OR CALL 1300 542 245
Some people choose to run their business from home due to the lifestyle benefits, whilst others choose to do so because of the lower cost.
Whilst both options are very much valid, it’s important to check your insurance to ensure you are not putting yourself or your family in financial jeopardy.
Just because your home and contents is insured does not mean that everything will be fine.
Potential Risks
Working from home can seem like a pretty safe way of running a business, but there are a number of potential risks which need to be considered.
Personal Injury
This should be the most serious concern for anyone running a business from home.
If any visitors to your home office suffer an injury within your premises you could find yourself liable for some fairly hefty compensation bills.
Ordinarily this type of thing would be covered by the public liability insurance included within your standard home and contents policy, however this will not always apply to business related claims.
Even if you don’t have any clients visiting you at home, there is always the possibility that a supplier or some other business visitor could injure themselves whilst at your office.
You can protect yourself from this risk by taking out a business public liability insurance policy.
This will ensure that if anyone injures themselves or suffers damage to their property whilst on your premises for business purposes, you will be covered if you are found to be liable for the incident.
Theft & Property Damage
Just because your business is based at home doesn’t mean that your business contents will be covered by your standard contents insurance policy.
Even if you have told your home insurance company that you are running a business from home (which is a must) you may still find that your business contents is not fully covered.
Most standard contents policies will provide some cover for business contents, but generally there will be limits in place in terms of dollar figures or as a percentage of the overall sum insured.
Rather than relying on your standard contents insurance it is important to properly protect your business property with a general property insurance policy.
Other Risks
There are many other risks to consider, and generally they are no different regardless of whether you’re working from home or otherwise.
If you are offering consulting services or providing advice to clients, you will need to consider professional indemnity insurance.
Income protection is also an important consideration if you are working for yourself.
Most income protection policies will have special conditions for people working from home, so it is important to discuss this with your financial adviser when taking out the cover.
Saving Money
Saving money is an important issue for anyone running a home-based business, and the good news is that your business insurance does not have to cost you a fortune.
You can bundle a range of covers including your public liability and general property, and in some cases also your professional indemnity if required.
Get Covered
Running your business from home is often the best way to get started in business, as well as offering some great benefits in terms of lifestyle and being closer to your family.
If you are going down this path, make sure you put aside a little bit of time and money to get your insurance sorted out properly.
By getting it right the first time you can save yourself a lot of heartache (not to mention money) in the event of a claim.