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The Basic of Business Owners Insurance Coverage
Author David Schneider | Aug 29,2007
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Business owners insurance is your professional protective net. It is designed to protect your assets and to keep your business running normally after a damaging incident occurs, like a fire or a theft. It is also designed to help you protect your employees and your customers in the event that they are injured because of something that happened on your business's property, because of a product malfunction, because of a food product contamination or mislabeling incident or because of a professional mistake.
Property Insurance
The first type of business owners insurance that you will want to look at is property insurance. Property insurance can be bought for business real estate, business automobiles, business equipment, office furniture and even for your business computers. If you rent your business space, then you may want to take out a tenant's insurance policy, a business version of renter's insurance. Some commercial property management companies require their clients to take this insurance policy out before they can rent an office or building.
Liability Insurance
Liability insurance is a must have commercial insurance product. Liability insurance, in some states, is a legal requirement. You can take out several different types of liability insurance. There is liability insurance for products, professional negligence and for employment practices. The type or types of liability insurance that your business will need will depend on what type of business you operate, if you have employees and what profession you are in for your business. For example, a doctor who has his own clinic will need malpractice insurance and workers compensation insurance.
Employment Insurance
When you have employees, your list of expenses expands dramatically. Your business owners insurance list alone will need to expand to include at least workers compensation and unemployment insurance. However, you may also want to add a group health insurance policy, a life insurance policy and a disability insurance policy to your employees' compensation packages. The investment in these insurance policies can help you to attract the best job candidates and it can also help you to improve your turn over rate.
Special Insurance Considerations
All of the above insurance types are intended to cover you for things that normally go wrong for businesses. While theft, fire and employee injuries may not be every day occurrences for your business, they all have a statistical significance that makes carrying insurance for these events practical. However, there are events that occur infrequently that can also put your business at risk. These hazards can be natural like floods, or they can be manmade like chemical spills. If your business has the potential of being exposed or damaged by either a natural hazard or a manmade hazard, then you need to take out an insurance policy designed to cover damage caused by that hazard. For example, if you have a business that is located in Louisiana, then you may want to take out flood insurance and disaster insurance. |
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