Business insurance — A small business saver

I feel bad for the guy I really do.

But it could have been easier.

Landscaper insurance
These things are expensive. Make sure you have a way to replace them if someone steals it. photo credit: Jo Zimny Photos James & The Giant Lawnmower! via photopin (license)

A post came through my Facebook feed.

A wife in Arkansas complaining about the lowlife who stole her husband’s lawnmower, weedeater and blower that he used in his business.

“This is my husband’s business…..our livelihood! I am a stay at home mom……this is what supports our family. This is what feeds our family!!”

I know. I sell things that no one ever wants to use.

But if you need it, that investment in small business insurance can save your livelihood and keep food on the family table.

It can replace what’s been stolen. Or blown away. Or burned.

It can pay you while you’re getting your business back up and going. 

There’s a whole host of things insurance can do.

It’s not always cheap. But it’s a whole lot cheaper than not having it.

Food Contamination Shutdown — Business coverage for restaurants

Most of the time, a case of food poisoning means we won’t be getting too far from the bathroom for a while. Uncomfortable, but something we’ll recover from.

For a restaurant, it could be mean the end of a business.

I heard an ad on the radio the other day, a Springfield restaurant owner trying to lure customers back after a well-publicized series of health inspection failures.

If you’re in the Ozarks, you’ve probably already heard the ad or the closure, so I won’t go into details.

But if you’re a restaurant owner, I hope it makes you question, “What if?”

That’s the basis of my job as an insurance agent — asking “What if?” then finding a way to plan for it before it happens.

So, What if my restaurant had to shut down because of food poisoning?

Food contamination shutdown and food-borne illness business interruption are two of the coverages that you can include with your Restaurant Business Owners Package with Farmers.

Similar to business income insurance, these two coverages can pay for the loss of income if the health department shuts down your restaurant because of an actual or suspected contamination.

It can also help pay for loss of income because the health department announces that a case of food poisoning was traced back to your restaurant — or another restaurant with the same name.

Obviously, your best line of defense is keeping an eye on your kitchen staff to make sure nothing happens in the first place. But these are two ways Farmers can help you get back to where you belong.

The importance of business income insurance

The news last night interviewed an employee of Industrial Wood Products who worried about her coworkers after this fire destroyed their workplace.

My job as an insurance agent is to help you get ready before bad things happen and then recover afterward.

Now, when most people think about insurance, they think about getting the money to rebuild their business’s physical location.

But there is also a coverage called “Business Income” that is absolutely critical in instances like this one.

It pays you (as the business owner) the income that you’re not making because your place burned down.

Let’s be optimistic and say that it will take six months to rebuild the plant. Could you go without income for six months? Could your employees?

That’s right. The Business Income rider includes the money you would pay your employees. So that when your business is rebuilt, you won’t have to look for new employees because the people who work for and with you won’t have to have had to find a new job to pay their bills.

To be clear: I know nothing more about the fire or the business than what’s in the news; I am not commenting on the insurance in place at Industrial Wood Products. But I hope they had Business Income coverage so that the woman on the news and her coworkers won’t spend the next few weeks trying to find a new job.

 www.farmersagent.com/dgragg