Don’t Wait until You ‘Make’ It to Buy Business Insurance

People who go into business for themselves often don't expect to turn a profit or even be able to take an income for the first couple of years their business is in operation. Entrepreneurs also understand that they may not be able to immediately realize their ultimate dream for the business but must start small and build up their clientele and income before they can afford to expand and realize their many business goals.

But for all of the corners that the new business owner must cut and all the sacrifices he must make to his ultimate dream, there are certain things that a business owner should never skimp on. In fact, some of them are the very services that will protect his business and allow him to accumulate the assets and earnings he needs in order to realize his dreams. One such product is Columbus business insurance.

Business Insurance: With You from the Start

In those first, very delicate years of a business’s existence, commercial insurance that protects a business’s assets and ability to continue on after a disaster may seem hard to afford but without investing in the appropriate insurance policies, a business owner could see her tenuous grip on future success completely forsaken.

Consider a small retail establishment that's just getting started. An individual operates the business out of her home and sells products on websites such as eBay and Etsy. Because she has a very low profit margin and volume of sales, she's barely scraping by but her sales trends over the past six months show growth. She ships a product to a buyer and the product is faulty, resulting in an injury to the buyer who then sues the business owner. The business owner is found responsible for damages and not only does she lose all of her business assets as a result but she also loses some of her personal assets. Had she had liability insurance, specifically product liability, she could have not only protected her personal assets but her business assets and continued building the company that she worked so hard to start. Instead, she saved a few dollars on monthly premiums and lost everything.

Prioritizing Your Insurance Purchases

It’s possible that your new business may not be able to afford all the types of insurance you might ultimately want. For example, you may be able to afford a basic liability insurance policy, some commercial property insurance and disability coverage but you may need to skip business continuation and key-person life insurance this year. The point is not to look at insurance as an all-or-nothing purchase but to see the value in buying those policies that you absolutely must have, such as commercial auto insurance, liability and property insurance, and keeping an eye on your business budget for the time when you can add additional protection.
When considering the type of insurance you must have for your business, don't discount policies that offer personal protection to you. For example, if you work exclusively for yourself and your business pays your income, an injury that results in a disability could impact your business’s ability to continue paying your paycheck. That means that disability insurance is a vital policy for business owners to secure.

Businesses don't operate in a vacuum. No matter how much effort and care you put into your business, you are still exposed to insurable losses that are completely out of your control such as flood, fire and theft. Without protection from the financial damages that these incidents can cause, your business has little chance to succeed over the long term. That's why it's so important to protect your small business well before it becomes profitable – because without that protection it doesn't have a chance.

There are countless types of commercial insurance policies that your business could benefit from. There are some which are broad in range to cover many different types of businesses in several industries and there are others that are more specific to the individual risks faced by entrepreneurs operating a certain type of company. We can help you go through all of the options for business insurance coverage that are suitable to your business and industry and help you prioritize the design of your policies and your insurance portfolio, ensuring that you find the perfect way to balance security and affordability. Give us a call today at 614-221-1500 to get started.