With more people dedicating the time, money and effort necessary to start their own businesses from home, more people are wondering what they need to do to get everything in place for their businesses to flourish.
As well as customers, a decent marketing strategy and the skills required to fill the position, a few logistical bits and pieces need to adhered to in order to give your company the sheen of professionalism. Even if it is simply yourself, your mobile phone and your laptop.
Amongst the administrative tasks you have to complete, one of the most important is the acquirement of business insurance.
Away from your home insurance, which specialises in covering you and your personal possessions, business insurance covers everything you own and do specifically for your business. For instance, your laptop, printer, even camera – should you use it for work – can be placed on your business insurance policy. Just because you may complete a day’s work in the comfiest clothes you own and without leaving the sofa, it doesn’t mean you can cut corners when it comes to protecting your business. After all, your livelihood is at stake.
Business insurance providers like Be Wiser Business Insurance provide several different policies if you are a home-based business. So, which ones do you need, exactly? Here, we provide a quick run-down of what each one can provide for you:
1. Professional indemnity insurance
Starting with possibly the most basic route to insurance safety, professional indemnity insurance covers the work you do. If you provide a service or advice to someone and they lose money because of that service/advice, they could sue you and it could be expensive. By covering yourself with professional indemnity insurance, you can prevent this from being the case.
2. Public liability insurance
Public liability insurance is the next step along the line of policies available for those working from home. This should be considered if you work from home and have clients, customers or associates visit you or if you visit other them.
This policy would cover you if anyone was to be injured in your home or if you were to damage someone’s property in theirs. Even incidents as simple as someone tripping over or if you were to scratch their coffee table could possibly see you as liable for damages.
3. Business equipment
As you are working from home, it is possible you are using equipment you already had – your mobile and your laptop, for instance – but, even if it is covered by your home insurance, that does not mean it will be covered by your business insurance, something you need to rectify urgently.
4. Personal accident insurance
If you are the sole proprietor of the business and you have no employees to continue working if you were unable to work, you must get personal accident insurance. It will cover you if you are ill or injured and will not stop you from getting paid until you are able to return to work.
