Business Insurance 101 for New Entrepreneurs

Starting a business is no easy job. In fact, it takes an immense amount of work and startup capital to take a business idea from some scribbles in a notepad to a brick-and-mortar (or online) presence. Protect your hard work and your newfound livelihood with a comprehensive business insurance portfolio designed to protect against both broad and specific industry risks. 

Entrepreneurs should become familiar with a BOP, which stands for business owner’s policy. This policy, designed for small to medium sized businesses, combines the most generic, useful coverages into an all-inclusive policy. This is great for both entrepreneurs who just want the basic coverages and those who want a more hands-on approach. Why? Because you can stick with the essentials or select additional coverages to add to your policy. 

Though purchasing a BOP is cheaper than buying individual policies piecemeal, a growing company’s needs may exceed those offered by a BOP. In such cases, you’ll need, at the very least, property coverage to protect all business-owned property and liability coverage to protect third parties from the expense of injuries or damages suffered on premises. 

If your company uses vehicles in the course of business, you’ll also need commercial auto insurance to protect your vehicles, drivers, third parties and cargo. 

Commercial umbrella coverage adds an extra layer of protection on top of your underlying policies in case an extremely costly claim exceeds policy limits. Once those limits are met, your umbrella coverage kicks in to cover additional expenses. 

Other valuable business insurance policies include data breach coverage, business interruption coverage, equipment breakdown coverage, workers compensation coverage, liquor liability coverage, key employee coverage, professional liability coverage and more. Ask one of our agents about the policies that are right for your business. 

Get the right coverage. Call Clarion Pacific Insurance Services at 831-337-4661 for more information on Santa Cruz business insurance.