5 Types of Insurance to Consider for Your Mobile Business

Not all small businesses and independent professionals work from one location. While they may have a storefront, office, warehouse, or other type of primary business workspace, scores of hard-working people travel to where they need to be to offer their products and services.

However, travelling to and from customer locations and job sites poses unique liability risks for business owners.

That calls for a customized business insurance policy that addresses those risks to protect these professionals’ finances and reputations if an accident or unexpected incident arises, providing them with the peace of mind and security they need to focus on their work.

Let’s review what insurance for mobile businesses entails:

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What Types of Mobile Businesses Need Liability Insurance?

There are multiple types of small businesses and independent professionals who operate on-the-go, providing services to their customers at various locations, such as:

• Food truck operators
• General contractors and renovators
• Mobile pet groomers and dog walkers
• Auto detailers
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Roofing contractors
• Beauticians and hairstylists
• Massage therapists
• Fitness and yoga instructors
• IT technology professionals
• Home stagers
• Photographers and videographers
• Disc jockeys (DJs)
• Caterers
• Consultants
• Arts and crafts vendors

5 Insurance Coverages Your Mobile Business Needs

What a comprehensive business insurance policy should include to cover the risks you face depends on what you do. However, here are five types of coverage every small business owner or self-employed professional should consider:

1. General liability insurance: All small business owners and independent professionals need general liability insurance. It covers the cost of injuries and property damage to third parties because of your work or regular activities. For example, if an auto detailer visits a customer’s home to clean their car and accidentally damages the vehicle, general liability insurance is designed to cover repairing the damage.
2. Commercial auto insurance: If your business is mobile, chances are you’re driving to various locations in your vehicle. Although you have private-passenger auto insurance to cover damages to your vehicle or to pay for damages to others if you’re at fault for a collision, that personal car insurance policy may not cover accidents or incidents involving a vehicle used for commercial or business purposes. Commercial auto insurance does.
3. Tools and equipment insurance: Tools and equipment insurance covers your property, tools, or equipment you transport from one job to the next if it’s damaged by fire, water, vandalism or if stolen. For example, if a general contractor who travels to various job sites has their tools stolen from their pickup truck, this type of coverage can pay to replace them. We’ve seen this happen to some of our contractor clients before and helped them file claims successfully to replace their stolen tools
4. Commercial property insurance: Yours may be a mobile business, but you park your vehicle and store your tools or inventory somewhere overnight at the end of the work day. Commercial property insurance protects your equipment, tools, electronics, inventory and storage space (including a home-based business) from damage or loss caused by fire, water, a natural disaster, vandalism, and theft.
5. Cyber liability insurance: Cyber-attacks and data breaches can destroy your business reputation, and it costs thousands of dollars to recover if such an incident doesn’t put you out of business entirely. Any independent professional or small business owner with a website, using email and social media, or a point-of-sale (POS) system is at risk of being hacked. Cyber insurance can help you recover if it happens to you.

Depending on what you do and the services you provide, there may be other coverages you require to bolster your protection, such as:

• Professional liability insurance: If you provide advice or services to your customers, you should have professional liability insurance. Also called errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, it covers professional negligence claims or allegations, mistakes you make that cause a customer physical or financial loss, or failure to deliver a service as promised.

• Business interruption insurance: If you have commercial property coverage, you can add business interruption insurance to your policy if it’s not automatically included. Business interruption insurance helps keep you afloat if you’re unable to work or forced to temporarily close for repairs following an insurable loss, like a fire. It can cover your lost income, operational expenses, utility bills, and loan or mortgage payments.

• Product liability insurance: If you sell goods in person or online, you should have product liability insurance. It covers third-party bodily injuries and third-party property damage claims caused by any product or good you manufacture, distribute, or sell.

How to Get Low-Cost Business Insurance Quickly

Zensurance is Canada’s leading small business insurance brokerage, serving hundreds of thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, and independent professionals to get the low-cost protection they need to succeed.

Explore your options by filling out our online application for a free quote. 

Our knowledgeable brokers, with their extensive experience and expertise, will shop our partner network of over 50 insurers to get the policy you need and customize it to suit your specific requirements.