New Business Basics

Insurance Best Practices for a New Business

Congratulations on starting your new business! Certainly, there are several things on your “to do” list, so let’s start with insurance. There can be a lot to understand here but it’s vital to the success of your operations that you do!

Let’s breakdown some coverages you may need and discuss why they’re important.

General Liability

First, you will need to purchase some General Liability. This can protect you against medical expenses, attorney fees, and property damages for which you are legally responsible. A General Liability policy with adequate coverage limits enables you to continue normal operations while dealing with real or fraudulent claims of negligence by providing coverage for the cost of defending and settling claims.

Property Coverage

Do you have property, tools, or equipment? Can you afford to lose them? Typically, property holdings are a new business owner’s largest asset. For the long-term security of your business, it is important to evaluate potential threats to your property and develop a plan to manage those threats. By taking a complete inventory of all your assets, you can determine how a loss might affect your business and how much coverage you need.

Property coverage can come in many forms to suit your specific needs, but a typical policy will provide the replacement cost value for your building, business personal property, tools, and equipment.

Workers’ Compensation

Are you going to hire any employees? If so, it is required by law to purchase Workers’ Compensation that will indemnify your employees who are injured or become ill during the course of their employment.

Many businesses do not realize the full effect workplace accidents have on their organization. Other than initial treatment costs and lost production time, on-the-job injuries have an impact on premiums, which can increase your costs for the following years. By managing exposures and promoting safety, it is possible to control your expenses. Having the proper accident procedures in place can drastically reduce the severity of a claim while implementing a comprehensive prevention safety program can reduce the frequency rate. Together, these two steps can produce huge long-term savings.

For All the Rest

There are many other aspects to consider when building the right insurance program: commercial auto insurance, professional liability, employment practices, etc.

You have a lot weighing on your budget already, but don’t make the mistake of planning for the best-case scenario if you cannot afford to retain the potential losses. It is important to review these items and come up with some realistic solutions.