Do you run a business, or are you planning to start one? If so, you probably already know that commercial insurance is in your future – after all, it’s not just good practice, it’s typically a requirement! But getting the best insurance for your business may not be easy without the right information. Read on to learn four of the top small business insurance tips to help protect your business.
Know the Risks Involved with Your Business
The first step to getting the right insurance is to think about the liabilities and risks your business entails. While every business will have some of the same risks, such as theft or natural disasters, certain facilities introduce new risks or significantly increase the threat of damage from sources like fire or electrical failure.
The most common threats to businesses tend to be:
- Water or freezing damage
- Theft
- Wind damage
- Fire
- Customer or employee injury
- Commercial auto accidents
- Product liability
Whether you run a restaurant, a small office, or a large manufacturing facility, you should sit down with an insurance professional who’s well-versed in your industry. They’ve likely seen (or heard) the stories and know both the common threats and the things you may want to consider as optional endorsements to round out your coverage.
Even if you know your business in-and-out, you aren’t likely to appreciate the scope of risks until you work with someone who’s seen the potential costs of ignoring certain coverages. Just like people come to your business for your expertise, trust insurance planning to the professionals!
Plan for Change
Businesses are all about growth. That means new employees, new products, new ventures and new risks. Whether it’s an increasing value of your property and everything inside or a new liability due to additions to your services, insurance needs to grow with you.
When working with an insurance provider, it’s important to find one that can work with you to offer some flexibility to your plan. Updating your insurance isn’t just smart, it’s often a necessary task to prevent being underinsured when time comes to make a claim.
Make a review of your liabilities part of your growth evaluation throughout the year. This will help reduce surprises and avoid paying out of pocket for costs that your insurance would have covered if you just remembered to make adjustments to your coverage!
Over Insured Beats Underinsured – Every Time
Running a business is expensive, there’s no way around that. Minimizing expenses is what every savvy business owner does to fight against creeping costs of overhead. But when it comes to business insurance tips we can’t stress enough how important it is to be insured properly. It’s best to lean into the possibility of paying a bit higher on your premiums than it is to risk being underinsured when time comes to make a claim.
You may dislike seeing the expense of your insurance on your financial records when you haven’t had to make a claim, but the inevitable day when a disaster strikes, you’ll be glad you had it. The difference between being over insured and underinsured is sometimes the difference between bouncing back to business as usual or shutting the doors because you couldn’t cover the costs to recover your operations.
Ask About a BOP – Business Owner’s Policy
Keep it simple – a business motto to live by. When you have a million things to keep track of, finding ways to simplify your life can be a huge benefit to running your business. That’s where a BOP, or business owner’s policy can come in hand.
BOPs combine business property and business liability insurance into a single policy. It’s like ordering a baseline coverage for all the things you need coverage for at once! Better yet, BOPs can be customized to your needs. This means you get the benefits of merging all your major policies into a single, manageable one, while still getting the protection and liability coverage you need to keep your peace of mind.
Iott Insurance Can Build a Policy for Your Commercial Endeavors
Iott Insurance has been providing business insurance tips and excellent policies to Michigan business owners for decades. We can help you with your commercial policies for all types of businesses, including:
- Contractors
- Manufacturing
- Trucking
- Commercial Habitation
- Restaurants
- Executive Risk
- Professional Liability
- And more!
Contact Iott Insurance for a Quote Today
Iott Insurance has been a part of southeast Michigan for over 50 years. We can help you plan your insurance needs and find you the right policies or plans to protect you.
Or you can visit one of our three offices in southeast Michigan:
Blissfield, MI – (517) 628-4574
Lambertville, MI – (734) 807-3825
Petersburg, MI – (734) 215-9884
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