Important Insurance Coverages for Your Professional Cleaning Service

The purpose of adequate insurance is to ensure that a loss or accident doesn't deal a life-threatening blow to the professional cleaning business you've worked so hard to build. Here are a few common insurance coverage issues you should discuss with your Trusted Choice® Independent Insurance Agent:

Similarly, the parents among you may also be remembering your inaugural journey to a college campus far, far away — as you prepare your own son or daughter for imminent departure into an unfamiliar universe. You may already feel like you are careening through a veritable asteroid belt of urgent priorities — checklists, dorm requirements, aid applications, medical forms, roommate concerns, and the ever stressful "what stays and what goes."

Insurance for your Stuff

Your cleaning service may not have an office, shop or business headquarters that requires commercial property insurance, but you'll still need insurance to cover your supplies and equipment. Unfortunately, many small business owners forgo purchasing an insurance policy to cover business personal property, instead looking to their homeowner's insurance policy for protection should their supplies be damaged or stolen. While some homeowner's insurance policies offer limited coverage for business personal property, such coverage may prove insufficient to cover the cost to replace the damaged or stolen supplies.

And if your supplies are damaged in a vehicle accident or stolen from your vehicle, insurance coverage may be further limited or excluded. An auto insurance policy covers only damage to the vehicle itself and usually not damage to personal property. Ask your Trusted Choice® Independent Insurance Agent about a policy that covers your business and personal property regardless of where it's located.

Your Business Buys a Car

Your cleaning business purchases an auto and secures insurance for it on a business auto insurance policy (BAP). A typical BAP offers broad coverage to you and others while driving the business-owned auto. But what happens when the accident involves a vehicle not owned by the cleaning business? Consider the following two scenarios:

Scenario #1

What happens if the business is brought into a claim or lawsuit due to an accident caused by an employee driving a personal car to or from a customer's location? First, the good news: You can modify a BAP to extend coverage to the cleaning business for accidents involving non-owned cars. The bad news? Without adjustments to the policy, the business is on the hook for expenses resulting from the accident, a devastating blow to any business's bottom line.

Scenario #2

Many business owners forgo owning a personal vehicle, choosing instead to only drive a vehicle owned by the business. While the BAP sufficiently covers accidents in the business-owned vehicle, what it will do (or not do) for accidents in other cars? For example, what happens if an owner, owner's spouse or child is involved in an accident while driving a friend's car? First, the good news: You can modify a BAP to extend coverage to specific individuals, such as the owner, spouse or children, while they are driving cars not owned by the business. The bad news? Without this change, individuals could face the financial consequences of an uncovered claim and possibly put their personal assets at risk.

Insurance for Yourself

Since owning your cleaning service, how often have you strained a back muscle while lifting a chair to clean the floor? Or tripped over a customer's rug, fallen to the floor and twisted your ankle? The reality is injuries happen and happen often, but missing work is not an option. Like many cost-conscious business owners, unless required to do so by law, you haven't thought about carrying workers compensation insurance.

What happens if that next strained muscle is too painful too ignore? Or if that next fall is so bad you need medical attention? Unfortunately, many medical and disability insurance policies won't cover work-related injuries. Talk to your Trusted Choice® Independent Insurance Agent to learn more about workers compensation insurance.

You Run the Business, We'll Do the Insurance

Insurance is a complex business. If you do all the insurance legwork yourself, you won't have enough time to manage your business. Let a trusted adviser help you stay focused on what you do best. Call your Trusted Choice® Independent Insurance Agent today.