Protecting your business

Of course, most people feel that business disasters happen to someone else. Hmm!

A home based online business carries many of the same risks as other more traditional businesses. In particular, to protect you and yours from potential losses, you may even need to consider liability insurance to cover situations where you may have to pay damages for matters that have arisen beyond your control. Do not assume your home insurance will cover you and be aware that in any event, many insurance companies require full disclosure of any business conducted from home.

Always take professional advice and select insurance cover that is most appropriate to your needs and that covers most business-related contingencies.

Although a standard homeowner’s insurance policy may cover your laptop and similar equipment, your business will requires greater coverage. Log all your business equipment and furnishings and insure them against theft, fire or similar disasters that may require that you to replace that equipment at short notice.

Consider any software that you may be using in your business, and make sure that that any cover is full replacement cost and not just depreciated value.

Insurance cover may need to include any business associates, subcontractors and employees, and make provision for any downtime and associated costs of having to run off site in the event of a disaster. In that event, make sure you have back-up copies of all data and keep them off site. ISP providers can offer data backup on the Net and this can work well.

Make sure that any legal disclaimers or terms and conditions that you use have been checked out by someone with an appropriate professional background so that they will offer you maximum protection in the event that a problem develops.

Get the advice, take action and then relax, it’ll probably never happen!