delqom

You have probably considered some form of insurance for your business, if like me, you have been self-employed. i used to believe that my home insurance was adequate cover, when working as a freelancer. Thankfully I was never required to put this to the test, otherwise I would almost certainly have found that I was wrong.

Office insurance cover is an absolute must, if you want to stay in business indefinitely. It is a good way of gaining client credibility, and creates a sense of a ‘level playing field’. It certainly is not the case of one rule ‘them’ and a different rule for everyone else. You are not seen by the law as being any different to a large corporate who may be employing thousands of people.

Most contractors in my sector, the IT industry, are required by law to have the correct insurance in place. All sole traders and one-man-bands had to set up a limited company. With this limited status, comes a need for special limited liability insurance, which has two clearly distinct areas to consider:

1. General liability: covers all damage that you may cause whilst on the employer’s premises, extending to injury or damage to a member of the public.

2. Professional liability: covering any errors or omissions that could arise during the course of your contract. An industry-specific example might be cover for litigation as a result of forgetting to licence a picture from an online library.

If you rely on a van to make a living, then a different insurance cover is needed. Specific business van insurance is available and is tailored towards the insurance of the precious cargo contained within. Some of the benefits that you should expect are:

1. 24 hour recovery for breakdown: covers breakdown and recovery anywhere in the UK for a twenty four hour period.

2. Vehicle replacement: if your vehicle is involved in an accident it will be replaced by this cover.