SME Insurance

Whether it is the case that you are a sole trader, a family run business or a more established company, if you do fall under this bracket, then you need to seek out a specialist SME business insurance policy which will suit your needs.

What cover is available?

Buildings

When it comes to commercial and residential buildings, as an owner this cover will protect your premises for any damages to the fixtures, fittings, walls, roofs and more.

In the event that a fire, flood or vandalism occurs, your property may need to be repaired. In this time, you cannot rent out your property to tenants. However, if you have buildings insurance in place, this will pay out for all the repairs as long as it part of the policy you have taken out.

Contents  

For shopkeepers, retailers and manufacturers, they will need to cover their contents against theft, vandalism and other damages. Your contents can include your important documents, products, stock, machines and equipment. If these items are vital to running your business day to day, then your policy can replace key items or provide income for any lost business.

Vehicle  

If running commercials vehicles, couriering or transporting good is a big part of your business, then you can protect whoever the drivers are, the vehicles and goods. To avoid any business downtime, the policy will cover you for any repairs that the vehicles will need if they are involved in an accident, so you can get back on the road in no time.

SME Liability Insurance Explained

Liability insurance is vital to protect your business against a person taking who is taking legal action against you. For example, this could be an employee, a member of the public or customer who might have injured themselves on your premises or is holding you responsible for damaging their property.

If you are found to be responsible for the damages in question, your business will be required to pay out compensation to the claimant in the form legal fees, ambulance costs, medicals bills, hospital treatment and by paying for the income they would lose from not being able to work. When it comes to a building, compensation might be paid to repair and replace any physical damages to the property.

For an SME, there are a number of different liability policies. If it is the case that part of your business practice that you come into contact with the general population, you will need to get public liability insurance. This will help to cover any compensation to a member of the public that may experience injury as a result of you carrying out work. For example, if something heavy were to fall on a customer in your shop which results in injury.

In a similar fashion, if an SME sells products, they can apply for products liability cover. This will cover any lawsuits that may come about as a result of defected or unsafe products which are accidentally sent out to anyone. This applies to anyone who is making and selling the goods or someone who works with a manufacturing company. There will always be a risk that one of your products may not turn out the way you hoped, causing harm to a customer along the way. To avoid having to pay a huge settlement, you can get cover to pay for any legal fees and damages that may happen to the customer.

It is, in fact, a legal requirement for any firm which does hire people as employees to have employers’ liability cover to protect the staff from potential harm in the workplace. Whether it be from physical stress or from performing manual labour for long periods of time or it is emotional stress due to high demands in the workplace, employees have the right to seek some sort of financial compensation. You do not want to have to deal with a hefty lawsuit and this policy will help you to avoid that.