Business Insurance
Businesses are different, so when looking for insurance make sure you share your specific insurance requirements. These requirements come from many different areas of your business structure:
✔ Lease Requirements
- Landlord
- Equipment rental – phone systems, copy machine, postage machine, etc.
- Trade show booth
✔ Vendor Requirements
- Snack machines – employee break room
- Supplier of products to your clients
✔ Event Requirements
- Company parties
- Networking events held on or off premises
These requirements are not just liability. You could be asked to cover the cost of property if it is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Knowing the correct coverage can be confusing, alarming, even overwhelming at times for the business owner—which stands to reason: the business owner knows about his business, not insurance. That is why it is important to have an insurance professional that knows insurance coverage as they apply to different industries.
If you have a restaurant, your coverage requirements would be different with and without a bar. Or if you’re a manufacturing company or distributor of office supplies, your requirements would be different than a manufacturing company or distributor of beer & wine products.
Coverage types are very different for different types of businesses, so it is important to know what your requirements are.
✔ Common Coverage Types
- Business Owner Package (BOP) – small to medium-size business
- Commercial Package – medium to large-size business
- Commercial Property
- Commercial Liability
- Commercial Auto
- Hired & Non-owned
- General Liability
- Premises
- Products & completed operations
- Excess Liability
- Business Income
- Liquor Liability
- Host
- Event
- Restaurant, Bar & Tavern
- EPLI – Employee Practices Liability Insurance
- Workers Comp
- Garage & Dealer
- Contractor Coverage
- Crime
- Boiler & Machinery
- Inland Marine
And the list goes on and on…
So be sure your agent understands your business, your needs, and your requirements when purchasing coverage. This is your financial future. Nothing could be worse than losing everything you have built because your coverage was too little, for the wrong business type, or just the cheapest coverage available.