The 10 most important insurances for starting entrepreneurs
If you are just starting out as an entrepreneur, there are a lot of things you need to take care of. An important one is your insurance. As a starting entrepreneur, you naturally want to protect your business well. There is an incredibly wide range of business insurances, making it sometimes difficult to determine which ones you really need. When choosing insurance, it is therefore important to determine which risks you want to insure. You do not have to insure all risks. Some risks you may be able to bear yourself because you have the financial room to do so. Which risks you can best insure depends on your business, your financial strength and the industry in which you operate. On Alpina.nl we list the 10 most important insurances for starting entrepreneurs!
1. Corporate Liability Insurance (AVB).
Imagine you have just opened a store, and a customer trips over the rug and breaks a leg. Or you've just started as a painter and accidentally drop a pot of paint across your customer's laminate floor. Liability claims can sometimes run high, especially if they include personal injury. With Business Liability Insurance, you are insured for liability damages to a customer. This involves damage to others or belongings to others caused by you or your products. The coverage of an AVB is similar to Private Liability Insurance (AVP), but for your business.
2. Professional liability insurance
Professional Liability Insurance is often confused with AVB, but it is indeed different. With Professional Liability Insurance, you insure yourself in the event of professional misconduct for which you are liable. This insurance covers business owners' property damage. Professional liability insurance is particularly intended for ZZP'ers and SME'ers who provide advice, for example. These can be architects, engineers, consultants in business services and ICT specialists.
3. Business legal expenses insurance
Business legal expenses insurance is a useful addition for any business owner. After all, there are many ways you can become involved in a legal conflict. For example, if a supplier fails to deliver materials on time or if a conflict arises over a permit. With business legal expenses insurance, you are assured of legal help and advice in the event of a conflict that arises from performing activities in your profession. You will also receive compensation for the costs of this legal help. These include litigation costs and costs of independent experts.
4. Inventory Insurance
As a business owner, you probably have a lot of inventory, such as desks, computers, office supplies, special machinery and supplies. Your inventory is essential to your business, so it makes sense that you don't want anything to happen to it. Therefore, to protect your business, you can purchase inventory insurance. With inventory insurance, your inventory is insured against damage caused by fire, storm or burglary, among other things.
5. Transportation Insurance
Almost every business owner has to deal with transportation. Whether it concerns materials for your company or transport to the customer: if something goes wrong with your goods during transport, it can have unpleasant consequences. That is why you can take out transport insurance. Transport insurance is an insurance that allows you to insure your goods in case of damage and theft during transport. Many entrepreneurs think of transport only in terms of a truck or container ship, but transport in a company car or plane is also covered. If the carrier damages or loses the goods, you will receive compensation from your insurer. Even if the cargo of a truck goes up in flames due to fire, you are fortunately insured for this.
6. Business interruption insurance
With business interruption insurance, your business is insured in the event of damage caused, for example, by fire, storm, water damage, vandalism or theft. Business interruption insurance covers your fixed expenses and the profits you would have made under normal circumstances. This way, you won't immediately run into financial problems if your business has to close for a while. You are then insured against loss of sales if business operations come to a halt for a while.
7. CAR insurance
CAR insurance is especially useful for contractors, clients, architects and structural engineers, for example. CAR stands for Construction All Risk. CAR insurance covers material damage that occurs during the construction or reconstruction of buildings, roads, bridges and installations, for example. For example, if an installed wall during an addition suddenly collapses. The damage can be caused, for example, by a design error, execution error or construction error. But damage caused by fire, storm or theft is also covered. A standard building insurance or company liability insurance does not cover damages during construction or renovation work.
8. Cyber Insurance
Cyber attacks unfortunately take place daily and are not without risks. More and more Dutch companies are seeing the dangers of cybercrime. A cyber insurance policy insures you against the consequences of incidents related to digital processes, such as viruses, hackers, system intrusions, data breaches, lost data and DDoS attacks. Failures during the use, maintenance and improvement of the ICT system are also covered by cyber insurance.
9. Environmental damage insurance
Every business owner can face environmental damage. For example, if you use cleaning agents that damage the environment, but also if a fire breaks out in your business premises, releasing asbestos. If you have to pay the remediation costs yourself, this can add up considerably. To be insured against this, you can take out environmental damage insurance. Environmental damage insurance is a business insurance that covers the costs of environmental damage. This can be both environmental damage at your own location or environmental damage you cause at someone else's. Environmental damage caused by someone else at your location is also covered. Environmental damage is caused by, for example, contaminated fire extinguishing water, asbestos particles, leaking diesel or certain cleaning agents that contain harmful substances.
10. Business or van insurance
Do you use a company car or van (or several) in your business? Then you are obliged to insure the vehicle at least WA. You can also opt for more extensive coverage, such as WA + limited casco on an all-risk insurance policy. You also have the option of taking out additional insurance. For example, you can think of the damage passenger insurance and the accident passenger insurance. You can also opt for the addition of your own transport. This insures possessions in the car that are not part of the vehicle.
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