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- General liability insurance covers a wide variety of events that could harm my small business.
- As I expand my business, my coverage will make it easier to try out new revenue opportunities.
- I got more coverage than I anticipate needing so that I’ll have room to grow over time.
While I’m a freelance content creator, earlier this year, one of my new clients required that I purchase general liability insurance. At first, I obliged begrudgingly. As someone who does most of my work from home and writes for a living, I figured the most appropriate insurance coverage for my business would be professional liability or errors and omissions (E&O) insurance.
But the more I looked into it, the more I realized it could be helpful as my business evolves and expands. Here’s why I decided it was worth the additional cost, and how it can help protect my small business as it grows.
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It provides broad financial protection
Professional liability insurance is geared toward people who provide services. On the other hand, general liability is a type of commercial insurance that pretty much any business can use. Upon doing my research, I learned that it covered more than I thought.
General liability insurance can protect against these events:
Bodily injury: Suppose you host an event or have a brick-or-mortar store. If someone accidentally slips and falls or gets injured on site, general liability can cover medical bills. Or if someone slaps a lawsuit against you for these injuries, insurance can pay for legal costs.
Property damage: Let’s say you’re setting up in a venue or are doing work on someone else’s property. You damage the walls or accidentally break some of their stuff. In that case, general liability coverage can help pay to repair or replace someone else’s damaged items or property.
Product liability: If you make and sell products, should they cause someone harm or damage a customer, general liability coverage can protect you. For instance, that could be because the product is defective, or there’s a mistake on the label that caused harm or was misleading. You can recoup financial losses from lawsuits or defective products.
Advertising injury: If you get sued for libel, slander, or copyright infringement as it’s linked to your marketing and promotional efforts for services and products you offer, general liability coverage can help.
It can help protect my business future needs
While I’m largely a freelance writer, I also do financial coaching for artists and freelancing creatives. Should I host in-person workshops or events, general liability insurance can cover medical or legal bills if someone gets hurt during an event. Or if I accidentally damage, say, a wall while hanging a signage or decorations during my event, it can pay for these damages.
I’m also planning to launch some products next year: a book to help freelancers with their finances and an Etsy shop selling stickers. General liability can help provide financial protection should I get accused of slander, libel, or copyright infringement in any promotional efforts and platforms, like through my website, social media channels, or digital marketing campaigns.
As a solopreneur, getting hit with a medical bill or lawsuit or being on the hook to cover an expensive repair could really be significant for my business of one.
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I got more coverage than I anticipate needing
After shopping around online and getting quotes from a few major companies that offered commercial insurance policies, I decided on a policy from Chubb. My coverage includes up to $1 million per occurrence, up to $1 million per occurrence should I damage a rented space, and up to $5,000 in medical expenses per person.
For my particular policy, coverage is capped at $2 million overall for the policy period, which is a year. And it’s capped at $2 million total for product coverage. My premium was $250 a year, which is a little over $20 a month. I decided to pay for it in full because I wouldn’t get dinged with installment payment service fees. At first, I assumed I didn’t need general liability coverage. After looking into it, I realized it might come in handy as my business is expanding in different ways. This coverage has helped me onboard and accept projects.
Getting general liability also jump-started my hunt for other types of insurance for my small business, such as event liability, which can provide refunds in case there’s an event cancellation, and professional liability. But for now, I’m glad I was nudged into getting this type of business insurance. It’s eased my fears of getting dealt a major financial blow, and I can move forward and grow my business with that peace of mind.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.