Category: Featured Small Business

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Featured Small Business Industry Insights Insurance

The Gild Guide: Most Common Small Business Insurance Questions

Insurance can be an overwhelming and complicated topic which can leave both new or seasoned small business owners intimidated. Unsurprisingly, the internet is full of questions regarding small business insurance. Here are some of the most common questions you and other business owners have. So let’s get you some answers!

Q: What determines insurance premiums for small business insurance?

A: The more risks associated with your business (in the eyes of the insurance carrier), the higher your premiums. Generally speaking, four main variables determine how much you will pay for your insurance.  

  • The number of employees you have and the revenue size of your company.  
  • The value of the assets you wish to insure.
  • The specific risks associated with your business.  

Q: Does general liability insurance cover all risks associated with running my business? 

A: General liability insurance protects against the most common risks associated with running a business. It is in no way comprehensive. It covers things like physical injuries to others, damage to others’ property, or advertising injuries. Damage to your property, injuries to your employees is not covered. Professional services and advice is also excluded.  

When you’re first starting your business, general liability insurance may suffice for your needs. But as your business grows, so too will your risks. Upgrading to a BOP or business owner’s policy is a great option. For more information regarding why business insurance may be the missing piece to your growth plan click here. 

Q: How do I prove I have insurance? How do I show my landlord, for example?  

A: A certificate of insurance (COI) is the easiest way to prove your business is insured. If you drive a vehicle and pay insurance on it, you already have experience with certificates of insurance (COI). Your insurance cards are a COI!  

For a small business, certificates of insurance (COI) function basically the same way. COIs are available through your agent. Many times, a COI is available online through your insurance provider. Once you have your COI, you can email it to your client or business partner!

Requesting your COI is easy with Gild Insurance just contact us!

Q: Should I include insurance in my yearly budget or growth plan?

A: Absolutely! Insurance is something that is going to be with your business for the long haul. You will need to scale it accordingly as your business continues to grow. Remember, business insurance isn’t just protection against a catastrophic event!

While accident protection is an aspect of business insurance, another part directly relates to scalability. If you don’t have proper business insurance, you’ll limit your business’s capacity for growth. Landlords and other outside parties look at business insurance as an indicator that the business owner is reliable and trustworthy.

Q: Do I need business insurance to secure a loan? 

A: A loan from the Small Business Administration requires proof of proper insurance. The insurance coverages you need will vary depending on your business and the associated risks. You may need to show proof of several types of insurance before securing funds.

If the lender believes you’re operating a business in a risky manner, they will be less willing to lend your business money. In general, having the right business insurance is a great way to show lenders and other business partners that you are a professional business worthy of partnering with.

Q: Will outside factors affect how much I have to pay? Will the crime rate in my area affect the price of my insurance?

A: As mentioned above, your insurance provider uses many factors to gauge the risk of your business. These factors determine how much the insurance will cost you. Remember, business insurance is a for-profit business. It’s only natural that your insurance company wants to safeguard itself from suffering any losses. If you want to know what specific factors are driving your premium prices, contact your insurance provider directly.

Q: Will my homeowner’s insurance cover me if I run my business from my home?

A: It depends. Usually, the coverage afforded to you by homeowners’ insurance isn’t enough to properly protect your business. For example, many standard home insurance policies only cover up to $2,500 worth of business property. Businesses that sell goods shipped from home likely have more than $2,500 worth of inventory in their living room right now!

Q: What’s the deal with worker’s compensation insurance? How do I get it?

A: Worker’s compensation insurance provided benefits to injured employees that occur due to work. Worker’s compensation insurance is legally required for many small businesses!

What’s confusing about worker’s compensation insurance is that the legal requirements to have it vary from state to state. This also includes how businesses go about getting it in the first place.

Q: What’s the best way to find insurance?

A: Insurance agents are a tried and true method for finding the most comprehensive insurance coverage. Thanks to the rise of recent technological advances, you can now also get quick quotes online through insurance aggregator platforms.

That’s where Gild Insurance comes into the picture. We offer free online quote functionality, backed by small business insurance agents! A personal, fast, and hassle-free process.

If you need help navigating the world of small business insurance, remember that help is always just a click away. Gild Insurance can help you find the right insurance options that fit your business.

If you have questions or simply want more info, reach on out! The Gild Team, along with Gildber the husky, are always standing by, ready to help.

Sources

Kilroy, Ashley. “Home-Based Business Insurance Explained.” Forbes. 2 Nov 2023. Accessed 13 Dec 2023. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/home-based-business-insurance/

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Business Featured Small Business Insurance

Business Insurance as Growth Tool

small business owner

When you think about scaling your small business, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Automating systems? Expanding your marketing efforts? Increasing your workforce? Redesigning your business’s logo? What about business insurance as a growth tool?

Well, if insurance is at the bottom of your to-do list, you may want to reconsider. Having cohesive business insurance is fundamental to any successful business, yet many business owners often neglect it. Of course, we understand that business insurance might not be the most tantalizing aspect of your business growth plan. Just getting sound advice on business insurance can sometimes be challenging. Take a deep breath and relax. At Gild Insurance, we can give you the help and guidance you need and deserve.

Why Business Insurance as a Growth Tool?

1. Business Opportunities

Let’s say you’re the owner of a small-scale home improvement business, a painting company for example, and you’re operating without insurance. If the bulk of your business comes from private homeowners, it’s entirely possible that your clientele won’t give a second thought as to if your insurance coverage is sufficient. But what would happen if, through word of mouth, you’re offered a contract on a much larger painting project at an apartment complex? Will they want to see your policy? Will the contract have an insurance requirements section?

You already know that your business can handle the job, and your prospective client is also confident because they trust the person who referred you. And best of all, the job would double your monthly income. It looks like a win-win all around, and you find yourself very excited to take on the job. There’s just one little thing: the company asks to see a certificate of insurance (COI) before signing off for you to begin. 

Now, do you think the company is willing to wait while you purchase business insurance? Of course not; they’ll just find someone else to do the job. Now, you’ve not only lost the job, but any other jobs you may have gotten through referrals. Plus, your business’s reputation has now been tarnished. 

2. Business Financing Options

If you have plans to scale your business that require additional financing, that is another reason you need adequate business insurance. If you are considering a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan you’ll quickly find out there are insurance requirements needing met. What coverage you need depends on your type of business and the loan you choose.

As you might imagine, grants and venture capital funding are likely also to require insurance. This is necessary for basic risk management and protection on the investment. Any organization that is providing private equity financing will obviously have different criteria but the chances are very slim that they will shell out a penny without the proper assurances. 

3. Personal Protection

Many people assume that the only reason to have business insurance is to be protected in the event they get sued, and while it’s true that this is one aspect of it, lawsuits are far from the only way a loss can occur. 

Losses can occur from natural disasters like flood or fires or things like theft, or cybercrime. Should an event like this occur, you might have to shut down your business for a period of time, resulting in a loss of business income which is also another aspect insurance can cover. The right insurance plan can help you limit or eliminate many out of pocket expenses for you and your business.

Business Insurance as a Growth Tool: Types

If you’re looking for a roadmap of all the different types of business insurance plans that are available, check out the Gild Insurance Map for a brief overview.

To ensure the growth of your business, you need to insure it. And if you need help figuring out how to do that, remember that help is just one click away. The team at Gild Insurance— along with Gildber the husky, our friendly but incredibly knowledgeable mascot — are always standing by, ready to help you with whatever you may need.

Don’t hesitate to contact us so we can help you take your business to the next level! You can always check out our Gild Guide to the most common small business insurance questions to get started!

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Featured Small Business Insurance

The Highlights of Remote or Hybrid Small Business:

As your business grows, so do its risks, making it crucial to ensure your business insurance fundamentals are solid. While your risk advisors may have mentioned business insurance and you’ve purchased policies, has anyone ever broken down the basics in plain language? Below are key policies every business should review and consider based on its specific needs. So, your remote or hybrid small business is prepared for the next step without missing a beat.

General Liability Insurance

Compared to other types of insurance, general liability insurance is the most familiar to business owners. General liability is a foundational policy and the minimum any business should consider. As its name suggests, this insurance coverage provides general protection against the common risks that nearly any business may encounter when engaging with the public and their clients. This type of coverage typically focuses around the risks and expenses related to the bodily injuries and property damage of others.

Business Owner’s Insurance

If your business is like most and has a remote or hybrid footprint, it has additional risk factors, especially when it:

  • Employs multiple people, especially across state lines
  • Has invested in computers and other business equipment for those employees
  • Owns the building the business operates in

Owners of these more complex businesses may be wise to pursue coverage that mitigates this wider risk. In fact, many general liability policies lack the property protections that your business needs. 
These businesses might consider a business owner’s policy, commonly referred to as a “BOP.” A BOP is a combination coverage. It provides general liability policy offerings, with additional property protections. The additional property protections in a BOP mainly focus on protecting your business’ property, moving beyond the typical coverage of a general liability policy.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance

At this point, you’ve taken the time to understand the coverage required to protect both others and your business property. You may now be asking how your employees or even your LLC’s members will be covered.

This brings us to worker’s compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation insurance provides benefits to your employees if an injury or illness occurs in the course of employment. 

You might also wonder whether worker’s compensation insurance is required by law. Unsurprisingly, the answer is, “It depends.”

The world of worker’s compensation is a vast array of state regulatory requirements which trigger based on several factors, such as your company’s legal structure, number of employees, and industry. Like any other state compliance requirements, worker’s compensation rules (and your business’s situation) are subject to change. 

Despite the inherent complexity of worker’s compensation laws, businesses should always at least consider coverage, even if the only people working for your business are LLC members. 

Ultimately, the law may not require your business to purchase this type of insurance. But, you should actively analyze your compliance risks and obligations.

Professional Liability Insurance

Finally, if the expertise and skill of you and your employees is your business, you may want to consider professional liability coverage, otherwise known as an E&O policy. Professional liability coverage protects you against the specialized exposures of the services provided by your business.

Professional liability insurance protects you and your business against claims of errors, omissions, or misrepresentation. A professional liability policy may provide protections not only in drastic scenarios, such as lawsuits arising out allegations of discriminatory behavior, but also, from the risks of errors associated with the administration of grant monies or endowments.

The coverages outlined above are just the highlights of business insurance. Your particular company may need additional other insurance options to protect your day-to-day operations and safeguard you from catastrophic risks.

Take care of your business insurance needs by booking time with a Gild Agent or receiving a digital quote!

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Featured Small Business Insurance

Work The Problem – Chapter 2: The Problem for Microbusinesses, Freelancers, and Solopreneurs

The new digitally based economy not only changed the game on how consumers interact with businesses, it changed business itself. E-commerce platforms, social media, and mobile technology, to name just a few, provided resources to facilitate independence and with that, came a rise of microbusinesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs. 

In a country where small business is generally defined as employing less than 500 employees, let’s paint a more detailed picture:

  • 98% of the U.S. economy is made up of businesses with less than 20 employees
  • 87% of these businesses have no employees at all
  • 27% of the United States working age population, approximately 54M independent workers, have participated in the gig and sharing economy

Very clearly, microbusinesses, freelancers and solopreneurs dominate the economy. However, as these businesses are very aware, few insurance carriers specifically cater to their needs. An estimated 50% of small business insurance customers are open to switching providers each renewal period, highlighting this issue. the main underlying issue prompting microbusinesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs to switch insurance providers is…price. This failure in pricing is a failure to adequately tailor insurance coverings to these types of businesses. 

If you ask us, 50% of customers shopping around isn’t a resounding endorsement of the industry. So, ta-da! We found another problem to work; how to connect small businesses to adequately priced insurance products.

Tailored Insurance for Microbusinesses, Freelancers, and Solopreneurs

Our solution – solely partner with insurance providers that specialize in microbusinesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs, with products designed just for them, priced just for them.  

Then, algorithmically them, based on numerous factors, via our wonderful chatbot, to the tailored insurance coverages. 

And done! You never have to wonder again if your insurance provider understands your business. Gild is here to support you and your endeavors.

Read the first post in this series, Work The Problem Chapter 1: Commercial Insurance And The Digital Sales Problem.