You may just be starting out as an entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve been working in, managing or running a business for many years now. Maybe you’ve NEVER worked in a company, and as such have never needed to bother with certain types of insurance. Whichever of the above you are, if you’re about to embark on the journey of owning a business, public liability insurance is definitely something you’re going to want to look into.
Now, you’re probably asking: “why the heck do I need public liability insurance? I’ve owned a business for years now and have never needed it before!”
However that may be, you’re leaving yourself wide open for claims to be thrown at you left, right and centre. Now, allow me to explain what public liability insurance is, and hopefully it will clear up any misconceptions and give you a slightly clearer idea of why public liability insurance is just so important in the process of running a business.
Public liability insurance is insurance for any company, small or large, to protect themselves and their businesses in the case that a customer or other member of public comes onto the premises of their business sites and happens to suffer any injuries or damages and wants to sue or make a claim against your company. Interestingly, this also applies to any business personnel who happen to work from home.
Now onto the important point: What type of business personnel you are, and whether you actually need public liability insurance.
If you’re self-employed, and don’t tend to have a place of work, and also don’t have member of staff on a payroll, then it seems less likely that you’re going to need public liability insurance. However, you should still give it some very serious thought as if you provide a wide scale services or are selling products on a huge scale to a number of different clients and customers, then not getting public liability insurance could come back and bite you in the butt if you’re not careful.
However, if you are an employer, meaning you have a number of staff who look to you for their wages and work, then you are required by law to have Employers liability insurance, which is a beefed up version of public liability insurance, which also includes protection from claims made against you by member of staff. There is a very serious difference as you may notice between these two types of insurance, and it is important to differentiate between the two, as one only covers you from claims made by the public.
It is also important to note that one is not an improved version of the other. What this means is, if you’re an employer you’re going to need both types of insurance, as employers liability insurance only covers members of staff, and public liability insurance only covers members of public, not both. As such, you are recommended (and in the case of employers liability insurance, required) to take out both types of insurance to ensure you have maximum protection from any future problems that the public or members of staff may encounter.
Be sure to look for a public liability insurance quote, as you can usually find pretty good deals on these types of insurance. Remember, don’t slip up and find yourself bogged down with claims not covered by insurance that you could have easily taken out just a few months before.
