According to a recent study, the average small business owner loses about 45 minutes worth of productivity each and every day due to work-related stress. That works out to be more than 190 hours per year—or about 24 full days of work.
Is stress causing you to be a whole lot less productive than you would like to be while trying to run a successful small business? There are things you can do to ease your worries and make at least some of your stress go away. A small business owner needs small business insurance. Having it can help you to lessen your stress. But no single insurance policy covers all risks. Different types of commercial insurance address different issues.
Learning about the different types of business insurance and obtaining as many of them as you can is one way to do it. There are so many types of business insurance policies available to you, and they can stop you from stressing out over every little thing.
Want to find out about the various commercial insurance types?
Check out eight types of business insurance below
1. Property Insurance
It’s good to consider getting each of the different types of business insurance listed here. But if you’re only going to get one of them, property insurance is the one to get.
Property insurance is designed to protect your company’s building as well as everything inside of it. If something like a fire wreaks havoc on your business property and causes you to lose everything, property insurance will protect you.
This is the business insurance policy that you need to have prior to opening up your business. You’re going to be stressed out all the time without it—and for good reason.
2. Liability Insurance
If your company specializes in providing products and/or services to your customers, there is always a chance that one of your customers could file a lawsuit against you. If they’re given a defective product that results in them getting injured or if they’re injured while you’re providing a service for them, you could be on the hook for their medical bills.
Liability insurance will provide you with the protection you need from these kinds of lawsuits. Next to property insurance, a liability business insurance policy is the second most important insurance policy to have.
3. Workers Compensation Insurance
There are some states, like Texas, that don’t require businesses to carry workers compensation insurance. But the vast majority of states do call for business owners to obtain a workers compensation insurance policy as soon as they open up their doors.
Workers comp insurance is put in place to help cover the costs associated with workplace injuries. If one of your employees slips and falls on the job or hurts themselves in some other way, workers comp insurance will ensure that you’re not required to pay their medical bills and lost wages.
Even if you’re not required to have workers comp insurance by law, getting it is usually a great investment to make. This is an aspect of every business insurance that can make a difference in the long run.
4. Commercial Auto Insurance
Does your company provide your employees with cars to drive around in during the day? If so, you’re going to need to sign up for commercial auto insurance policies for each of them.
At the most basic level, commercial auto insurance will help you pay the costs that come along with any injuries or property damage that take place during an accident involving one of your company’s cars. But commercial auto insurance policies can also be customized to help you pay to replace vehicles that are totaled in accidents.
5. Error and Omissions Insurance
Do you run an accounting firm that provides accounting services to people or a design firm that helps companies come up with the best possible designs for their products? The advice that your business gives to others could potentially do them more harm than good.
If this ever happens, your business could get sued and have to pay up for the mistakes that were made. Error and omissions insurance, better known E&O insurance, will protect your business during these types of lawsuits. You won’t have to worry about a momentary lapse in judgment on the part of your company coming back to bite you.
6. Data Breach Insurance
Many companies are responsible for storing their customers’ personal information on their computer servers these days. This information could be compromised if your computer system is ever hacked.
It could leave you with a PR nightmare on your hands since many of your customers will no longer trust you. It could also leave you open to lawsuits in some instances.
Data breach insurance, or cyber liability insurance, can save you if a data breach ever occurs. The cyber liability insurance cost will be well worth it in the end if you ever go through a data breach.
7. Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Certain types of business insurance have been created to provide employers with protection from their own employees. Employment practices liability insurance is one such type of company insurance.
If one of your employees ever claims that you discriminated against them because of their age, gender, race, or disability, this type of business insurance policy is set up to give you all the protection you’ll need. It’ll really come in handy if you ever face a wrongful termination case in court.
8. Excess Casualty Insurance
Earlier, we touched on how important it is for all business owners to get property insurance. It’ll cover your business property in most cases.
But there are some catastrophic events that won’t be covered by a regular property business insurance policy. If, for instance, a hurricane rips apart your business and knocks it to the ground, a normal property insurance policy won’t usually cover it.
Excess casualty insurance goes above and beyond to provide your business with all the coverage it needs during these kinds of events. You’ll sleep better at night knowing you have an excess casualty insurance plan in place.
Invest in These Types of Business Insurance
Depending on what kind of business you run, you might not need to invest in all the different types of business insurance mentioned here. But you should, at the very least, consider how each one could benefit your business. There are also commercial insurance lawyers that are needed for emergency purposes such as employment issues.
Speak with an insurance agent today about these types of business insurance policies to see which one will work best for you. You can eliminate some of your work-related stress by investing in the right business insurance plans.
Read our blog for more informative articles on business insurance.
