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Winner from Sep 2010 Drawing
Owning a small business is not a walk in the park. The problems you face may seem small in comparison to those faced by GE, GM and other corporate megaliths. And while they may discuss issues in terms of billions of dollars and your problems involve thousands, every decision you make and action you take has the same impact on your business and its future as the billion dollar ones. In fact, the pressure is even more because in the case of a small business, every action of yours has a direct impact on you, your family and those who work for you. You don’t have the buffers and financial support that the big boys do to cover the risks they take.
To succeed, you have to take risks. Some pay off and some don’t. If you are a good businessman, the successes are more than the failures and despite setbacks, your business continues to grow. The key lies in evaluating the risks and protecting yourself against them. And the way to do that is with insurance. The federal government does not mandate that small businesses must be insured, but state governments do. A small business will need to have workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and state disability insurance among others. Additional insurance may have to be taken to cover specific business activities – if you use a truck for business purposes, you will need commercial auto insurance. So if certain types of insurance are mandatory, where are the risk evaluation and business decisions? The answer is that there is insurance to cover almost every possible business risk, so you ave to choose what more you need above that required by law. And how much do you need? The cost of the premiums needs to be balanced against the coverage you need.
You know your business best and are an expert at running it. You know the risks. But evaluating the costs and consequences of loss is not easy. And what about the factors you can’t control? Fire, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters are not risks. These do not occur as a consequence of any decision you make or actions you take. These are dangers, completely out of your control. The US Small Business Administration advises all business owners to discuss their insurance needs with an insurance broker. The broker will be able to not just help you evaluate the costs and consequences of calamities and claims – many of which may not even have occurred to you - but will be able to offer you a range of insurance options and guide you in finding the most secure and cost effective solutions.
Insurance brokers need to be qualified and licensed which may make the choice of an insurance broker seem simple. But some brokers are more equal than others. At Allied Brokers, we have been serving the insurance needs of the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions for over 50 years. In this half century we have dealt with the business, property, life, auto, health and other insurance needs of businesses and people with just about every type of insurance need. That amount of experience, coupled with our focus on understanding our clients and offering them the insurance products that best serve them, has given us the reputation for client service we are proud of. Contact us and see for yourself why our clients are never numbers but always individuals with specific insurance needs that it is our duty to meet.
