Business Insurance: Where To Start?
Monday, November 14, 2011, 2:00 AM | Leave Comment
If you’re looking to start your own business, then business insurance (the most common types being professional indemnity, employers’ liability and public liability insurance) is a paramount priority.
Not only does it ensure the financial stability of your venture, but it also means that you can run your business knowing that there’s a safety net to fall back on, should the worst ever happen.
Image by WELS Net
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Why do I need to get business insurance?
It might be a legal necessity for you to take out business insurance to protect yourself and your customers. If this is the case and you fail to equip yourself and your business with the correct insurance policy, then you could land yourself and your business in big trouble, risking everything you’ve worked so hard to build.
A bespoke business insurance policy will ensure that you and your livelihood is protected against the multitude of risks that you’ll come up against each and every day. And while you might think that you’ve taken every precaution necessary to evade these risks, you just don’t know that’s around the corner.
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Is there a specific type of business insurance that’s right for my business?
Your business could take a financial hit from anywhere. An employee may have a reason to claim against your business due to an injury sustained in the workplace, or a loss that occurs from due to company negligence. And again, no matter how careful you set out to be, the daily grind may see you overlook something small but crucial.
Quite simply though, the nature of the cover that you should obtain will depend entirely on the nature of your business and the kinds of activities that are undertaken on a day-to-day basis.
Each different type of insurance policy has a defined role in a defined business field, thus protecting you and your business against a defined range of risks.
Professional indemnity, for example, will cover a business when its claimed against for financial loss sustained by a client due to incorrect advice or faulty services, whereas employers’ liability protects against claims for injury or illness endured by an employee because of the nature of their work.
Public liability insurance, on the other hand, covers your business in the event of a client or third party claiming for an injury caused to them or damage to their property as a result of your business practice or premises.
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Does the law require me to get public liability insurance?
In short, yes – you’ll generally need to, and you should find out to double check. As an employer, for example, you must take out employers’ liability insurance, and evasion can see you being fined huge amounts for each day you remained uninsured.
And your employees may even sustain injury some years after working for your company, which means that you’ll need to be able to produce proof of insurance since the start of your business at a moment’s notice.
Some professionals, like financial advisers and accountants, for example, are also required to take out professional indemnity insurance in order to practice lawfully.
In a Nutshell
If you need to find out more about public liability insurance, click here.
Throw us a like at Facebook.com/doable.financeThis is a guest post by Emma Barnes, Link Analyst for Moneysupermarket.com.
