Home Based Business Insurance

How to Fully Protect Your Home Business

Did you know that a home insurance policy usually doesn’t protect a home based business from risks and damage?

That’s why it’s so important to consider getting additional coverage for your business.

Home based business insurance is designed to fill in that gap. It can help cover your business’s property, equipment, and potentially even client information that’s stored in your home office. Plus, if a client or vendor visits you and gets injured on your property, it can help cover medical and legal expenses.

Don’t assume that your homeowners insurance will cover you — because it usually doesn’t. At Simply Business, we can help you find home based business insurance at an affordable rate. This way, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that you’re covered if an unexpected accident or event occurs.

As a leading online insurance platform, we work hard to make getting business insurance fast and easy for our customers. Just complete our online quote form, where we’ll ask you simple questions about your home business and offer a selection of quotes for you to compare.

Best of all, it can take under 10 minutes.

Policies Available for Home Based Businesses:

• General liability insurance
• Professional liability insurance

Benefits:

• Protect your home business from certain claims.
• Cover the costs of damages caused by negligence.
• Demonstrate credibility and professionalism to customers.
• Fulfill legal requirements in your state.

What is Home Based Business Insurance?

Home based business coverage is a type of insurance that can typically help cover the costs of an unexpected accident, injury, or property damage. It’s designed to help cover your business if it’s primarily located within your home.

Because most traditional homeowners insurance doesn’t cover incidents relating to a home business, it’s important to get additional coverage.

This way, you can feel confident knowing you’re covered if something untoward happens!

Most home based business insurance policies include general liability (GL) insurance. This policy provides protection against costs associated with third-party accidents, property damage, and bodily injury to third parties, like clients or vendors.

Here’s how it can work: Let’s say you’re a professional photographer with a home studio. You typically invite clients to your home studio for family photoshoots. One day, a client trips and falls on ice while walking into your home, resulting in a trip to the emergency room.

After the incident, you find out your client is suing you for the cost of medical bills and ongoing care.

In this case, your homeowners insurance probably wouldn’t protect you, since the person came to visit your home for business purposes.

But GL insurance would protect you!

So if you operate your business from your home, you need additional home based business insurance. You can’t count on your homeowners policy to protect your business.

Home based business insurance featuring a general liability policy can usually cover:

Here’s what home based business insurance usually doesn’t cover:

What Other Insurance Should I Get as a Home Based Business?

Depending on what you do, you may want to get additional policies. For example, if you offer professional services, like bookkeeping or marketing, you may want to get professional liability insurance.

And if you have employees (even just one worker), you probably need workers compensation insurance too.

Take a look at the most common policies home based business owners buy.

Professional Liability Insurance

People who offer services to clients may need to purchase a professional liability insurance policy, as well as a GL policy. Examples of service-based businesses include, but aren’t limited to:

• Bookkeepers
• Accountants
• Website designers
• Photographers
• Marketing consultants
• And more

These are business owners who provide a professional service that’s at risk for claims of negligence, errors, copyright infringement, and other accusations.

Whether you’re at fault or not, a professional liability insurance policy can help protect you from claims of errors and negligence. It can even help cover the costs of hiring a lawyer and any damages you may incur, up to your policy limit.

Here’s an example of how it can work. Let’s say you’re a bookkeeper, and a client gets audited by the IRS because you inadvertently neglected sales tax information. The client is furious and sues you for negligence, claiming that they wouldn’t have been audited if you had included the sales tax information on their income tax return.

If you don’t have professional liability insurance, you may be on the hook to pay thousands of dollars in damages. This amount can be devastating for any business owner, but especially for small businesses. Make sure you’re protected in case you find yourself in a situation like this one.

Instead, get professional liability insurance early on — before you start working with clients.

Professional liability insurance usually covers:

Professional liability insurance usually doesn’t cover:

Workers Compensation Insurance

Do you have employees? Even just a part-time or seasonal worker? If so, you may want to include workers compensation insurance in your home based business insurance.

This type of coverage is designed to help cover the costs of an employee getting sick or injured on the job. It can even help cover a portion of lost wages.

Home based businesses can have employees, too. And if you’re one of them, you should get serious about your insurance coverage. Depending on where you live, it may even be required by law.

Here’s why. A worker’s insurance claim can be very costly, especially if it involves an injury or accident. In fact, the average workers compensation injury claim is $41,000!

And, in 2018, Americans reported $170.8 billion in workers compensation claims.

Fortunately, workers compensation insurance is designed to protect you and your business. It can help cover the costs associated with:

Wondering what other insurance coverage you may need to protect your business?

At Simply Business, we can help you find the right coverage for your home business. When you complete our online quote form, we’ll ask you questions to better understand what you do. Then we may show you bundled policies that can provide protection for home based business owners.

Why Should I Get Home Based Business Insurance?

Take a moment to ask yourself these important questions:

• Do my clients or vendors visit my home?
• Do I keep client or employee information on my computer?
• Do I have business inventory or equipment at home?
• Do I bring business equipment, like my laptop, to work events?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you likely need home based business insurance.

Many business owners who operate out of their homes make the mistake of assuming that their homeowners policy can protect them. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Most homeowners insurance policies protect your personal assets — but not your business assets.

Keep in mind, if you report a claim related to your business, your homeowners policy may deny you coverage. And without home based business insurance, you may have to pay for the costs on your own.

This could be devastating for your business, especially if it’s an expensive claim.

Take a look at the average cost of the most common claims. Could you pay for these costs out of your own pocket?

• $30,000 for property damage or accident claims
• $50,000 for reputational harm claims (e.g., in cases of slander or libel)
• $20,000 for a slip-and-fall case

Your homeowners insurance policy may help protect you if there’s an accident at your home that’s unrelated to your business. But if a client visits you, and gets injured or experiences property damage, your homeowners policy probably can’t help.

Plus, homeowners insurance usually doesn’t offer coverage for errors and omissions, and accusations of copyright infringement, libel, slander, and more.

Additionally, most small businesses are at risk for lawsuits. In fact, 43% of small business owners polled say they’ve been threatened with or involved in a civil lawsuit. In today’s world, no one is immune — even if you did nothing wrong.

At Simply Business, we can help you find home based business insurance that’s comprehensive enough to protect your business and its assets.

It’s smart to protect yourself ahead of time by securing home business insurance. Many of these incidents are out of your control, so you want to prepare just in case. Getting comprehensive business insurance is one way to help keep your business running for years to come.

Home Based Insurance FAQs

• Is home based business insurance required by law?

  It depends on where you live. Some states do require small business owners to secure coverage, even if they work within their homes.

  Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need to know the laws where you live. Our online quote form can point you in the right direction. We can help you find the right coverage that meets your state’s requirements.

• Is home based business insurance income tax-deductible?

  Yes, it usually is a tax-deductible expense. This means that the insurance premiums you pay can help lower your taxable income!

  We always recommend checking with an accountant or tax preparation specialist if you have questions about how to deduct the cost of your policy.

• How much home based business insurance will I need?

  It depends on what type of business you own — and what you do. We can help recommend coverage options based on:

  • The size of your business
  • Your business’s location
  • Your annual revenue
  • The specific services you provide
  • And more

  When you request a free quote on our website, we’ll ask you questions to understand how much coverage you may need. Then we can show you quotes from the country’s leading insurers. It’s quick to compare these quotes and then choose the policies that work best for you.

  If you have questions, just call one of our licensed insurance agents. A member of our team is here to help you find the right coverage for you.

• What should I consider before buying home based business insurance?

  As a small business owner, we know you’re busy. So we designed our quote form to help you in just 10 minutes. To speed up the process, we recommend that you have the following information available:

  • Annual revenue estimates
  • Information on any previous claims
• Does insurance for home businesses differ by state?

  Yes, states have different insurance requirements. So the type of coverage you need depends on where you work and what you do. We can point you in the right direction when you complete our online quote form or call one of our licensed insurance agents.

• What does home based business insurance cover?

  We generally recommend comprehensive coverage for most businesses based out of the home. This means that coverage includes both general liability and professional liability policies. Between these two policies, you can expect coverage for:

  • Bodily injuries
  • Accidents and damages
  • Unintentional mistakes
  • And more

  We understand that every business is different. Tell us about your company, the industry you work in, and your unique needs. Then we can help you find policy options — at the right price.

• How much does home based business insurance cost?

  There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. Costs can vary from business to business. That’s because insurance can be highly customized to meet your business’s needs.

  To help give you the most accurate quotes, we’ll ask you for information about:

  • Your business’s location
  • The services you provide
  • Your estimated annual revenue
  • And more

  Then we can provide free quotes from trusted nationwide insurers.

  If you’re ready to find out how much home based business insurance may cost you, head to our online quote form. Then answer a few questions about your business to get started.

Why Choose Simply Business?

We’re a fast-growing online insurance platform that specializes in serving small business owners. We can help you compare policies from trusted insurers across the country — and secure the right coverage for your business.

More business owners nationwide depend on Simply Business to help protect their growing companies. Here’s why:

• We make getting insurance fast. As a small business owner, you’re very busy. Fortunately, we can help you compare quotes from leading insurers in just 10 minutes.

• We cut out the jargon. Many brokers make insurance even more complicated. But we strive to make it simple, clear, and easier for you to understand.

• We support small business owners. We do more than just connect you to insurance. We also provide resources and tools to help your business thrive.

If you’re starting a home based business or own one today, don’t delay. You probably need additional coverage to ensure that you’re fully protected. At Simply Business, we can make the process easy and fast. Get your free quote today!

This content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, accounting, investment, or any other form of professional advice.