Do you need insurance for your home based business?
Are Home Based Businesses Properly Covered on a Homeowners Insurance Policy?
Minding your own business is a key task for more than 17 million people in North America. That’s the number of self-employed across the US and Canada.
Increasingly, many of them choose to work from home. Millions more have outside employment but still have the option of working from home for some or all of the time.
But what many home workers — self-employed or not — don’t realize is that they’re in the middle of a minefield of risks
Often, they’re mistaken in thinking homeowners’ insurance covers them for business risks like liability or property loss, just because they happen to be in their homes. In most cases, it does not.
Or they may not be tuned in to additional risks that flow from their business, like, say libel, malpractice, faulty products, and errors in published material.
Even if you’re not in business for yourself or don’t work from home for someone else, you almost certainly know other people who do, so I thought it might be helpful to jot down some of the key issues.
For Instance:
- If you’re employed by someone else, it’s vital to check your insurance protection with them.
- If clients (or even the UPS guy) visit you on business, or you hold their property in your home, you may be especially at risk of massive losses either through liability for injuries or property damage.
- If you store data about other people or businesses in your home, you may be vulnerable to hacking or other security breaches that could land you with a liability lawsuit.
- Your car may not be insured for business use (Check you Auto Insurance)
- If you rely on your business as your main source of income, are you protected if you’re suddenly unable to work?
Fortunately, there are several solutions that protect against most of these risks, from riders on existing homeowners’ insurance or renters’ insurance policies through protection for risks associated with specific business activities, to a general all-purpose home business insurance program.
According to the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, sixty percent of home-based business people are believed to be inadequately insured. If you’re one of them, or you know someone who is, please get in touch so we can explore what can be done.
For more information on Home Based Business Insurance check out our website .
Huff Insurance is a full service Independent Insurance Agent We have been dedicated to Protecting Lifestyles™ since 1960. We offer a full array of Personal Insurance, Commercial Insurance and Life Insurance & Health Insurance products. Call us at 410-647-111
