Business Insurance

Follow me on (insert various social media platforms here)! How many times do we hear or read that in a day? No matter how hard we try, it’s impossible to escape the reach of social media. Businesses have also hopped on the social media bandwagon to build their brands and reach out to potential customers – if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right? Along with other technology risks that businesses face, there are specific social media risks to be considered. What if you get negative comments or trolls on your social media pages? What if you’re facing a social media disaster? You need to have a plan to deal with the negativity you’ll inevitably find online.

We’ve got some tips to help you create an effective crisis/damage control plan for your social media and online presence. The trick is to be ready for a disaster before it happens – scrambling never did anyone any good.

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Sometimes there just aren’t enough bodies around to get all the work done that needs to get done. If you find yourself shorthanded, you might be considering taking on some temporary workers from a staffing agency. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement – the employee gets some work, you get an extra set of hands to help out, and you save yourself the trouble of having to go through the hiring process to find someone.

But the problem is that since your temporary workers are only temporary, they might not be covered by workers’ compensation insurance. So what would happen if they, say, fell off a ladder? Fell down a flight of stairs? Slipped on a wet tile floor in the break room? The point is that it would be hard to know who’s responsible for covering the medical bills, or the legal costs if they decide to sue.

Anyways, the point is that you need to make sure that you completely understand the relationship between the worker in question and the staffing agency. How the staffing agency classifies them (as a W2 employee or a 1099 worker) affects how they are – or are not – covered by workers’ comp or general liability insurance.

So. With that lead-in behind us, let’s jump in.

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No one wants to feel threatened or intimidated at the workplace. Work is supposed to be a safe place, and as an employer you want your employees to feel happy and excited about showing up every morning. And you want them to feel comfortable and hopefully trust the people around them. Sometimes, though, there’s behavior you might not see from some of your employees that makes others feel vulnerable or uneasy. Sexual harassment in the workplace is not something to be taken lightly. The negative effects that it has on a workplace are serious. That’s why it’s so important to know how to prevent bullying in the workplace and take steps to prevent harassment. We’ve got some tips to help you keep harassment out of your business.

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As an employer, one of your worst nightmares might be one of your employees getting hurt on the job. Your employees have families to support. If they’re injured, they’re out of work for as long as it takes them to heal. They might have a bit of a chip on their shoulder towards your company, too, if they got hurt while doing work to benefit your business.

Workers’ compensation insurance claims and employee injuries are also very costly. Getting the employee back to good health is, of course, the priority, but the costs of doing so can be very high for your business. However, there’s a way that you can help your employees and your business if someone gets hurt while working. You can create a return to work program.

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Accidents happen, but it’s generally in everyone’s best interest if people don’t get hurt. And as an employer, you’re the watchdog/fearless leader of workplace safety. It’s your job to be on the alert for potential hazards that could cause your flock harm, so you need to make your workplace as safe as possible. One way to do that is to start an injury and illness prevention program to make sure that safety is upheld throughout your business. Doing so will help you avoid workers’ comp claims and so lower your workers’ comp insurance premiums. 

And guess what? We’ve got some tips for you to get your program up and running.

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When you’re a small business owner, you pour yourself into building up your business’s name and reputation in your community. We don’t like to dwell on the negatives and the what-ifs that distract us from the now. But the reality is that if you don’t take measures to protect your business from the future you could find yourself in the devastating position of having to shut your business down. It only takes one disaster, one stroke of bad luck, to spell doom for a small business. That’s why there are so many different types of small business insurance – to protect your business from its specific and unique risks.

Your business faces many different perils every day, and there are corresponding small business insurance coverages to protect you from them. Here are ten of the most common perils and insurance coverages that you might want to consider for your business. As you read through the different types of coverage that are out there, think about your business and whether or not there are any gaps in the coverage you currently have.

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Sometimes it feels impossible to get through the day without technology. We’ve come to be extremely reliant on our computers and phones—after all, they do make things easier and faster…when they want to cooperate. Persnickety tricks and malfunctions notwithstanding, technology is great for your business. But your computers are also a huge vulnerability with plenty of IT risks. They’re an Achilles’ heel. That’s why cyber liability insurance is so crucial for your business.

Your computers are wide open to a hack that could jeopardize your customers’ personal information, even though we don’t want to think they are. Protecting your business against things that you can see is second nature, but cyber threats are pretty invisible, so it’s easy for them to escape our notice. Plus let’s be real—computers are complicated, so we might not even know we have a weak spot till it’s too late. A hack can strike like lightning—swift and devastating. Fortunately, they invented cyber liability insurance to protect your business against those invisible threats, and here’s what cyber insurance can do for you.

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