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 If you are going to start a business, you’re definitely going to want to get some liability insurance.  Whether you want the complete protection of your assets or some basic, cheap security, business insurance is a very important purchase, and it is very important, therefore, to get the right kind.
For starters, there are four kinds of business insurance: general, professional, product and EPLI.  General covers property damage, bodily injury and liability, and nearly every business has some form of general insurance coverage.  Professional insurance (or Errors and Omissions, as it is more commonly called), protects businesses from negligence that might result in the field of law, medicine, engineering, architecture, real estate or various other kinds of professional firms.  Product liability insurance provides protection to manufacturers from product malfunctions, and Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) covers sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination.  All of these things are variable in their coverage, but there is usually a state-mandated minimum as to how much you need to have to operate.  (Usually it is very low, and won’t cover much more than some basic, cheap security.)
Business insurance premiums can be compared through netquote, but the really important thing that you must know before purchasing business insurance is the customer satisfaction rating, which is something that you can find through JD Power and Associates, or even your state’s Department of Insurance website.  Make sure that your company has a history of making timely payments to customers and isn’t just some cheap security business insurance.  A history of legal problems will be a dead giveaway that this is a problem company.  Luckily, if you select the right one, you should not have any serious problems.


This Business article was written by Mark Karavan on 3/29/2010