Business insurance

A tailored business insurance policy will help you safeguard your financial future.Running a small business involves a significant investment. Business insurance protects your investment by minimizing financial risks associated with unexpected events such as a death of a partner, an injured employee, a lawsuit, or a natural disaster. Unless you are an employer, business insurance is generally not required by law, however, it is common practice to purchase enough insurance to cover your assets. If your business is an LLC or a corporation, your personal assets are protected from business liabilities; however, neither business structure is a substitute for liability insurance, which covers your business from losses.Insurance coverage is available for every conceivable risk your business might face. Cost and amount of coverage of policies vary among insurers. You should discuss your specific business risks and the types of insurance available with your insurance agent or broker. Your agency can advise you on the exact types of insurance you should consider purchasing.

Home-Based Business Insurance

Contrary to popular belief, homeowners' insurance policies do not generally cover home-based business losses. Depending on risks to your business, you may add riders to your homeowners' policy to cover normal business risks such as property damage. However, homeowners policies only go so far in covering home-based businesses and you may need to purchase additional policies to cover other risks, such as general and professional liability.

Commercial Property Insurance

Property insurance covers everything related to the loss and damage of company property due to a wide-variety of events such as fire, smoke, wind and hail storms, civil disobedience, and vandalism. The definition of "property" is broad, and includes lost income, business interruption, buildings, computers, company papers and money.

Property insurance policies come in two basic forms: 1. all-risk policies covering a wide-range of incidents and perils except those noted in the policy; 2. peril-specific policies that cover losses from only those perils listed in the policy. Examples of peril-specific policies include fire, flood, crime, and business interruption insurance. All-risk policies generally covers risk faced by the average small business, while peril-specific policies are usually purchased when there is high risk of peril in a certain area. Consult your insurance agent or broker about the type of business property insurance best suited for your small business.

General Liability Insurance

Business owners purchase general liability insurance to cover legal hassles due to accident, injuries and claims of negligence. These policies protect against payments as the result of bodily injury, property damage, medical expenses, libel, slander the cost of defending lawsuits, and settlement bonds or judgments required during an appeal procedure.

Professional Liability Insurance

Business owners providing services should consider having professional liability insurance (also known as errors and omissions insurance). This type of liability coverage protects your business against malpractice, errors, negligence in provision of services to your customers. Depending on your profession, you may be required by your state government to carry such a policy. For example, physicians are required to purchase malpractice insurance as condition of practicing in certain states.

Product Liability Insurance

Companies that manufacture, wholesale, distribute, and retail a product may be liable for its safety. Product liability insurance protects against financial loss as result of a defect product that cause injury or bodily harm. The amount of insurance you should purchase depends on the products you sell or manufacture. A clothing store would have far less risk than a small appliance store, for example.

Building your business cover

Public liability insurance is a key cover for many businesses, as it can protect you if someone is injured or their property is damaged because of your business. Simply Business offers between £1 million and £5 million in cover, to protect you against this cost.

If you have employees, contractors, casual workers or temporary staff, you’re required by law to take out employers’ liability insurance. It’ll cover claims from employees who’ve been injured or become seriously ill as a result of working for you.

Professional indemnity insurance is a vital consideration for all businesses that give advice or offer professional services to other businesses. It covers you in the event that you give faulty advice that causes financial loss to a client.

Sorting your finances

We lead in small business insurance, and our partners over at Aldermore Bank are the experts in business financing. Together, we’re able to offer clever solutions for factoring, invoice discounting and other boosts to your business development. Take a look at our finance section for all things cashflow.   

Why get business cover?

If you employ people, you’re legally obliged to take out employers’ liability insurance. Most businesses aren’t required to take out any other cover, meaning it’s up to you to decide what’s sensible for your line of work. However, business insurance is one of the most effective ways to maintain a stable, safe workplace and income stream. Here are a few reasons why:

• Cover like public liability is used and relied on by thousands of businesses in the UK. It’ll protect you from expensive claims for the smallest slip-ups
• Business insurance can be essential for securing contracts with clients – so check what’s needed and we’ll help you arrange cover
• Lots of trade bodies will demand that their members are insured for certain things, such as professional indemnity. Whatever they require, we’ll help you get started
• Additional covers like protection for stock, business interruption,equipment, contents and buildings can also be essential, should you hit a crisis that threatens your trade. So try and weigh up the potential risks, and decide what’s important to your business