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Archive for the ‘Business Insurance’ Category

If you have built a business with years of painstaking hard work, you will have an instinctive desire to protect your organic food store when times get tough. Here are just some of the ways that insurance can protect your company, minimizing the inconvenience that unexpected circumstances can bring.

. General liability insurance

Today’s ‘where there’s a blame, there’s a claim’ culture encourages citizens to pursue legal action if they are injured in public places accidentally. General liability insurance protects you and your profits from the expenses associated with going to court should an incident occur in your organic food store.

This form of cover preserves more than your earnings, but also your reputation and your ability to continue trading.

. Business owner’s policy (regularly abbreviated to BOP)

The dilemma of under-insurance and over-insurance can be solved easily through a business owner’s policy. This is where your organic food store would be given one premium that provides several forms of cover simultaneously. If your store should be burgled, or trade should be interrupted because of a family emergency or illness, a BOP would provide both crime insurance and business interruption coverage, guaranteeing protection across a wide spectrum of possibilities.

Before signing the dotted line on a business owner’s policy, it’s essential to do your homework and receive advice on the highest risks your company faces. For example, if you live in a state that is prone to earthquakes, you may need to enlist an additional policy that will guarantee insurance payments if your business properties are damaged in a natural disaster. Not all insurers will automatically cover you in these circumstances, so it is better to be safe than sorry.

. Commercial auto coverage

Do you have a fleet of vans or trucks used to deliver organic produce in between stores or to the doors of your customers? If so, commercial auto coverage is a necessity, just like insuring a car you own for personal use. Remember: it doesn’t matter if you are a sole trader with vehicles in your name – an insurer can refuse to make a pay out if it’s apparent that you were using your vehicle for business reasons. This policy should also insure any staff on your pay roll that uses the autos in your company. Not being thorough with your research could be an expensive mistake.

Important Texas Business Insurance Questions You Should Understand

1. Is your equipment or merchandise insured while in transit, at a trade show, and anywhere else other than your regular business address?
2. The police call you at 2 in the morning. Your windows are broken and Noah and the animals are just boarding the Ark. Will your Texas business insurance pay for the horrendous water damage and your lost income since it will be easily 4 months before you’re open for business again?
3. When you buy new equipment, a building, or just remodel, do you automatically have coverage before you must report the additions to your company?
4. Does your policy guarantee the full replacement cost of your building after you suffer an insured loss? What if you want to rebuild on another site that would be better for your business?
5. Your business is completely shut down by fire. Does your policy continue to pay your business expenses and the profits you’ll lose? How about if you don’t suffer a complete shutdown, but a 60% loss of business? What about if you can’t get approval from the city to even start to rebuild for 8 months? Suppose there has been a building code change?
6. You borrow a friend’s truck to visit a client. You slam into a bus stop and injure 4 people. You’re sued for a total of $2,600,000. Are you insured at all because it was a borrowed truck? Suppose the court awards a $2.6M judgment?
7. Do you have full coverage for the costs to recreate your destroyed valuable papers and electronic records? Do you keep duplicate records elsewhere?
8. You sell a product over the Internet to a firm in England. Six months later, you receive a summons of a lawsuit filed in England for damage your product did. Does your insurance cover you for lawsuits filed outside the US?
9. An employee drives her own car to run to the store to pick up some office supplies. She loses control and rams into the corner department store causing $13,000 damage. Does your insurance policy pay the damages? Your employee is injured to the tune of $6,000 medical bills and 6 weeks off work. Who pays those bills and her lost salary?
10. On a pleasure trip you rent a car with your business company credit card. One hour later, you lose control injuring 4 people. Do you have protection for at least $2,000,000 to pay for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering of those injured? Remember that it was a rental car rented on pleasure using your business credit card. Suppose you were not in the US?

All businesses need added protection. If you are a business owner that hasn’t obtained an insurance policy to cover your business, products, customers, and employees, you should consider calling a few business insurance companies to get quotes.

Most states have regulations that require businesses to have liability coverage and workers compensation coverage. This will cover accidents that are out of your control normally and will protect you from being at risk of losing your business.

Don’t rely on the fact that nothing has happened before. Don’t rely solely on the probability that the extra precautions you are taking will avoid problems and accidents. Even if you think you can’t afford insurance, it is a requirement. Contact a few business insurance companies who can provide solutions.

Business insurance companies are equipped with agents who specialize in preparing a variety of quotes for your business needs and for any situation. An agent has the flexibility to provide many quotes based on the amount of coverage you have, the number of active employees, deductibles, and a host of other factors. Don’t accept just one quote, talk to several company to get information before you make your buying decision. This way you can determine the best plan for you.

The types and the amounts of the coverage you will need depends on the type of business or service you are providing. Coverage amongst certain industry related businesses are primarily the same. For an example if you are an apartment complex owner, you will certainly want criminal insurance, liability insurance, coverage for faulty outdoor security systems, and the like. For natural disasters, or fires, you want your structure and premises to be covered.

You can rely on business insurance companies to customize a package for ample coverage you need. They will work with you to get the premiums and coverage affordable for you so you can have protection.

When you started your business, you probably dreamed of the freedom you would have doing something every day that you love. However, you may find that running a business doing something you love also brought with it other responsibilities, like finding business insurance. When you find the right business insurance for your organization, though, you will see that it brings you more peace of mind than the burden of responsibility.

When it comes to running your business and obtaining business insurance, you have a number of options. Knowing that one type of business insurance does not fit all will enable you to open your mind to finding the right business insurance for your company. Your first step in finding business insurance is to do a quick assessment of your type of business, your financial situation, and the laws in your area. These three things will help you determine what you need your business insurance policy to accomplish.

The first type of business insurance that you may want to consider is business owner coverage. This is an all-encompassing type of business insurance coverage that allows you protection in the case of fire and other accidents. This type of business coverage also offers a minimal amount of liability coverage, too. Also, you have another option in property insurance. This type of business insurance coverage will enhance the property coverage included in your business owner insurance.

An important type of business insurance that you may want to consider is liability insurance. We are in a society where people sue one another on whims, so liability insurance covers any damage to property or injuries to another person for which you may be responsible. Product liability insurance is another type of liability business insurance that protects you if your product causes harm to a person.

If you run a service-based organization, product liability may not be an issue, but errors and liability insurance is an important type of business insurance for your organization. This type of business insurance protects you if you make an error or forget to do something that causes harm to one of your clients. Also, you may want to consider business income insurance, which provides a source of income to you should something happen that causes your business to cease or limit operations. Finally, if any employee operates a vehicle for your business, you will want to purchase business insurance for your automobiles.