Business Insurance

A business insurance policy can be required to start or grow a business. State licensing organizations, landlords, financial institutions, clients, customers or prospects may ask to see proof of your business insurance coverage (also called a COI, or certificate of insurance) before they’ll do business with you.

Even if business insurance isn’t a requirement, it could help protect your business finances and assets. Businesses of every size — including small business owners, sole proprietors, freelancers and independent contractors — take on a lot of risk. Injuries, fire, theft, bad weather and accidents, workmanship errors and professional mistakes are just a few scenarios that can wreak havoc on cash flow.

Business owners can find themselves liable for property damage, work-related injury and illness costs, tool replacement, ruined inventory and products, and legal liability. For situations like these, business insurance could help keep your business operational while you repair and recover from a covered event.

Yes, business insurance can be a legal requirement depending on your profession, the state where you work or your business goals. And if you don’t have the right coverage in place, it could result in fines, stop work orders and legal action.

Commercial business insurance is almost always a good idea for protection, but there are many scenarios in which coverage is required, including:

• To get a professional license. General contractors, insurance agents and brokers, financial services, and real estate agents and brokers are just a few of the professions that can be required by the state to carry commercial insurance coverage.
• To hire employees. Full-time, part-time, seasonal or contract, workers’ compensation insurance, a type of business insurance paid for by the business owner, is a requirement in almost every state to add to your workforce.
• To get business financing. Many banks and financial institutions require proof of business insurance for a loan to start or grow your business.
• To rent a commercial space. Lessors (commercial landlords) carry their own business insurance on the property they own. But they often require their commercial business tenants to also carry their own coverage as a condition of the lease.
• To work an event. If you sell at temporary events like craft fairs, holiday markets or pop-ups, the event planner and/or event venue may insist that you carry insurance to participate. Same goes for conferences, weddings, corporate events or other similar one-day happenings that bring together multiple vendors in a single location. In cases like these, business insurance can be a requirement.

The amount of business insurance best for your business depends on many variables, such as:

• Your level of risk.
• The state where you work.
• The type of work that you do.
• How many employees, subcontractors and customers you have.
• The value of your business property.
• Your building structure and stability.

The best way to know for sure exactly how much you’ll need and how much you’ll pay for it is to get a business insurance quote with ERGO NEXT. Answer a few questions 100% online in about 10 minutes to see your exact quote for business insurance specific to your business.

If you run a home business, chances are your homeowners insurance probably won’t protect your business. Home business insurance could help protect your business equipment, product inventory, furniture and fixtures. Unlike your homeowners insurance, it could also help protect your business income if you have to close your business temporarily for repairs after a covered event. And your business insurance could help you with liability costs if your business faces a legal claim. Home based business insurance coverage is several types of business insurance coverage that work together to help protect you if there’s a fire, theft, power outage, equipment breakdown or something else that goes wrong.

Yes, commercial insurance could help protect your business from many types of legal actions. And lawsuits can be expensive — especially for a small business owner — even if your business did nothing wrong.

To help offset costs, commercial liability insurance coverage could help your business with some legal defense costs, settlements and judgements, cases around bodily injury to others, lawsuits for damages you or your employees cause to someone else’s property, and personal and advertising injury.

A business insurance policy could also help protect business owners from the costs of lawsuits around professional errors and workmanship mistakes if, say, you miss a deadline for a client, make a miscalculation or use incorrect materials with costly results.

And if you’re a business owner with employees, your workers’ comp coverage can help protect your business from legal action around employers liability. That means that your business insurance could help you if an employee files a lawsuit against your business because of a work-related injury or illness.

ERGO NEXT has taken care of our customers and settled thousands of claims nationwide since our start in 2016. We’ve seen a lot, but these are some of the most common examples of customer claims on their business insurance:

• Burglary, theft and vandalism. Business theft could look like forced entry that results in stolen merchandise, cash or inventory; robbery or vandalism that causes property damage like broken doors, glass or windows; laptops lifted from traveling staff; products shoplifted from store shelves; employee theft or fraud; and cybercrimes like payroll scams, computer fraud and phony wire transfers.
• Fire damage. Fires can cause substantial property damage quickly, potentially devastating a small business and forcing its closure for weeks or months.
• Extreme weather damage. Snow, hail, ice, windstorms and heat can take a toll on a branch falling on your building, a broken water pipe, a busted fence or a power outage that devastates your inventory — just to name a few. Storm damage can strike suddenly and block your access to clean and assess damages until it clears.
• Customer injuries. You’re mopping the floor. A customer slips and hurts their back. Your business could be on the hook for both medical bills and legal liability.**

The right business insurance coverage for your business risks could help shield your business from the costs of claims like these.

It takes about 10 minutes to get a quote, buy coverage and get access to policy documents and your certificate of insurance (COI).

You can access your documents and COI 24/7 online or in the ERGO NEXT app for iPhone or Android.

You can file a claim anytime online or in the ERGO NEXT app.

You’ll be asked to share the details of what happened and to provide relevant photos and documentation. We strive to make claims decisions as quickly as possible so that you can get back to work.

Learn how to file a claim.