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Meet with an independent insurance agent
A commercial independent insurance agent knows your business and your needs. The reason this is first on our list is because of all the advantages that working with an independent agent provides business owners. To name a few:
- Local support from somebody you know. If you need to file a claim you will know whom to call. Not to mention, if you have questions about your policy you can call your agent rather than waiting on hold for what feels like forever.
- Local-area expertise. They understand the insurance needs specific to your area because they live and work in your community.
- Expert advice and guidance .An independent insurance agent will review your business’ operations to find you the best coverage.
- Support your community. You are supporting a fellow local business when you work with an independent insurance agent.
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Review all your business’ services
Many business owners forget to consider all the services they offer when shopping for their insurance. A restaurant may also has food trucks. While they may only use their food trucks for part of the year, it’s important that the trucks and equipment are properly insured. A policy that only accounts for their restaurant may not cover a claim for their food trucks.
So, take the time to review the services you offer. Nobody wants to file a claim and discover that their policy didn’t account for part of their business’ services.
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Consider the replacement cost, rather than the market value of your business’ property
Many business owners buy insurance with limits that are the approximate market value of their business’ property. Remember, you are not insuring your building’s market value. Instead, you want your insurance to cover the cost to rebuild your building after a covered loss.
Replacement costs can be higher than the market value. So, it’s important to select a limit that will cover the replacement cost. Otherwise, you may be underinsured.
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Liability coverage for your business
Liability coverage is crucial for businesses. Injuries and false advertising are just a situation in which your business will be protected by liability coverage.
Commercial general liability policy will not cover a data breach. Even if your business doesn’t sell goods or services online, you have valuable personal information that hackers may want. Many network hacks start with some sort of phishing scam to infiltrate your network, often through your employees. Imagine if a client’s personal or financial information is stolen from your network – you may be responsible! Consider the cost of losing all the credit card numbers in your business’s database, not to mention the cost to your business’s reputation.
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