If you use subcontractors to help complete jobs – and nearly all of us small business owners do; make sure that your contractors have their own insurance policies to utilize. In the unfortunate incident that your company is sued because of work that a subcontractor did, many small business owners will be shocked that their own liability policies are not enough to cover the suit. Technically, the subcontractor does not work for your company, is not paid as an employee, and therefore receives none of the coverage that your small business insurance policy provides.

If a lawsuit is brought against you, it is already too late. Don’t put your business under unnecessary risk; make sure that your subcontractors have adequate insurance to cover a claim for their work. Also, it is a good idea to have ironclad subcontractor agreements drafted up so that you can ensure that each party is responsible for the work they provide.

You should also ensure that your subcontractors have the proper insurance coverage out of respect for them. Nobody likes to be blindsided by lawsuits, and ensuring that your subcontractors are covered will only help to grow the professional relationship that you two have.

For more information about protecting your small business through work that was provided by subcontractors, please visit the TechInsurance Small Business Center

One thing that keeps small business owners up at night is the threat of lawsuits from their employees. No matter how friendly of an environment your workplace is, if an employee slips and falls while at work, gets hurt lifting some computers or gets in an accident while on the clock, they could make a worker’s compensation claim against your business.

In doing so, you could be held liable for hospital bills and salary compensation for their missed time. Nobody wants to have to pay those expenses out of pocket, so workers compensation insurance becomes even more crucial.

If you are worried about paying high premiums on your workers comp policies, consider taking a look at your internal safety measures. Do you have proper warning signs in place around machinery and equipment that could be hazardous? Are employees required to take regular breaks so that they are not working while fatigued?

There are any number of ways to reduce your liability risk for worker’s comp claims as long as you are aware of injuries that could potentially occur while on duty.

For more workers comp insurance information, please visit the TechInsurance Small Business Center.

Many small business owners want to know just how much of their errors and omissions are covered by their existing policies. Let’s be clear though; errors and omissions insurance does NOT cover intentional acts to deceive or destroy. In other words, if you know that something was omitted or if an error was made, it ceases to become an error or omission and is no longer coverable by your insurance policy.

Many small business owners see errors and omissions coverage as a free license to infringe on copyrights, illegally discriminate, or avoid paying fines. None of the aforementioned items are covered under your errors and omissions insurance policy, nor will they ever be.

A big part of managing risk as a business falls on the quality control team. Sweeping items under the rug is not acceptable behavior whether your company is covered with errors and omissions insurance or not. Do your best to hire managers and team members who take pride in their work so if and when a claim is made against your company, it can be covered by your insurance policy.

To learn more about how errors and omissions insurance works, visit the TechInsurance Small Business Center.

Insurance coverage is on a lot of small business owner’s minds these days, especially in today’s increasing litigious society. Anyone who can sue will, and more often than not, it is the small business owners who see the majority of these suits.

Business owners want to know exactly what General Liability Insurance is, why they need it, and How to determine the proper amount of coverage.

General liability insurance is the most basic of the coverages for small businesses. It generally covers property damages, libel/slander claims, medical expenses and tenant’s liability.

General liability coverage is important for a number of reasons, the most important of which is protecting yourself against lawsuits. Anytime someone slips and falls while on your property is a potential claim. Anytime your company slanders another company in an advertising campaign, you are at risk for lawsuit. Make sure you have the proper coverage in place before beginning your business operations.

Determining how much coverage you need is tricky and will require the involvement of your agent as well as any pertinent industry information. If you own a business in an industry with very low liability, your policy requirements might be much lower than a company in a different industry.

For more information about determining the amount of liability coverage your small business needs, please visit the TechInsurance Small Business Center. This resource provides small business owners with articles and tools to help them efficiently manage and run their companies.

Before you cancel your existing small business insurance policy, it is important to know the repercussions of your actions. This warning goes out mainly to business owners who either have pending claims, or still have outstanding liability. Outstanding liability could be something as large as a job that is still in progress, or as small as a company still using a piece of software you developed 20 years ago.

Letting your policy lapse is essentially the same as cancelling. Any work that was done under the coverage of your prior policy will not be covered by your new policy if you let it lapse. Many small business owners are caught in unfortunate positions because they let their policies lapse. Don’t let this easy to avoid mistake happen to you.

Even if you have been operating a small business for 30 years, there are still insurance nuances that can take us all by surprise. It is important to stay educated about the insurance laws that change on a near daily basis – or you can discuss any questions with your business insurance agent. At the TechInsurance Small Business Center, you can read more about how cancelling your policy can affect your coverage.