5 resources every startup needs – including good liability insurance

When starting off a business, you want to make sure you are fully prepared and ready for anything that might come your way. This means you need to get the resources that will help your startup to stay afloat, thrive, and overcome many difficult obstacles. To help you along the way, we’ve put together 5 resources that we think will be a great help in maintaining your startup.

A web presence

You can get a huge digital marketing boost by going online. Getting an online presence could be what keeps your company afloat: setting up a web presence is absolutely crucial for startups, and not only so that investors and companies can find you online. An online presence is an extension of your brand, that never sleeps. 

There are so many key reasons you should get a web presence. The internet allows you to showcase what you have to offer; at the touch of someone’s fingers they can experience your whole selection, bringing in more business for you.

Social media is also a key method to building relationships with clients and customers. Interacting through this gives your brand a voice, making it more relatable and showing that your business is with the times. It also lets you get to know your customers and who you attract best. If you miss out on social media, you could be losing a key potential market.

General liability insurance

General liability insurance is a broad insurance policy that protects your startup from a huge number of risks – the biggest being going completely bankrupt. General liability insurance is one of the most cost effective ways to keep your business safe from costs from lawsuits, accidents, or other actions taken against your business. 

This type of insurance can protect your LLC if someone is injured on your business’ property, or if you have damaged someone else’s. The policy will cover costs found if you are liable, up to your policy’s limits. Here are risks typically covered by general liability insurance:

• Third-party bodily injury: if someone sues you because they were injured on your property
• Third-party property damage: if you or your employees damage someone else’s property
• Reputational harm: if someone sues your business for libel or slander against them
• Advertising injury: if another business claims your advertising looks too much like theirs, or your advertising is hurting their business

General liability insurance is not required by law, but there are many reasons why you should get it. 40% of small businesses will experience a claim in the next 10 years, according to the Hartford Reports. This type of insurance is especially suited for those working in something such as a building site or a factory, where bodily harm can be caused. Getting this insurance will give you peace of mind, and investors will also appreciate the fact that you have been responsible about insuring your assets. However there are a few downsides – such as the extra associated cost that depends on things out of your control, and some insurance plans not being as great as you had initially thought: our advice is to read the fine print!

Does your business need general liability insurance? TRUiC has a great deal of information on this insurance – visit their site for more.

Professional liability insurance

You should get at least one good type of liability insurance to protect your business. Professional liability insurance is more suited to lawyers, accountants or technology professionals – people offering services. This type of insurance, also known as E&O (errors and omissions coverage) is for both small and large businesses offering expert advice or services, protecting against claims of work that’s inaccurate, undelivered or done negligently. Lawsuits from these claims can work up hefty legal fees and also damage your reputation. This type of insurance helps with these typical risks:

• Inaccurate work: if you make a mistake that ends up costing your client money
• Negligent services: if you don’t live up to standards of quality, put in place by state laws, or contractual obligations
• Undelivered results: if your client doesn’t receive a profit, for instance, that you guaranteed them you may have to end up paying the profit they expected

Costs of lawsuits can be very high so this is a great insurance to save you money, if your profession could need it. However there isn’t any standard policy wording, so you’ll need to read individual policies to fit you, which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. As well as this, the premium is based on factors which you don’t really have control over, such as the number of claims filed in your industry.

Experienced employees

These are crucial to the health of a startup, but you need to make sure you get employees with the right type of experience. For instance, if you need someone that’s great at technology and you come across someone with 15 years of experience in managing your tech, they may not be what you need. You want to focus on someone with hands-on experience: startups need employees who are willing to work overtime and are eager at the start. Your business deserves someone who is ready to dig in themselves.

A business analyst

Startups especially need to take care not to make mistakes. You’ll need to make lots of decisions on your own, but when it’s time to do important things like report to investors, having a business analyst to interpret data for you is crucial. Business analysts engage with business leaders and users in order to understand how data-driven changes to things like products and services can improve efficiency and add value. They help to bridge the gap between IT and business, bringing both of them together so you get the best possible results, allowing you to make good marketing, sales and social decisions. Having a business analyst that’s well-known also means you hire someone that you can trust in, too.