If you have started a small, at-home business you may have decided to forego any insurance for it feeling that your homeowner's or renter's insurance is enough. However, if you want to be safe, and not end up having to pay for a legal settlement out of your own pocket, it is best to always have commercial insurance. Before you scoff and keep operating without this protection, consider the following.

Liability Insurance

Even though you do not have a business facility does not mean that you do not need some type of liability insurance. You still have to meet with clients somewhere. If you plan on having them come to your home, you need to be protected in case someone slips or is hurt while on your premises. You could try to make a claim against your homeowner's insurance but odds are good they will not pay it if/when they found out it had something to do with your business.

Property and Casualty Insurance

Again, you may think you are covered for any damage to the property due to a flood, fire, or other unforeseen event but it will not cover the business portion. For example, if there is a fire in your home and you lose thousands of dollars in inventory or the computer that holds all the data for your business, your regular insurance is not going to replace that.

Product or  Service Liability Insurance

No matter what type of business you are operating, something can go wrong. Perhaps your product or the work you did for someone caused an injury. The client could sue you for medical costs as well as pain and suffering. Even though you may be selling a product that only cost the buyer a few dollars, you could end up paying thousands of dollars in a lawsuit. Product liability insurance protects you in these situations.

To protect your business and your personal finances you need to have commercial insurance. You may feel that you do not have to worry about it because you are only creating websites for other businesses. However, what happens if that website causes a virus or is compromised because you forgot to do something and the website's company is sued? That company is going to turn to you to pay all the damages. Without proper insurance, you will need to pay for it yourself. A monthly insurance premium will be much less and easier than what you will pay in legal fees and the settlement.

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