Best Insurance for Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, you’re used to doing things for yourself. Even if you have a powerful team, you bear a lot of your business’s responsibility. Part of that responsibility is preparing for the worst.

No one likes to think of it, but being prepared for the worst is never a bad thing. Large and small businesses are equally vulnerable to misfortune, whether it relates to property loss, damage, or even injured workers. 

Though insurance can be many things (daunting, boring and unnecessarily convoluted), it also happens to be extremely beneficial for you and your entrepreneurial endeavors. 

There are several types of insurance that should be on every entrepreneur’s list. Having a rundown of these will help you decide what your needs are and how these specific insurance features can protect your business and its employees (which includes you).

Shopping for insurance carriers can be time-consuming and frustrating, but knowing what you need will help you start. 

In this blog, we’ll examine what insurance can do for you and its most beneficial offerings. Armed with this, you’ll have a better understanding of your business’s requirements and be able to eliminate what isn’t right for you. 

If you still have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to the Hopewell team. We are always ready to help you make sense of the complexities of the insurance industry.

7 Types of Insurance You Need

Insurance is all about protecting you. Different businesses have different needs and those will help establish your priorities. Use these 7 important types of insurance to decide what’s right for you.

1. General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance is a catch-all term for accidents, property damage, medical costs, and a laundry list of thorny problems that your business can encounter. 

It’s safe to say that if your business deals with customers and the public, this insurance will be a lifesaver for the worst kinds of circumstances. 

Consider the following and their costly ramifications: 

• Bodily damage: If a customer slips and falls on your property, the medical payments alone could put you out of business. To say nothing of the legal expenses involved should they decide to sue. 
• Property damage: This will cover any legal or replacement costs incurred should you or an employee damage a third party’s personal property. 
• Personal injury: Slander, libel, and copyright infringement all represent legally and financially damaging suits that could be brought against your business. Should a third party bring suit against your business for an advertising or personal injury, general liability insurance will help alleviate the financial burden of those legal costs. 

ALL of these represent costly damages that will seriously impact the performance and even the longevity of your business. 

It varies by state whether or not you are required to have general liability insurance, but not having it is not worth the risk. General liability insurance costs are the most necessary for your business to incur if you want to preemptively protect it from more extravagantly expensive legal and business tolls. 

As a side note, general liability does not cover workers' compensation nor liquor liability and up to 16 other specific forms of liability insurance. 

2. Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Those slip and falls we mentioned earlier? Those aren’t covered by general liability insurance if it happens to be an employee that falls. 

Should an employee get hurt or become ill in the course and scope of their employment, workers’ compensation steps in to cover that. In doing so, it helps with the costs from: 

• Medical expenses: Whether illness or injury, your employee shouldn’t be on the hook for expensive medical treatment if they were hurt at work. 
• Lost wages: An employee is eligible to receive compensation for the work they missed out on while they were out sick or injured. 
• Ongoing care costs: Rehabilitation, physical therapy, future check-ups and treatments are all costly and could be covered by workers’ compensation insurance instead of an employee’s health insurance plan. 
• Funeral expenses: This is the worst-case scenario, but if the worst does happen, a funeral is the last thing anyone wants to finance. 

Workers’ compensation offers peace of mind for every entrepreneur. If you have employees, this type of insurance is often required by state law. For instance, Oklahoma requires employers to have workers’ compensation insurance for almost all businesses, with a few exceptions.

3. Business Income Insurance

Being prepared for the worst doesn’t prevent it from happening. Such is the way with weather, power outages, or even theft. When your business’s operations, and thus its profitability, is interrupted, you need a way to compensate for that. 

Business income insurance helps keep the lights on while you can focus on pulling your business back together after a loss. 

It does this by covering costs like this: 

• Business income loss
• Restoration
• Waiting/Recovery
• Extra expenses 

This type of insurance is crucial for restaurants, bars, and service businesses especially. The costs of keeping employees and rents paid are directly related to customers in these industries and, without them, the bills don’t get paid. 

Should your business be temporarily rendered unoperational, business income insurance can keep you from using your savings to keep those who rely on you paid. The alternative is shutting your doors for good. 

4. Commercial Auto Insurance

This insurance covers exactly what your personal car insurance does, but for your commercial vehicles. Whether you have a fleet of cars at your disposal or one tried and true car you use for everything, keeping it insured is important. 

Just like personal car insurance, you need liability, property damage, uninsured motorist, and collision coverage to protect your vehicles and employees who are out on the road. 

Delivery and service trucks, as well as any commercial vehicle, are all handled differently than your personal car insurance because of the increased risks associated with them. 

Don’t assume just because you use your personal vehicle for your business’s operations that anything that happens is covered by your personal line of vehicle insurance. Be sure to get additional or supplemental commercial auto insurance, so claims made by you or your employees are paid appropriately.

5. Commercial Property Insurance

Business income insurance covers the loss of your business’s income when it’s out of commission and recovering, but it doesn’t cover the damage itself. 

Such is the importance of commercial property insurance. For those extreme weather events, fires, power outages, or instances of vandalism, you’ll need this.

This will be a big-ticket item, so it’s important to note all the things commercial property does cover in addition to the physical property itself: 

• Supplies and equipment
• Furniture
• Signs
• Documents
• Inventory

The loss or temporary nonuse of your business’s property is a damaging blow. Coupled with these other losses, you could be out thousands or millions of dollars without commercial property insurance. 

Just like most insurance, the cost of commercial property insurance varies exponentially. Aspects like your business’s size, location, and occupancy are all taken into consideration. 

6. Data Breach Insurance

All the ways we use technology to our benefit can be exploited. Whether by hacking or data breaches, these are more than inconveniences and pose a real threat to your business. Entrepreneurs and many small businesses are often vulnerable because of their minimal cybersecurity. 

With the rapid exchange of personal information (credit card and identity information specifically), businesses are filled to the brim with financially valuable data. 

Data breach insurance won’t ward off hackers and data opportunists, but it will help you recover once a breach is detected.

This insurance can cover the costs associated with customer notification, legal action, or even public relations. If you handle sensitive information and you don’t employ a full cybersecurity team, this insurance is worth it to protect you in the wake of a data breach.

7. Professional Liability Insurance

Insurance doesn’t cover stupidity, but it can cover mistakes. 

Your employees are just human, as are you, so mistakes happen. Sadly, good will and a heartfelt apology don’t pay expensive legal fees. 

Professional liability insurance can protect your business from claims of: 

• Negligence
• Misrepresentation
• Inaccurate advice
• Personal injury

These can cost your business thousands of dollars in representation fees and court costs, even if you do settle with the complainant. Without professional liability coverage, you will have to pay these expenses out of pocket.

Additional Insurance Coverage You May Need

Many of the insurances listed above are designed to protect your business and its financial future. Insurance also protects you, your employees, and their families, too. 

Health insurance is both a benefit and an incentive. Providing health, dental and vision insurance can make you more appealing as an employer. Not only does it say you care about your employees, but it says you’re invested in their wellbeing. 

By paying monthly premiums, your employed workers will feel more secure and valued. Additionally, preventative care like seasonal shots and access to regular check-ups with low-cost sharing can lower circumstances that keep employees from work because of their health status. 

Life insurance, similarly, shows that you care about your employees. Funeral expenses, student loans, and other types of debt can cripple a family after a death. By offering life insurance, your employee’s sense of financial security will increase, especially if they have loved ones that rely on them.

The Toll Insurance Takes

Security doesn’t come for free, and insurance is essentially like buying security and peace of mind. Whether for yourself, your business, or your employees, an entrepreneur should be prepared to pay to keep your business safe for the future. 

That being said, insurance doesn’t have a set sticker price. Most of the time, there isn’t a standard rate due to how customized it is. Knowing that, it’s important to find what’s right for you and your business. 

Curating an insurance solution to fit your needs is the best way to ensure cost-effective coverage. That means making sure you don’t have extra, redundant, or unnecessary coverage. 

Looking at the types of insurance mentioned, you can tell what you need most and what doesn’t apply to your business. Be advised it’s all about finding the best option for you, which is rarely the cheapest. 

When the first storm, data breach, or civil case occurs you’ll appreciate the cost of insurance as an investment in protecting your business.

Why Insurance Agency Relationships Matter

Both life insurance and employee health insurance are incredibly dense insurance markets. Especially if you’re trying to do it in a cost-effective way for a large number of employees, finding a carrier you can rely on and that’s right for you is important. 

As an entrepreneur, you’ve invested a lot in yourself and your business. Independent insurance agents are your best tool in a convoluted insurance market. They build their lives and their businesses around their partners, as you have done with your business.

Hopewell is the Entrepreneur's Choice

Consider Hopewell as a partner in your business’s future. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we know what you’re up against and the significance of insuring your business. 

We specialize in knowing the intricacies of the insurance market, so you don’t have to learn them yourself. 

As with all insurance offerings, bundling and customizing are the magic words. Hopewell knows how to figure out what your business needs to optimize its insurance coverage, saving you both time and money in the long run. 

While we design your business’s perfect insurance solution, you can use your time for better pursuits — like running your business. Get started today by requesting your free, no-obligation insurance estimate for your business.