Buildings Insurance: Why it is Important to Your Business

buildings insurance
A burnt restaurant - buildings insurance can avoid your business from taking more loss from such incident
If you’re running a business, then you’ll know just how much it means to you. The vast amount of time and energy put into managing your own enterprise means you can be justly proud of your efforts. That being said, the last thing you want to do after years of toil is find out you don’t have adequate cover for all eventualities.

One of the best ways to secure your continuing prosperity is to take out buildings insurance so that, if the worst should occur, you have the financial means to start again.

Insurance is often looked at as a disposable item of expense that could be shed from the company’s balance sheet to save extra outlay. Whilst this may prove advantageous in the short term, treating the protection it affords as a luxury item automatically leaves the business open to a range of threats.

A broken window, problems with subsidence or even a fire could result in vast costs for repairs and replacements if they are required. If you don’t have insurance, then there is no way to cover these costs other than dipping into your personal accounts.

All this means that building insurance is an essential part of your financial portfolio. Even when you have taken out cover, it is crucial to reassess your policy every year as an absolute minimum. If your business is moving in the right direction and making money, then the coverage that you need could be greater. This is especially true if you’ve expanded operational space or have bought costly new equipment which would be expensive to repair or replace if something happened.

You should look to overestimate the amount of cover you’ll need too, as if you have to start again after a disaster, you won’t have the luxury of shopping around for resources and good prices; you will simply need to get your business moving again as quickly as possible.

If you’re a freelancer and work from home, you may believe that your home buildings insurance will cover all of your financial requirements. However, due to increased equipment or the construction of specific work areas, you may need to significantly increase your insurance cover.

There are a number of products available to home workers that specifically safeguard the premises, and along with buildings insurance you can also look to take out public liability insurance or employer’s liability insurance depending on your circumstances. In addition, you may need premises insurance which will allow you to protect any resources and stock you may store at home.

The key to business is to build sales whilst protecting against losses. The damage or destruction of a workplace is one of the largest losses you could ever encounter and so it is vital that you take steps to protect yourself. If such a devastating event does occur, having buildings insurance will provide the necessary means to rebuild, allowing your business to rise from the ashes rather than finding that all your hard work has come to nothing when you don’t have the personal funds to start again.

Image: Ecstatic Mark / Flickr