If you run a business in Washington, there are several types of insurance that you may need to consider for covering your company. The type of business that you run and the work that you do might have an impact on the types of insurance coverage that you will need. For example, you’ll need to ensure that you have insurance that covers you in the event of an accident or a product causing damage if you are working with members of the general public. If you have a business premises, you will need to ensure that it is covered against theft, damage, natural disasters and more to keep your business running smoothly even after an unexpected event. Here are some of the main types of insurance that your Washington business might need.
Liability Insurance
One of the main required Washington business insurance types is liability insurance, which protects you against anything that you might be held liable for. This insurance policy will ensure your company is covered financially against any situations that you would not otherwise be able to cover, such as a lawsuit brought against your company by a customer. If your business is found liable for causing harm, injury, damage, or loss to somebody else or their possessions, you will need liability insurance in order to be able to deal with the situation and protect your company’s reputation.
Product Liability Insurance
This type of insurance will specifically cover any damage or harm that might be caused by the products that you sell. The sad truth is that no matter how careful you are when it comes to quality control, you simply never know when something might go wrong with a product, so it’s always best to ensure that you are protected. If a customer becomes injured or sick when using a product that you have sold them, they are within their rights to file a lawsuit against your company. Product liability insurance will cover your legal fees and other expenses incurred in this situation.
Business Property Insurance
If you operate your business from a property such as an office, warehouse, or retail store, you will need to ensure that the building is insured against criminal damage, theft, natural disasters and more. Without property insurance, the building that you use for business operations could be put seriously out of action after an incident, leading to trouble for your business if you are unable to cover the financial cost of getting it back up and running as normal. A good insurance policy will not only be able to help you cover the cost of any repairs and replacements that might be needed in the building, but could also help cover the expense of working from an alternative setting in the meantime, so that your business can continue operations with little disruption.
Commercial Vehicle Insurance
If your business uses cars or vans for operations, you will need to get the right commercial vehicle insurance policy to not only protect you financially in the event of a road traffic accident, but also to cover any theft of the vehicles or company property that might be in them at the time. Ensuring that you have a comprehensive commercial vehicle insurance policy that covers you against anything that could potentially go wrong on the road including underinsured or uninsured drivers is crucial.
Medical Indemnity Insurance
Finally, if you are running a medical or healthcare business in Washington, you will need to take out medical indemnity insurance to ensure that you, your company and your customers are protected in the event of medical error or negligence. No matter how careful you are or how much you trust the employees that work for you, the sad fact is that you can never guarantee that nothing will go wrong when it comes to medical and healthcare procedures, and a lawsuit of this kind can be very expensive to deal with. Medical mistakes can have serious mistakes for your patients and most of us can agree that they will deserve compensation, which is where medical indemnity insurance will step in.
If you are in the process of starting your own business in Washington, these are just some of the insurance policies that might apply to you.
Ella Woodward is an entrepreneur who has built a career as a freelance writer and building a business from her skill with words and understanding of the needs of corporate readers.
