General Liability Insurance for Small Business Overview: A Quick Beginner’s Guide to Policies

Each business has its own needs, but you still want to make sure you are covered by some insurance, no matter how small your company is. In short, general liability insurance for small business tends to cover things like personal liability for members and the consequences associated with third party claims for property damage / injury. You can add additional items of medical injury for yourself and damage for your own property.

When you are looking over CGL policies, you’ll see terms such as “General Aggregate Limit”. This refers to the advertising or personal injury, medical payments, and/or fire damage. “Operations coverage” refers to the basic coverage afforded for property damage and bodily injury due from your or an employee’s negligence.

You might also see “Products and Completed Operations Limit” depending on your line of work. This coverage includes protection for those who manufacture or sell a particular product, or are contractors providing services. If damage occurs and your product or negligent service could be responsible, you’ll obviously face a lawsuit. This is a type of separate aggregate limit and the claims of its nature will not reduce the General Aggregate Limit, although it will still be subject to limits such as “Per Occurrence Limit” for each claim.

General Liability Insurance for Small Business Limits and Claims

The “Per Occurrence Limit” refers to the maximum amount that the policy will pay for a single claim arising from your Personal or Advertising Injury / Operations / Products and Completed Operations. Each of these claims WILL decrease the separate aggregate limit.

A few other terms you’ll find include Personal and Advertising injury, Fire Damage, Medical Payments, Bodily Injury, and Damage to 3rd Party Property, which are all self-explanatory.

Your industry will also play a role in the exact type of coverage you need. When searching for general liability insurance for small business, see if there is any tailored insurance available. Choose a company that specializes in businesses such as yours and have coverage tailored to risks prevalent in your particular field. Consider the risks you’ll likely be facing that might not be covered in a GCL or Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) and have those risks included in your coverage.

Another very important thing to look for is claims responsiveness. Only get general liability insurance for small business from a company that has a lot of positive reviews – especially regarding its claims response time. Claims should be easy and fast to process. One provider in particular to start with is Hiscox Business Insurance. The rates are fare, claims process is fast, and Hiscox offers free, instant quotes on its website.

Are you a small business owner? No matter what kind of company you run, you’ll need general liability insurance and maybe some additional coverage depending on the industry you’re involved in. How do you know how and where to apply for the best small business insurance policy?

Read reviews on various insurance companies by other businesses in your industry to learn which ones offer quality solutions. Consider whether or not you want an insurance representative or broker to help you find the right coverages. If you decide to work with a specialist, ask what kind of information he or she will need in order to determine your specific needs. Have all of the documents and information prepared. Small business owners typically need to provide details such as physical location, number of employees (if any), total payroll size, business assets, gross annual sales (if there are any to report), and so forth.

Even if you decide to apply for insurance on your own without the help of a broker, you’ll still need to have this information ready.

Best Small Business Insurance as an Investment

Think of commercial insurance as an investment. It will cost money, but it will protect your business from unexpected expenses such as lawsuits and worker’s compensation. The best small business insurance will also protect you from industry-specific problems. For instance, if you are involved in web design, you don’t want to risk financial losses associated with technological glitches, miscommunication, etc. If you are a small beauty salon owner or barber, you don’t want to risk equipment malfunctioning, allergic reactions to certain chemicals, or someone tripping and falling on your property.

No business, no matter how small, is 100% immune to possible lawsuits. People will sue over literally everything these days, and only the best small business insurance will protect your assets. If you want to stay in business for a long time, and hope for the ability to expand it someday, then you should be prepared to handle any kind of accident. It will be very difficult to survive if you suddenly owe a lot of money in compensation, or find yourself dealing with damage caused to your place of business due to extreme weather. The only real solution is to have good insurance from a reliable company that has a lot of positive reviews.

So, where can you get the best small business insurance online? Check with Hiscox Inc. to see what they have to offer for business owners in your industry. You can either get a quote through the website or call and speak to a licensed agent.