Business owner’s insurance policies protect businesses against unanticipated losses such as theft and equipment damage etc and are an inevitable cost of operating a business.

Business owner’s insurance policies are an ideal product for protecting your business from bankruptcy and/or insolvency in case of difficult financial situations. Besides covering conventional losses such as theft and equipment damage etc. most business owner’s insurance policies also provide protection against liability claims from clients and employees in case of injury in your premises (for clients) or at work (for employees). This is, however, not an inherent feature of all business insurance policies and will vary from company to company. In case of business insurance for a home business first damage covered is that to business equipment including laptops, PDAs, desktops, printers, photocopiers, fax machines, cell phones and answering machines etc.

Liability Protection for Home Business Owners

If your business requires liability protection as part of your business owner’s insurance policy it may not be a wise decision to amend your homeowner’s insurance policy. Most companies providing homeowner’s insurance with (partial) protection for your business would not be willing to provide liability insurance. Liability protection is vital for most service providers because they have higher probability of being sued. This is because it is not as easy to determine exact specifications of a service/project as it is for a product. Thus your end product may not be in line with customer needs raising a dispute. Most business insurance companies offer protection for damage to key property along with liability protection in one policy. However, they can also be separated as per your needs. This is because of the varying needs of small, medium and large businesses operating in different markets. Small and medium sized businesses usually prefer business owner’s policy. Businesses facing similar type of risks can also be offered package policies. (more…)

If part of your business operations includes driving vehicles, you might have wondered about commercial auto insurance. If you haven’t already thought about it, well, you should now. Sure, you have personal auto insurance, but will that policy cover a business-related liability? More often that not, it won’t.

It doesn’t matter what type of business you have – sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation – if you use a vehicle as part of your operations, you should at least explore the possibility of insuring your business vehicle.

Decisions to Make

Before you start calling insurance carriers, you should first make some decisions about how your business vehicles are going to be used.

The primary questions you’ll be asked by insurance carriers are:

• How many vehicles do you have in your fleet?
• What will the vehicles be used for?
• How many drivers will you have and who are they?

Answering these questions will help you and potential carriers determine if you truly need commercial auto insurance. If you already have auto insurance on your personal vehicles, you might ask your carrier if this policy will suffice. (more…)