Insure Your Business and Prepare a Business Continuity Plan

No one wants to think about an event so severe that it would cause your business to close. However, disaster planning needs to be part of your ongoing business plan.  Major events can include floods, storms, data breach, fires, accidents, death of an owner, or lawsuits. Whatever the risk, a little pre-planning can go a long way toward getting your business up and running again.

 A key part of your plan should be a review of your business insurance program. Your business insurance should include the following:

Property insurance: Covers your buildings, equipment, machines, and other property from loss or damage. Coverage should include business income coverage.

Commercial Liability Insurance: Provides coverage for bodily injury and property damage you cause to others.

Commercial Auto Insurance: Covers your company vehicles if they are involved in an accident. It can also cover your business if you, or an employee, uses a personally owned vehicle on behalf of the business.

Cyber Liability Insurance: This insurance can protect your business from a data breach. If your business stores sensitive or non-public information about employees or clients, you are responsible for protecting that information.

Management Liability Insurance: Management Liability can encompass these important business insurance coverage: Professional liability, and Directors and Officers Liability.

Having the right kind of business insurance is not the only thing your business should consider. You need to develop a plan in the event your business is shut down.

Business Continuity Practices

• Identify your risk- Develop an understanding of what kind of risks could leave employees, customers, and vendors vulnerable.
• Define the impact- Determine what you need to do to restore critical operations.
• Be proactive- Your prevention and mitigation plans should address, among other things, emergency response, public relations, resource management, and employee communications.
• Practice- Test and update your plan yearly or any time critical functions, facilities, suppliers or personnel change. Train employees to understand their role in executing the plan, too.

At Leap / Carpenter / Kemps, Merced County’s largest locally-owned agency, we have an experienced staff of professionals who understand that each business is unique and that the one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work. Our agents have access to more carriers and more plans, and that means that they have more options to create the best possible combination of coverage to minimize your risks and lower your costs.