When it comes to starting a new business or evaluating the needs of your existing small business insurance should be at the top of your priority list. Today we’re exploring three of the top considerations you need to make when looking at insurance for your small business:
What are the key risks to your business, and what do similar businesses in your industry take out when it comes to insurance?
Considering the risks to your business, you may want to get insurance as soon as possible once you start operating to help give you peace of mind. You can always research online (there’s plenty of good content on upcover.com), speak with an insurance broker, or even those in your industry if you aren’t sure where to start.
Generally speaking. However, the most common types of insurance to purchase for your business really depend on whether you provide products or services. Importantly, many contracts, landlords or Associations will require Public and Products Liability Insurance and or even Professional Indemnity insurance if you provide any advice related to your services. Market stalls, online shops and even bricks and mortar shops all require this kind of insurance at a minimum to operate.
Other types of business insurance that you could look into getting coverage for are cyber insurance, business package insurance (tools, stock, property, glass, motor), and personal accident insurance (if you or one of your staff gets injured). This might be in addition to statutory insurance requirements like workers’ insurance too.
Consider the insurance requirements of your industry
Depending on your industry, you may need to hold certain types and limits of insurance in order to be accredited. For example, AHPRA registered businesses need to hold active Professional Indemnity and Public and Products Liability Insurance. This might, for other businesses, also include contractual obligations of landlords, key contracts with clients and their insurance requirements for your business.
What are you most concerned about?
If you believe you can manage the risk without obtaining insurance, this is called self-insurance. Sometimes, you can’t get insurance products for anything such as business risks where a contract falls through, or you don’t get as many customers as you’d hoped, or grow as fast as you would have liked!
However, there are plenty of insurance products out there. Typically, as you grow, you may need to purchase more insurance products to help mitigate the risks in your business and give your business and its owners and employees greater peace of mind. This is so that, in case something happens, you know that you can lean on someone to help you pay for the loss or manage the cost of any claim or lawsuit. If you’re interested in exploring, more than getting a quote on insurance might be a good next step.
By Skye Theodorou, CEO & co-founder upcover.
At upcover, we offer super quick, jargon-free insurance products to small business owners Australia wide. Head to www.upcover.com to find out more about live Professional Indemnity, Public and Products Liability, Cyber Privacy Liability, COVID-19 Bounceback insurance. We’ll also be launching Commercial Motor (incl. rideshare and delivery), Tools of Trade, Glass, Personal Accident and Management Liability later in 2022.
As well as being Australia’s fastest insurance for small businesses, we’re also democratising access to insurance, so any business, brand or marketplace can become a distributor of insurance products and monetise their existing membership & customer base. Our technology platform integrates with market leading insurers and online businesses, making it seamless for trusted brands to offer insurance policies directly to their customers – all within their own experience.