How to Legally Protect Yourself as a Business Owner

Alice Porter 

Picture this, you have grown your business from the ground up and have put in hundreds of man hours, have encountered countless sleepless nights and are now in a position to provide your services for your customers.

Now picture this, your service didn't go to plan and now your business is in jeopardy. Many businesses fail within the first two years due to legal cases and financial sanctions that have been enforced on them from regulatory boards. If you're smart and want to protect your assets, then you will firstly need to legally protect yourself by taking out an insurance policy.

There are countless benefits to taking out an insurance policy for your business, the most obvious being that an insurance policy can create a safety net for any mistakes that can happen, as they will cover any legal cover or generally just act as some form of support.

Before you decide on your insurance policy, there are some details that need to be accounted for in the long term. This could make a deep difference if an unhappy client is trying to claim against you.

Who needs insurance?

Across many business sectors, it's a legal requirement to have some form of insurance, to protect your business and your employees should anything go wrong. There needs to be some form of protection in place no matter how careful and courteous you try to be. Mistakes happen to the best of businesses, so it's important to protect yourself and to cover all aspects in the meantime.

Business insurance is a failsafe that will be good for your own security, but it will also act as reassurance for your potential clients, as you will have the correct paperwork in place, which shows that you have their best intentions at heart.

Insurance is particularly important for companies who provide a professional service, whether this is handling data to giving out professional advice. It's recommended that businesses who offer professional services should take out professional indemnity insurance.

Mistakes happen

It doesn't matter how experienced you are, there will come a time in your professional career where a mistake will be made. This could be a minor slip up, but nonetheless, there is a possibility that people will claim for negligence because of this. To avoid the potential catastrophic ramifications, it's important to protect yourself with professional indemnity insurance.

Make sure you are selecting the right policy

Your business is one of a kind, so it's not always straightforward to know how much your cover will be. There are several factors that need to be considered when you are taking out insurance. First and foremost, you must find out which policy suits your business and everything you're looking to get out of it.

At first, a claim towards your business can feel earth shattering, but if you take out the necessary precautions and keep a level head, then the process becomes much simpler and much more manageable. As always with these things, they can be a confusing process, especially if you're new to the business world. It always pays to do some reading beforehand or to speak to professionals who know what you'll need and know how much you should be paying. Leading companies such as Caunce O'Hara and Aviva offer instant advice for those looking to get to grips with insurance policies so make sure you know what you're covered for before you agree on terms.