Liability Insurance for Your Small Business

A Insurance Article Contributed by M Mense

Your Business's Liability Insurance Needs

Owning a small business is a complex undertaking fraught with uncertainty. One of these uncertainties is liability insurance, which should be activated before you even hang a shingle over the door. Before meeting with an insurance agent, find out what types of coverage your competitors have to give you an idea of what sort of liability insurance you need.

General Liability Insurance for Your Business

The most basic coverage that you will need is General Liability Insurance, no matter what industry you're in. Liability insurance protects your small business from from being sued if someone is hurt or property is damaged in an incident in which your company is even nominally involved.

In addition to this, most General Liability Insurance policies are packaged with other protections your business may need, including Products/Completed Operations, (which protects your small business from claims of bodily injury directly caused by your company's products or services.) and fire/lightening/explosion damage coverage, legal defense costs, medical payments and water damage liability protection.

General Liability Insurance starts as low as a few hundred dollars per year, depending on your operations.

Professional Liability Insurance for Your Business

This type of insurance is also known as Errors and Omissions Insurance (E&O. This type of insurance protects your small business from litigation if your company fails to provide important details or provides erroneous information. For example, a home inspector would need Errors and Omissions Insurance to protect his business if he were to be sued after a home he had inspected caught fire, or if he failed to identified dry-rot.

This type of Liability Insurance is generally used by small businesses in the service industry, and can easily cost over a thousand dollars per year, depending on the industry of your company.

Business Automobile Insurance

Business Auto Insurance coverage protects your small business in case of an accident. Injuries to your company's automobiles and vehicles belonging to others are covered. This insurance typically includes Collision and Comprehensive coverage, which may even cover the costs associated with repairing damage to your own vehicles after an accident.

Any small business benefits most when they purchase this kind of policy bundled together with a few other extras, which hopefully includes uninsured or underinsured motorist, which will protect your company from liability in case of a hit-and-run, an accident with a less-insured driver or even one without any insurance.

On top of this, a Business Auto insurance policy should also cover windshield and other glass repair as well as costs associated with replacing stolen radios or speakers in case of a smash-and-grab. The cost of this extra will vary, depending on the number of vehicles covered by your policy.

How Do You Find the Liability Insurance That's Right for Your Business?

This all boils down to what sort of operation you're running. You may need a few additional types of insurance. In this arcticle we have addressed three of the most common types of insurance utilized by small business across tha nation. Knowing a little bit about each of these will help you and an agent decide what the best coverage for your company will be.