Why Your Business Needs Insurance

Well, it isn't Halloween, but how about we gather around the campfire and tell scary stories about why we need business insurance?  There was once a business owner, you, who had a home business with a broken front step.  An old man came up the walkway of your home business and tripped and he sued you for a lot of money.

There was once a kind employer, you, who gave out bottles of wine with a cheese basket to his employees at Christmas; one employee drank the wine in his car and got arrested because he was not only drunk driving, but ran over a teenager crossing a parking lot.  You were sued as the responsible party who got him drunk.But there could be many other possibles strories, involving a business owner, you, whose business was robbed, flooded, broken up in an earthquake or burned to ashes. 

None of these stories is far - fetched, and all of them happen to business owners virtually every day.  That is why business insurance, especially commercial business insurance, is a vital component of your business plan. 

Unfortunately, some business owners read horror stories like those above and they comfort themselves with the THREE BIG LIES the ideas all small businesses invoke to protect themselves from thinking about business insurance costs. 

The first lie
Is My business is small; nobody's going to sue me, because I have so little.  Actually, they will sue you.  Anybody can sue anybody in this litigious country of yours, and the fact is that every business, once a judgment is rendered against them, is liable.  If you don't have ready cash or assets, they can garnish wages, take office equipment and seize bank accounts.  If you have a judgment against you, it doesn't go away.

The second lie
Is My business is a corporation, which means Im not liable. Also not true. Your shareholders, investors and officers are covered under the corporate structure against personal liability, but you as the owner are not.  And if the court rules against you, the lawyers can take personal assets from you, include your car, home and bank accounts. Actually, if you are a small business, thats much more likely to happen to you than to a large corporation.  The entity suing can afford the big lawyers; you cannot.

Then theres the last big lie
The death myth which says that my survivors will work it out. Again, not true.  Most small businesses will fold if the owner is gone, because few offspring follow Dad into the family business anymore.  And a business without an owner more than likely has no cash flow, so there goes the business. 

Hopefully you're convinced you need insurance.  And a good policy is not that expensive; numerous reputable and knowledgeable insurers are as close as your keyboard.  And you can be sure that they run their insurance business as well as you run your own business.  Any of the good ones will tailor your policy to fit both your needs and budget.  Now theres a non - horror story you can probably live with. 

So please give yourself the gift of peace of mind, and get business insurance that way, you can leave the scary stories to Halloween.