As a small business owner there are many things on your mind. The last of which is business insurance. This actually makes sense, business insurance is for that one “Worst day” you tell yourself “Will never happen to my business.” The truth is for most businesses their may never be a “Worst day”.
That doesn’t mean as a small business owner you don’t worry about your “Worst day.” You can take precautions to make sure a “Worst day” doesn’t happen, but nothing is certain. You can create safety regulations, train your employees, put nonslip pads down, add fire extinguishers, hard wire smoke detectors, keep a security guard at the front door, and install security cameras all in an effort to make sure that your business never experiences that “Worst day.”
The stresses of a fire or a lawsuit or employee dishonesty can keep you up at night. The pressure of running a business in a world where bad things happen creates pressure and pressure can lead to bad decisions which in turn can cause you to spend extra money.
Business insurance is a tool to relieve the stress of your worst day scenario.
Business insurance protects against your “Worst day.”
Business Insurance Protects Against Your “Worst Day”
With a properly set up business insurance program you are able to guard against that “Worst day” at least from a financial standpoint. Business insurance provides financial reimbursement in the event that a loss happens.
Things such as a fire, customer tripping and falling, an employee stealing from your business, an employee getting her on the job {Technically this Workers Compensation Insurance but still part of your business insurance program}, a expensive or vital piece of machinery or equipment being stolen from your business, all can be guarded against and reimbursed financially through business insurance.
Many small business owners look at business insurance as an expense. But what business insurance really does is guard against the larger expenses that can happen in the event you do have your “Worst day.”
What I want to encourage you to not rush through your business insurance program. If you work with an independent insurance agent who wants to show you the price of your business insurance program and nothing else then you know that you’re working with someone who doesn’t necessarily care about properly protecting your business.
Take the time to work with an independent insurance agent that will give you the details of your business insurance program. At the Murray group we’ve seen this quite often where business owners almost become frustrated with the fact that we want to dig into their business and find the areas where you have gaps in coverage.
Not because we want to sell them extra insurance policies. Often times there are additional coverages which add little to no extra premium to your policy that simply don’t come on a basic policy unless you ask. Coverage such as hired and non-owned auto insurance. This is a liability coverage to ensure that if an employee is sent out to run an errand during the business day and uses their personal auto. If they get into a car accident you want your business to have protection against a possible lawsuit. This coverage costs next to nothing compared to the overall cost of the business insurance policy.
The agent that sells you hired a non-owned liability insurance is not making any additional commission off of adding that coverage to your policy. What they are doing is ensuring that if something bad happens to an employee in their car while on a business errand your business is properly protected.
Deep Questioning Your Business Insurance
Deep questioning of your business by the Independent insurance agent that you work with is a good thing. It is my advice that you look to work with an independent agent who wants to ask you questions. Your responsibility as a small business owner is to be forthcoming with the activities that run your business. Your insurance agent needs to know what you do want a daily basis.
That includes the activities of all your employees, the products you sell, the geographical regions in which you sell your product, the different vendors you work with, the different types of clients that you work with, the tools that you use to provide your product or service, all of these add up to the exposure that your business has to a loss.
The Insurance Take-Away
When you’re independent insurance agent is fully aware of what your business does, how it does it, the people who help you do it and the people who buy from you than that agent can set up a program that protects your business. It’s always your obligation to purchase the coverage.
From the perspective of a small business owner business insurance makes your life better by removing stress.
If you have a proper business insurance policy in place, when you’re “Worst day” happens you know that your business insurance carrier is going to provide you with the financial reimbursement to get your business back whole up and running again.
If you would like a quote for your business insurance please call us at (518) 456-6688 or you can click here to begin the process by email.
Thank you and Good luck,
Ryan Hanley, CIC
photo credit: Stuck in Customs via photopin cc