Guide
What insurance does a small business actually need?
Four covers that matter for most small companies, two that are legally required, and the ones you can skip.
By the Keystone Cover brokers
Most small business owners either have too little cover or have bought a bundle they do not understand. Here is the short version of what we go through in a first meeting.
Required by law
- Employers’ liability. If you employ anyone, even part-time or on a temporary basis, this is compulsory, and the fines for not having it are daily.
- Motor. Any vehicle used for the business needs a policy that says so. A private car policy that does not mention business use will not pay out after an accident on a delivery run.
Needed by most businesses
- Public liability. Covers injury or damage to other people and their property. Landlords, councils and larger customers will usually ask to see the certificate before they work with you.
- Professional indemnity. For anyone who gives advice or produces designs, plans or code: covers claims that your work caused a client a loss.
- Stock, equipment and premises. Contents cover for the tools, computers and stock you would have to replace tomorrow to keep trading.
- Business interruption. Pays your fixed costs while you cannot trade after an insured event. The café that flooded and reopened in nine days was paying rent for those nine days.
Usually optional
Cyber, legal expenses, key person and directors’ and officers’ cover each make sense for some businesses and not others. We will tell you which category you are in rather than quoting all of them.
The first meeting is a conversation about what you do, what you own, who you employ and who your customers are. The recommendation is written, priced across our panel and yours to accept or not.
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