Many business owners wonder if they need commercial insurance (the answer is yes BTW) but aren’t sure what it is or where they should start looking. Before you start the search for a policy, it is a good idea to have some general knowledge about commercial insurance.
What is Commercial Insurance?
Commercial insurance is a type of insurance policy that will protect you, your employees, your equipment (if you have it) and if you own your building, it will protect it as well. Even if you do not own your building, let’s say you have a retail store and customize the leased space for your shop. There is a commercial insurance coverage that would provide protection for that. Unfortunately, lots of people do not think they are responsible for those types of things and overlook the part of their lease where it says that they are responsible for additions and only find out at claim time that they have no coverage.
Business Insurance Coverages
General Liability- If someone is injured at your place of business, think slip and fall coverage.
Property Coverage- This is for all the items that make up your business, inventory, equipment, computers, etc. If you renovate your leased space, this will cover the improvements, or if you own the building, it will cover the structure.
Business Income Coverage- If a covered loss such as fire forces your business to suspend operations while repairs are made, business income can help you recoup some of those losses during your downtime. Understand, though that this does not cover "being slow."
When you start the application process for commercial insurance, be sure to tell your agent all aspects of your operations. Commercial policies can have exclusions for specific activities; you do not want to find out at claim time that you are not appropriately covered.
You can find insurance companies that write commercial insurance policies for just about every type of (legal) business. If you are looking for commercial insurance in the Sandpoint, ID, contact The Insurance Shop USA today!
