The right insurance policy will protect your business if your facility is damaged by weather or fire. You can also protect your professionals with liability coverage. Carefully review your state requirements to stay within the rules and regulations.
Protect Your Employees
Of course, there are insurance policies that you need to carry to protect your employees. You will need to carry workmen’s compensation insurance and you may be required to carry disability insurance depending on your state. The federal government requires that you carry unemployment insurance, though each state collects that data through payroll taxes.
Another way to protect your cash flow and the income of your employees is to carry business interruption insurance. If your region is hit by a destructive weather event and you can’t get power to your facility for a week, your payroll is covered. If your sticks and bricks facility is in crisis, your local employees may also be struggling. Keeping your payroll funded can do a great deal to boost employee loyalty over time.
Protect Your Business
You will need to protect your business by insuring your products. Getting a policy that covers a new product launch or a sudden component failure can give you time to repair the issue and get a new product out. Liability Insurance In Arizona and other states you operate from can also protect you in the event that your business suffers a cyber-attack or other forms of criminal activity against your business.
No matter what your business does, a comprehensive insurance policy that protects you from physical damage and from hackers can keep your business protected while you make the needed repairs, design changes, and website updates to keep working.
Protect Your Facility
Protecting your facility with structural insurance is critical to the safety of your business. Before you purchase a building, do take a hard look at crime rates in the area; there is a chance that your insurance requirements will be more expensive if your facility is in a high crime or economically depressed area. Facility insurance may also need to be customized if you have industry-specific tooling; for example, if your firm produces custom metal parts, you may have a solvent tank or a lift crane. Both of these may require extra insurance.
You can save on facility insurance by upping your security. Features that will reduce invasion can be added and presented to your insurance agent, such as
- fencing & gates
- upgraded lighting, including motion lights
- a security system that directly notifies the authorities
Take a look at your state regulations as well; putting your physical location in a depressed neighborhood may help you qualify for state credits that could easily offset security investments.
Check the State Laws
You must carry workmen’s compensation insurance; offering health insurance may also be required depending on the size of your business. Additionally, some states require that you carry employee disability insurance.
The structure of employee disability insurance matters. Be absolutely certain that your employees sign up for a post-tax insurance withdrawal if you choose to or are required to offer this insurance. Your employees will receive a larger benefit because they will not have to pay tax on this insurance payout.
Review Your Profession
Your industry may require that you carry professional liability insurance. As an employer, it is your job to stay on top of liability insurance for all the professionals working for you. If you hire mostly accountants but have some attorneys working for you, both will need to be protected. Mistakes happen.
Do be sure you also review any required liability insurance for special certifications. You may have an attorney who is licensed to provide business valuations or insurance audits for other firms. You may have a payroll expert or an IT team that can go out and fix problems faced by other businesses. Before you market any of these services, make sure that these professionals are protected by extra liability coverage; a business owner in distress may make poor choices when seeking help.
It’s a litigious world. You have a job to do, and protecting your employees and your business is a critical first step to working in confidence. Carefully review your industry risks and discuss add-ons that will reduce your exposure with your insurance provider.
