Your Business Is Going To Die! What Are You Going To Do About It?
In the 1980s there was a notorious sales technique for selling health insurance that was popular in the US. A salesman would make a cold call and open up the dialogue with a potential client by shouting down the phone: "You're going to die! What are you going to do about it?"
I can't imagine how fast a ton of bricks would be dropped on the company that tried that technique today, nor who exactly would drop it first, the regulator or consumer, but when it comes to business insurance it's tempting to take a similar stance to those who don't really see the point of public liability insurance.
This is your small fledgling business. To start up, you have forgone the security of a monthly wage, the certainty of holiday pay and other benefits. It's a brave, quasi-insane move that is incredibly admirable and should be awarded the highest of accolades. Why then do so many people not see the value of taking this financial and logistical tightrope walk without a safety net?
A very small number of businesses don't need it, but these are unusual and don't really operate with other people (a rarity in any venture from which you hope to make money). Any small business that has survived longer than a few months will understandably be very cautious of spending money and many businesses will see public liability insurance as an unnecessary expense.
At the risk of sounding like I'm hawking wares and crossing over into pushy ‘80s salesman territory, let me explain... You might never need it. Most people never will. That's the point of insurance. If you do need it, however, it will likely be because of a completely random act over which you have no control over. It doesn't matter how careful or responsible you are, you are completely at the mercy of third parties. Legal action from someone feeling wronged could, at best, set you back significantly. At worst – it could shut you down completely.
If you run a small business, you probably started one up to be your own boss and take control of your life, but you must face the fact that you have less control than you think, and you're going to benefit from having something there just to catch you if things go horribly wrong.
Insurance is rarely the first thing anyone thinks of when starting up a business. It's not always even the second or third thing, but it probably should at least be in the top five. A lot of business insurance packages are not complicated and you've undoubtedly got enough to keep you awake at night without worrying about the possibility of random chaos undoing all of your hard work in an instant.
This piece was provided by YOUR Insurance, an insurance broker specialising in public liability insurance and employers’ liability insurance for small businesses.
Post a Comment