What type of insurance should a small business have?

Insurance protection is essential for the survival of any business, but this is especially true for Small businesses and Startups. Most businesses need insurance to address their unique needs to protect their employees, intellectual property, physical assets, and software.
Your insurance policy gives you peace of mind and helps to ensure that you can stay in business—even if you are threatened by a lawsuit or experience a natural disaster. 

Employees are the most critical asset for any business. Small businesses should start looking at group insurance, especially for health and accident insurance for their employees to promote loyalty, employee welfare. and the features available against an individually bought insurance scheme.
Personal Accident Insurance: A Group personal accident policy cover for their employes. The personal accident insurance policy provides compensation for any bodily injury resulting solely and directly caused by an accident. Benefit is payable for accidental death, disability (permanent total & partial, medical expenses incurred due to any accident, and even for loss of earning through a weekly compensation benefit.
Health insurance: Group health insurance for employees and their families is a must for all businesses. This is an excellent way to show a company’s commitment towards their employees. Health insurance provides protection for all incurred medical expenses of the insured person in an event of an unexpected illness or injury under the following heads:

• Room rent charges
• Surgical charges including the fees of surgeon, physician, and consultants.
• Operation theatre charges, surgical appliances, medicines, drugs, diagnostic charges and similar expenses.
• Both pre and post hospitalisation expenses.
• Coverage for COVID-19 hospitalisation 
• Cashless facilities for claims are also provided under this insurance policy

Small businesses face a wide spectrum of operational risks that need protection to ensure their financial viability. They need to cover their fixed assets and premises and should purchase a standard fire insurance policy. This insurance ensure protection of physical assets (both moveable and immoveable) including buildings, plant and machinery, stock, furniture and fittings, spares, and tools etc. The insurance policy provides coverage for:

• Fire and allied perils, accidental damage.
• Acts of god Perils (AOG) i.e. earthquake, landslide/rockslide/subsidence, water damage, flood, inundation , storm, tempest, hurricane, tornado, typhoon, cyclone etc.
• Riot, strike, malicious damage (RSMD)
• Stocks that can be covered include raw materials, finished goods, and in-process.

Marine transit insurance is an essential component of a small businesses insurance program, especially for manufacturing companies. Transit insurance provides the insurance for any loss or dam- age to the goods in transit from one place to another by all modes of transport viz. sea, inland waterways, rail, road, air. Various other interests associated with goods like freight and other interests are also covered.
Liability insurance also known as third-party insurance is also important for small businesses.  It protects the insured business from the risks of legal liabilities arising from lawsuits filed by third parties against the business for bodily injuries or property damage. There are different kinds of liability insurance that provide coverage including:

• Commercial General Liability insurance 
• Professional Indemnity insurance
• Directors & Officers Liability insurance
• Product liability insurance

The choice of the above policies depends on the type of business and the risks that need to be covered.