No matter how careful you are in running your business, accidents happen. And no matter how big or small your business, you’ll have to plan for these and other risks if you want your business to thrive. One way to do this is with insurance.
Imagine this: Your custom-made cabinetry business is thriving. You have a handful of talented employees and a stack of orders. Then, the unthinkable happens. You or one of your employees is severely injured using the equipment. Or a fire damages all of the cabinets you’ve spent the last few months building. Or a customer calls to tell you that the new cabinets you installed yesterday just fell and crashed onto her kitchen floor.
Here are a few ways insurance can help protect your business.
Property Insurance
Property and casualty insurance provides coverage for losses due to the physical damage or destruction of your business. With the right policy, neither fire nor an exploded boiler can put you out of business. Everything from your office building to your cabinets to your water cooler can be covered.
Life and Disability Insurance
To survive a money crunch, your business can purchase life insurance and disability insurance to cover you, with the business named as the beneficiary. Upon a triggering event (death or disability), the policy will pay your business a certain amount of money, which it can use to cover its normal operating expenses like rent, utilities, employee salaries, advertising, and maintenance costs.
Liability Insurance
If your cabinet installation goes awry and your best customer (or so you thought) calls screaming at you on the phone, what will you do? With a liability insurance policy, the insurance company will pay (up to policy limits) third parties who claim they were injured or their property damaged by your product or service. If a lawsuit is threatened or filed, the insurance company will hire and pay (again, up to policy limits) a lawyer to defend you.
Remember, these aren’t your only insurance options. You’ll want to consult a financial and insurance expert to explore all strategies.
Robert Martin, CCSCS, CIMA, is an Infinex Investment Executive at Cape Cod Financial Services at The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod. He can be reached at 508.568.1250 or rmartin@infinexgroup.com.
