Starting A New Business? Here's how to get insurance

You left your job and have decided to start your own business.

Exciting times, right? Yes, maybe when you are thinking about the future and how successful you’ll be when the ball is finally rolling.

We understand that this can be stressful for you as you are taking a huge risk by going out on your own. Don’t let insurance be another factor in your stress level.

There are a few things to consider when you are looking for insurance quotes as a new business owner. Let’s go over them:

Experience

Do you have experience in this industry? For example, you used to work for a clothing retail shop. You are opening your own shop downtown. You have eight years of experience working for a clothing retailer and in the last two years of this work, you were a manager. Because of this, you have a great understanding of the financial side of the business. As a new business owner, the insurance company is going to want to know that you have experience in this field. 

Employees

Have you considered hiring employees? Even if you haven’t, have you considered what you will do if you get injured while working? If you’re married and have insurance through your spouse, you may not even consider this. However, if do not have insurance through your spouse this is something you may want to think about. Worker’s Compensation! Worker’s Compensation will protect you as the employer from having to pay out of pocket for medical expenses and lost wages should your employee be injured while at work. WC also will protect you if you as the business owner are included in your WC policy. 

Inventory and Property

Inventory may not be what you think it is, or maybe it is. If you’re the clothing retail shop owner, then you have A LOT of inventory. You also have a lot of business personal property, like the racks that all the clothing is on or maybe the shelving units that the accessories are sitting on. If you are a contractor your inventory may be all the parts and materials, you have purchased for a project you are working on. Your business personal property would be all the tools you have that allow you to do your job properly. You’ll want to make sure that you have enough coverage and that certain items are properly insured if something was to happen such as your tools were to be stolen.

While these are the three big-ticket items, we don't want to forget the importance of having liability insurance, which provides you protection for many things. If a customer slips and falls while browsing around your store, your liability insurance will help cover the medical expenses. Let's say you're a contractor and you caused physical damage to the property you are working on, your liability policy would pick this up! 

If you are thinking about starting your own business, it wouldn’t hurt to give your insurance company a call to see what items an insurance company considers when insuring a new business owner. Being prepared will remove a significant amount of stress from this new adventure you are about to embark on.

We will help make this as easy and simple as possible. If you have questions about starting a new business, reach out to us!