Are you starting a home-based business or already have a home-based business? You may want to look further into a home-business insurance plan. Your homeowner’s insurance doesn’t always cover your business property (equipment, technology, files/data), so it’s always best to have a home-business insurance plan to make sure you’re covered for anything that might happen.
If your insurance agency isn’t aware that you run a business from home, it could potentially void personal liability coverage from your homeowner’s insurance. This leaves both your home and your business at risk. Business insurance is essential for any operating business, whether or not it’s from home.
Why You Need Home-Business Insurance
With the rising cost of office spaces, more and more people are opting to run their businesses out of their own homes. Not many people realize that you will need separate home-business insurance. Homeowner’s insurance will not cover your business-related needs. You definitely need home-business insurance if you:
- Bring customers/clients into your home
- Keep inventory/supplies in your home
- Would lose income if you had to close your business due to home damage
- Have employees working in your home
- Keep client/employee records in your home.
If you don’t have home-business insurance, you could be held responsible for paying for property damage, lawsuits, employee injuries, and any potential data breaches that occur.
Types of Coverage
Business property insurance covers any kind of equipment you may use to run your home business. This includes a computer, fax machine, printer, and any furniture you may use for your business space. Your business property insurance may help you cover the loss of any of these items if damaged.
Liability insurance will cover you in case you have an employee or client injured on your property. Your homeowner’s insurance might have liability coverage, but it will not protect you when someone is at your home for business-related purposes. You will need business liability coverage for this reason.
Professional liability insurance covers working professionals (like interior designers, photographers, wedding planners) and consultants working out of their homes. Professional liability protects against negligence (failure to take care of something) or failure to deliver claims (product isn’t as advertised).
Product liability coverage protects your business from damage to a product or if someone was to be hurt by your product. For example, if you’re a baker and someone tries to sue you over food poisoning, you could be protected under this policy.
Business automobile insurance is another policy you may need if you use a car for your business. If you pick up or make deliveries, visit clients, or use your vehicle for other business-related purposes your personal auto insurance plan will not cover your business-related use.
Data breach coverage helps cover you in the event your data is compromised. Small businesses are viable targets for cyber-attacks, so it’s important to have the best data breach policy in place to protect you. Data breach insurance helps cover the cost of your business experiencing such an incident. You have to let your consumers know if your information may have been compromised, and sometimes it’s costly. Some policies also pay for an investigation to investigate the breach. In the event you need to temporarily close your business while working on the breach, some policies can cover any income loss suffered.
If you are or are planning to run a business out of your home, reach out to a local insurance agent to discuss creating a home-business insurance plan.