Insurance for your business is quite often a one-sided thought: what happens if my place burns down and I lose my property, what happens if I cause a car accident and damage someone’s shiny brand new Mercedes? But the reality is that insurance is as much about protection for your own business as it is for your customers.
Consider the earlier cases of public liability: you’re a graphic designer and one day a visiting client trips over a box of Reflex paper that you had been reminding yourself to pack away all day! If your policy provides protection for personal injury under the public liability section then it will almost certainly be covered. You don’t have a spare $50,000 for physio treatment at your disposal so you would be able to give your client some comfort that the insurer will be able to pay the claim (of course, after you have checked your policy wording or PDS). Indeed, your client is then able to return to work much sooner rather than later..
You run a small legal practice and have a paperless office (dream come true?) that demonstrates your green credentials. A fire breaks out during morning tea in the staff room, melting down critical parts of your computer system. You didn’t have time to set up an online data backup service. Your policy happens to cover the costs of restoring data and you know that you can be back up and running again within a few days. This gives you enough time to respond to your client on an important matter without damaging your reputation. You respond to your client who can proceed on that matter.
You operate 041-PET-GROOM which reflects your mobile phone number. You’re on the road all day so don’t see a need for a landline and you certainly don’t have time for emails. One day, whilst giving a Maltese terrier a scrub-down, your iPhone slips out of your top pocket and into the doggie bath. Another client of yours Mrs Makeltoe, runs a small dog-breading company and is dependent upon you to prep her new pack of Doberman pinschers for a show that she will be doing towards the end of the month. The organisers decide to bring the event forward by one week and she is desperate to get in touch with you. Was your mobile phone insured? How quickly can you get a replacement?
Of course, only you know your business better than anyone else and only you will know what sort of risks you can take – will you operate a catering company without public liability or take out property insurance but no insure your specialised business equipment? Sure, you might have good reasons for doing that but have you considered the risk to your clients as well?
