When was the last time your business reviewed its insurance policies? This is something that should be done every year to ensure that your company has enough coverage, as well as the right types of coverage. There are two things to consider when doing this: the past and the future. In addition to looking back to see if you had enough protection for all of your business’ needs and operations, you also need to consider what your business has planned for the future. Otherwise, you might run short of coverage when you need it the most.
New Company Goals
Before meeting with your insurance agent, you need to go over your company’s goals. By this point in the year, your board, CEOs, or partners have met and set up some goals for the next year. Consider this: do you plan to increase your product load? Hire more drivers and lease more trucks? Add new products to your lineup? If any of these ring a bell, you’ll need to adjust your insurance policies to make room for them. After all, you can’t have new employees going without workers’ compensation insurance or leave those new trucks without commercial auto insurance policies.
Potential Risks in the New Year
In addition to considering your new company goals, you also need to anticipate risks. After all, these risks are what you’re getting insurance for, just in case something goes wrong. What types of risks should you plan for?
New Product Lines – Usually, new successful products are followed by copycats, so you’ll need to have intellectual property insurance in place should they try to violate your copyrights. Other issues arise when some of your production process gets shared with the public. Intellectual property insurance comes in handy with this as well. You need to keep your new processes that go into your products a secret in order to avoid competition.
New Buildings – Does your company plan on expanding? Is a new manufacturing building or warehouse needed for your products? If so, this building will need to have property insurance in place, as well as any specialty options, like windstorm or floor insurance. In addition, you may need additional coverage for any equipment that you’re moving into the structure. It all depends on what your plans consist of.
New Issues That Pop Up – Unplanned problems can crop up at any time. Does someone get injured by one of your new products? Liability insurance can provide some necessary coverage. Worried about a customer slipping and falling on your warehouse floor? Again, this is where liability coverage can help. And, on top of standard liability insurance, there’s umbrella insurance, which goes above and beyond standard liability plans.
Have Questions? Contact Charlotte Insurance
Want to learn more about insurance reviews for businesses? Contact Charlotte Insurance. Our agents can explore and explain all available options and put together the insurance coverage plan your business needs.