Top Reasons Why Your Business Needs Liability Insurance

If you own or run a small business such as a landscaping business, you need to make sure that you manage risks properly. That’s why having landscaping insurance is so important. If you don’t have coverage and the unthinkable happens, you could be left with very difficult financial repercussions or the loss of your business. There is no reason for this to happen if you invest in liability insurance. It protects your business, your employees, and yourself against claims that may be made against you. This blog will tell you the Top Reasons Why Your Business Needs Liability Insurance. Here are the reasons:

You Can’t Predict Everything

The thing about life is that sometimes things just happen, and there’s nothing we can do about it. You might have a very strong culture of safety at your place of business. You take all the precautions and provide training for your staff on health and safety. However, a client or visitor could still find themselves running into a shelving fixture, or slipping on a power cord that had been out of place for no more than 30 seconds. That person may then file a lawsuit against you for any medical bills or missed wages, even though you took every reasonable precaution. 

Being properly protected against things that you can’t predict is a much better option than keeping your fingers crossed that everything will be fine. A culture of safety is very important for minimizing risk, but it won’t prevent everything. 

Nobody’s Perfect

Let’s face it: people make mistakes. It can happen to the best of us, and unfortunately, if it happens within your business, it could lead to a loss for somebody else. This can happen with service-related business. For example, accountants and financial professionals hold a lot of trust with their clients. However, a miscalculation or a poor projection could lead to losses for clients. At that point, they may choose to take legal action to recover those losses. If you have accountants professional liability insurance, you can be protected against paying for damages, legal costs, and other associated costs. 

One Incident Can Put Your Business In Jeopardy

A surprising number of small businesses get sued every year. Even more are faced with threats of lawsuits that never come to pass. If you have a small business, you are more at risk of financial ruin from a lawsuit than a large corporation. For example, the cost of defending yourself against a lawsuit could range anywhere from $3000 to $150,000. Obviously, the higher figure would ruin most small businesses. It would only take one incident for this to happen. One second you are growing your business and feeling good, and in a flash it can all come crashing down. 

You Owe It To Your Employees

Let’s say you are held liable for an injury sustained on your property. If you don’t have coverage, you will have to fight in court to avoid paying damages. If you lose, you could then be on the hook for medical bills, damages for pain and suffering, lost wages, and any other costs related to that injury. You will have to pay for these out of your business assets. Once those run out, you may then have to pay out of your personal assets, depending on the situation. If this leads to you having to close your business, you might be able to manage. However, what about the people that work for you? They may have thought they were in a steady job they enjoyed. They now have to look for work simply because you did not properly protect your business. 

The World Is Changing

Society and human nature is always evolving. What may have not been a risk in the past may be very much a risk now. Take cyber security, for example. Even twenty years ago, only certain businesses may have needed cyber liability. However, most businesses now use cloud-based services for their business. It might be for data storage or for purchasing through a third party application, but it is all still at risk. If you don’t have cyber liability insurance, then you could be at risk of your data getting out, and your affected clients bring actions against you. It may not have been something you worried about when you first started out, but it is now very much a concern. 

General Liability Doesn’t Cover Everything

You might think that because it has “general” in the name, that general liability will cover you for any possible liability claims. That is not correct. General liability tends to refer to any injuries or property damage that occur on your property or as a result of actions by yourself or your employees. It does not cover professional liability as discussed above, and it may not cover cyber liability. Not all general liability policies are the same, so you will need to make sure that you are protected against all predictable liability claims you might face. 

Your Products Could Cause Injury or Worse

If you produce a product, you should be very proud of it. However, sometimes safety issues do not get caught before they start getting sold, and the unthinkable happens. Even if your product isn’t defective or unsafe, someone may still choose to sue you. Unfortunately, when your product is out into the world, you have no control over what people do with it. They could even be making up their claims completely, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to pay to defend your business and your product. With product liability, you will get compensation for legal and defense costs to clear your good name. 

Some businesses are more open to liability than others. In fact, certain professions are required to have liability coverage in most states, depending on how much risk they are exposed to, and how much risk they can pose to their clients and partners. A lawsuit could cripple your business and your finances so you need to be protected. When looking at your business liability options, remember this list of the top reasons why you need it.