Business

Small business insurance is usually assembled from a few standard pieces, and the failures come from missing a piece rather than from buying the wrong one.

The core components

• General liability — third-party injury and property damage; the coverage landlords and clients ask you to prove
• Commercial property — your building, equipment, inventory and improvements
• Business interruption — replaces income while you cannot operate after a covered loss, and the piece most often omitted
• Workers compensation — required in most states once you have employees
• Commercial auto — personal auto policies exclude business use, which surprises a lot of owners
• Professional liability — for advice-based work, where the claim is a mistake rather than an injury
• Cyber liability — increasingly relevant for any business holding customer data or taking payments

The BOP

A business owners policy bundles general liability and commercial property at a lower combined cost. It fits most small operations well. It does not include workers compensation, commercial auto, or professional liability — those are separate, and assuming otherwise is a common and expensive mistake.