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4 Steps To Get Liability Insurance for a Small Business
Are you wondering how to get liability insurance for a small business or what type of liability insurance you may need? If so, we’re here to help. We make it easy to get the right type of small business insurance to help protect you and your company.
How Do You Get Small Business Insurance?
Getting liability insurance for a small business is easy. Just follow these four steps:
- Assess your business to determine the risks your company faces. This can include potential customer injuries or property damage to another person’s belongings.
- Get a quote to find out the cost of coverage for your business.
- Contact us so our specialists can work with you to make sure you get the coverage you need.
- Review your existing policy each year, because a lot can change with your business in that time. For example, if you expanded, you may need to increase your coverage.
You can buy small business liability insurance as separate policies or you may be able to bundle different types of coverage together. For example, our Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) includes three coverages to help protect your company:
- General liability insurance
- Commercial property insurance
- Business income insurance
Get a liability insurance quote today and learn more about our BOP or the liability insurance for small business coverage we offer.
Do I Need Liability Insurance for My Small Business?
Liability insurance is an important coverage for your business to help protect it from financial losses. Some states may require certain liability coverages depending on the kind of business you operate. Even if your business isn’t required to carry coverage, it’s still a good idea to have.
Liability insurance helps cover claims that your business or products caused bodily injury or damaged someone else’s property. It can help if:
- A customer slips in your store and gets hurt
- An employee drops a customer’s phone and damages it, and your business is vicariously liable.
- You harm your competitor’s reputation through tortfeasor in an interview and they sue you for slander.
- You suffer a data breach and your business loses personally identifiable information
- Software your business created crashes a customer’s computer, causing them to lose important files
- The manager of your store gets into an accident while driving a company-owned car to deliver packages
Protecting yourself from scenarios like these require different types of liability insurance. That’s because each policy covers specific kinds of liability claims. For example, general liability coverage won’t help with:
- Employee injuries. You’ll need workers’ compensation insurance to help employees with a work-related injury or illness.
- Errors in the professional services you offer. Instead, you’ll have to carry professional liability insurance to help cover this type of claim.
- Damages and bodily injuries from car accidents. A commercial auto insurance policy can help cover these costs.
Because your small business faces different risks, it’s important to make sure you get the right types of liability coverage.
What Is the Best Liability Insurance for a Small Business?
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to liability insurance. But many small businesses can benefit from the following types of liability coverage.
Commercial property insurance, or business property insurance, helps protect the owned or rented building and equipment you use to operate. This can include:
- Tools
- Equipment
- Furniture
- Inventory
General liability insurance to help cover claims that your business caused bodily injury or property damage to someone else. This coverage is also known as commercial general liability insurance.
Commercial auto insurance helps protect you and your employees on the road while driving a business-owned vehicle for work.
Workers’ compensation insurance gives your employees benefits to help them recover from a work-related injury or illness. This coverage can help:
- Pay their medical bills
- Replace some of their lost income if they miss work to recover
- Cover their ongoing care costs
Be aware that most states require employers to carry this coverage.
Professional liability insurance to help protect your business if someone sues you for making a mistake in the professional services given. This coverage is also known as errors and omissions insurance or E&O insurance.
Many small businesses who want extra protection also choose to get these types of coverage for their insurance plan:
Commercial umbrella insurance, which extends the limits of some of your liability policies to help cover expensive claims. For example, if a customer slips and falls in your business and they sue you for more than your current general liability limits, this coverage can help pay the difference.
Employment practices liability (EPL) insurance to help cover job-related claims, like:
- Harassment
- Wrongful termination
- Discrimination
Do Small Businesses Need General Liability Insurance?
General liability insurance coverage is essential for many small business owners. It can help protect you and your business from claims that can come up during normal operations. These claims occur more often than you may think and having the small business insurance coverage to help cover them is important.
Why Get Small Business Liability Insurance From The Hartford?
State business insurance requirements vary. That’s why it’s important for small business owners to work with licensed insurance carriers. But not all insurance companies are the same.
We’re backed by more than 200 years of experience and work hard to know the needs of our small business clients. If you’re wondering, “How do I get liability insurance for my small business?” we can help. We can work with you to get the right liability coverages at the right price for your business. And if you need additional insurance, our specialists are here for you.
Get a liability insurance quote today and learn more about how we’ve got your back.