More Than A Raincoat – Correctly Protecting Your Business This Winter
As winter sets in across the country, it can be a perfect time to re-evaluate the structure of your insurance to make sure that your business is best protected against unforeseen natural events.
As we have seen across the past month, New Zealand is prone to events such natural events such as tropical storms which can bring with it flash flooding and unfathomable winds, in fact, insurance company Insurance company Tower posted a bigger first-half loss in May this year, as its earnings were hit by bad weather claims and an arbitration decision.
This can leave your business vulnerable to damage, no matter the size of your building, and if your insurance isn’t structured properly you may find yourself in a position where you are exposed where you thought you were covered.
Basic Property Insurance is what most smart business owners will have a basic cover – and this is still important. This will cover the costs of any structural damage that can occur to your business premise during a natural disaster.
But it’s also just as important to make sure that what’s inside the premise is covered as well, this is where business asset insurance comes in. Business Asset Insurance covers the damage done to inventory as well, this could be goods in a retail store, or equipment in a workshop, or the basic business tools such as laptops, graphics tablets and printers in an office space.
When your business is severely affected by a natural disaster it can put your business on hold for an unforeseen time period, in which you and your employees won’t see a steady cash flow which can cause major problems. No employer wants to let their employees down, especially if a natural disaster has affected a whole community – they will be depending on their wages to get them through.
This is where Loss of Revenue insurance comes in, this can help cover the income lost due to a disaster-related closing of the business facility or due to the rebuilding process after a disaster. Loss of Revenue Insurance will cover the costs of your employee’s wages during this period as well as any lost revenue from the closure.
But sometimes the business just can’t be put on hold, especially if you are a commercial business that can be vital to community repairs – and this is where business interruption insurance can be your saving grace. Business interruption insurance can cover the costs of renting a new premise while yours is being repaired, loss of income over the rebuild, increased cost of working and turnover costs.
So make sure you are a smart business owner over the wetter seasons, taking a few minutes to look over your plan can have long-term benefits for you, your business and employees for when the unthinkable happens.