Small businesses play a very important role in a nation in emerging/developing economies such as Nigeria.
These businesses are very significant in development as they create job opportunities, contribute in alleviating poverty, provide goods, render services, and boost competition in the business market.
The importance of such businesses can not be over estimated.
Being an entrepreneur of a small scale business, having put in effort and energy into starting up, protecting such business is one thing one must put in mind to ensure the business becomes a successful one.
It’s already a known fact that running a business involves risks that are expected or unexpected but business insurance can protect small business owners from liability claims and property damage.
The types of insurances vary but each type protects one and his/her business in diverse ways ranging from giving employees benefits when they get sick or hurt on the job to property damages, covering costs to help businesses recover for data breach.
READ ALSO: Lagos State To Take Full Ownership Of Lekki Concession Company
Insurers offer a package of a combined number of insurances coverages which they sell off as a single contract.
The most common for small businesses is the BUSINESS OWNERS POLICY (BOP).
The BOP covers all major property and liability insurance risks as well as many additional coverages into one package policy suitable for small businesses.
Specifically, the coverages include:
- Property insurance – This policy covers the damage done to the property by certain events. This policy specifies such events which may include fire, wind damages, smoke damages, vandalism, explosions and so on.
The policy covers the building whether it is leased or owned. It further covers business-owned items, leased or owned that are on-site at the time of the damaging event.
- Premises liability – This policy covers the damages of those who may be injured while on the property. Includes injuries, defective products, slip and falls , accidents and so on.
- Crime coverage – This policy covers varieties of crime suffered including theft, computer fraud and break-in.
- Business interruption or business income insurance – if a business is qualified for these policies, they turn out to be life savers to businesses that fall victims to damaged buildings, natural disasters whereby businesses cannot further be conducted, these policies cover the loss of income and go as far as covering the extra expenses of doing business at a temporary location.
Having one’s business insured boosts credibility, giving clients and customers a sense of safety as there would be compensated if anything goes wrong.
