As an entrepreneur with a startup in Las Vegas, one of the first steps is ensuring your new venture is adequately insured. While it’s understandable to be excited about and focused on getting ready to launch your product or service, you must have adequate financial protection in place from day one.
Your company might go months or even years without experiencing property damage, a lawsuit, or any other incident. However, the reality is that you could be hit with a considerable expense tomorrow. You just don’t know. That’s why you need to secure insurance as soon as possible to protect your business from the unexpected.
For example, an employee could trip, fall, and break their wrist simply walking to their desk. If you don’t have workers’ compensation insurance, the financial consequences to them and your company could be significant. Plus, most states mandate that companies with employees have workers’ comp coverage, so you could face fines, penalties, and legal consequences for failing to have a policy.
Fortunately, companies like biBerk (a Berkshire Hathaway company that insures small businesses) can provide cost-effective financial protection for the risks businesses face. They can also serve as an informal “insurance advisor” to your company, helping you understand your specific risks and the policies that address them so you can make well-informed decisions about your insurance strategy.
Let’s look at how you can find the right coverage for your new Las Vegas venture.
Why Is Business Insurance Essential?
Business insurance can pay costs associated with unexpected events. However, the benefits of having business insurance go well beyond simply covering claims. Your policies can affect things like:
- Your company’s financial resilience. Suppose a fire sweeps through your business, destroying your inventory and damaging your office. If you don’t have business insurance, the cost of replacing the goods and repairing your space could bankrupt your business. So, having insurance isn’t just about avoiding writing checks to pay expenses. Your coverage can keep your business from going out of business.
- Your professional reputation. Business insurance demonstrates your commitment to protecting your company and operating it responsibly. Suppose you can answer, “Yes, we have it,” when a business partner, investor, supplier, or other stakeholder asks about insurance. In that case, it shows that you take risk management seriously and helps them trust you and your business.
- Your peace of mind. Running a small business can be exciting and rewarding but also stressful in many cases. Having business insurance doesn’t eliminate your business risks. However, it can significantly reduce your concern about them and the worry that an incident might create a significant financial burden for your company. As a result, you can sleep better at night and focus on growing your business every day.
An Overview of Business Insurance Coverages
The first step in buying insurance for your new business in Las Vegas is learning about the available coverages. Several factors will affect your business insurance requirements, but you will probably need one or more of the following seven policies:
- General Liability Insurance. Also called commercial general liability, this type of insurance covers things like damage to others’ property, injuries to non-employees, slander, libel, and copyright infringement. It provides broad coverage for common risks, so every business owner should consider this policy.
- Workers’ Compensation Insurance. States require nearly all companies with employees to have workers’ compensation coverage. This coverage protects workers who get hurt or contract an illness on the job. It can cover medical costs, legal fees, and lost wages. It can also provide a so-called death benefit to surviving family members if an employee dies at work. Failing to have workers’ compensation insurance, if required to carry it, can result in penalties, fines, and even legal action in some cases.
- Commercial Auto Insurance. If your business owns or leases vehicles and someone driving one of them is at fault in an accident, this policy protects the business from lawsuits. It also covers damage to your vehicle.
- Business Owners Policy. A business owner policy (BOP) conveniently combines protection for company property with the general liability coverage described above. You may also hear this type of policy called property & liability insurance. It typically includes business interruption protection, which can replace income and pay for costs associated with keeping a business operational (like temporarily renting space) due to covered incidents.
- Errors & Omissions Insurance. Referred to as professional liability insurance in some industries, E&O coverage can pay damages and legal fees if someone claims your professional advice or service harmed their business financially. For example, if your business provides accounting services and you make a mistake on a form that causes a client to be fined, they might sue you, and this policy would cover the incident.
- Umbrella Insurance. Liability insurance policies typically have the maximum amounts they will pay in the event of an incident. Umbrella insurance provides an added layer of protection, covering costs that exceed the underlying policy limit up to the umbrella policy’s limit.
- Cyber Insurance helps pay costs related to cyberattacks in which someone has stolen sensitive information and used it to commit fraud or is likely to do so. It’s often purchased as an add-on to another business insurance policy.
Get Policy Quotes and Buy Policies Online
With the information above as background, you’re ready to engage with insurance providers to learn what you’ll pay for coverage. Top business insurance companies enable you to get instant, self-service quotes from their websites whenever convenient.
That’s helpful for busy entrepreneurs. You can get quotes in the morning before your day starts when you pause for lunch or in the evening when things slow down. There’s no need for lengthy meetings or phone conversations. However, if you have questions about coverages, deductibles, or any aspect of business insurance, most providers have licensed insurance experts available to answer them.
Once you’ve decided how to protect your new business, you can typically purchase policies on the insurance company’s website. Coverage can usually be active as soon as the next day.
So, there’s no reason to leave your Las Vegas startup vulnerable to the high costs of lawsuits, property damage, or other incidents. Get covered as soon as possible so you can focus on growing your business, confident that unexpected expenses won’t derail your progress.
Members of the editorial and news staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal were not involved in the creation of this content.