to do this. Worker’s compensation can even protect your business from lawsuits. It’s imperative in industries like construction.
19. Insures your business property
Think how many items there are to look after in your business. From the stapler to the office fixtures and furniture, everything has a vital role to play.
So if you take out commercial property insurance, look for a policy that covers everything from your computers and tills to the signs outside your building.
20. It covers everything
If your standard coverage doesn’t cover everything, look at umbrella insurance. This form of insurance covers medical bills, legal fees, and anything else that may not be covered under the standard policies.
