Business Insurance

Business insurance is an umbrella type of insurance that covers common financial risks a company will come across. Rather than an actual policy you can buy it is a category of insurance coverage.

The most common types of business insurance include the following:

• General Liability Insurance: Protects you from third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is often bundled as part of a BOP or business owners policy which includes this coverage type, commercial property and business interruption insurance.
• Workers' Comp Insurance: This type of coverage covers you if an employee gets injured while working.
• Professional Liability Insurance: If a client relies on your personal expertise and advice, this covers you for claims of negligence, mistakes and failure to deliver on agreed upon services.
• Commercial Auto Insurance: Functions similar to personal policies but covers you for vehicle-related liabilities and property damage only if it is during commercial operations.
• Commercial Property Insurance: Covers personal property damage at commercial areas you own or rent and theft of your belongings. Often includes business interruption coverage which reimburses you for income losses from downtime from commercial property policy related damages.
• Cyber Insurance: This type of coverage protects your company from liabilities arising from cyber-attacks both for your company's personal damages and any customers affected.

If you'd like to dig into what business insurance covers for each of these types in more detail, we've left resources below.

You will need business insurance since some form if coverage is required by state law and/or client contracts. Even if you are not required by statutes or agreements to get coverage, it is a smart investment to protect you from common risks specific to your industry and ensure you avoid financial losses you can't afford.

To start looking into your needs and what you need to consider, we've left guides below to go in more depth on both requirements and determining what coverage applies to you.

• Business Insurance Requirements
• When Do I Need Business Insurance?

How much business insurance you need is not a one size fits all answer, and your actual needs will depend on your required coverages, your operational structure, industry, company size and financial situation. Use your requirements as a starting point and then categorize what risks actually will be most likely to affect your business and match them to the right coverage type.

With this in mind, we've given a starter business insurance coverage recommendation that is in line with most requirements as a starting point:

• General Liability Insurance: $1 million per occurrence/ $2 million aggregate works for most small companies
• Workers' Comp: Required if you have employees and coverage amount is set by the state you operate in.
• Professional Liability: $1 million per claim is recommended for anyone in consulting or any industry where you are providing advice frequently during business operations.
• Commercial Auto: $1 million CSL covers most requirements and risks across industries and should only be purchased if you use vehicles for business.
• Commercial Property: Total value of your property is recommended to be covered.
• Cyber Insurance: $1 million in coverage, but only if you store significant customer and sensitive business records digitally (500-1,000+ records is a good benchmark).

If you want to personalize your coverages further, we've provided dedicated guides by coverage type below.

Total business insurance costs for your company can be as low as $5 to well over $1,000 per month depending on the following items:

Below we've broken down a simple step-by-step process for buying business insurance and getting the best deal.

If you'd like to explore business insurance options specific to your general industry area, we've created guides below to help you through the buying process.

If you're interested in the specifics of business insurance for your area of operation, we have state specific guides below.