Data - Small Business

 What Nine Out of Ten Small Business Owners Don't Know About Small Business Insurance!

Things to ponder:

Should you die prematurely, do you have enough life insurance to protect your family? This is extremely important because your small business will, more than likely, be worth nothing when you die. For example, the spouse of a deceased doctor or lawyer can only sell the tools of the trade, not the clients (the true bread and butter of any small service business). If you can predict when you might die, you could sell it ahead of time. Simple and straightforward, every single small service business owner should have at least 7X their gross income to adequately provide for their family.

But say that at the time of your demise, you want to have a family member take control of your small business. Well, there are two questions that you have to ask yourself. One, are they capable of taking over and, two, are they licensed?

What happens if you're not capable of running your small business because of an injury or a dehabiltating illness? Are you covered with enough disability insurance? For a stipulated period of time, you will be paid approximately 60% of your income when have disability insurance. The benefit may be taxable or non-taxable (depending on whether or not you deducted the premium as a business expense.)

More important...do you have "business overhead insurance"? Who will cover the costs of running your small business (utilities, insurance, salaries) while you're out of commission? Disability Insurance will not cover your small business overhead expenses, unless it is an add-on.

If you have partners, do you have a Buy-Sell Agreement? Well, if you or your partner should suddenly die, your interest in the business will be protected. Here's a good example: your partner's wife wants to claim share of the business after your partner dies. Is it in you best interest to have your deceased partner's family involved in the business? They may not know anything about how to run the business and cause huge headaches. Well, if you have this type of insurance coverage, you could avoid all of this interference by outside parties by simply buying out your partner's share of the business.

What about "disability buy-out coverage"? Do you have it? If your partner becomes severely disabled, what would you do? Do you want to keep paying him (or her) for work he cannot do, possibly for years? You have to worry about this situation if you have this type of insurance because your partner would be forced, based upon a previously signed and equitable agreement, to sell his portion of the company to you.

Now, none of these situations may ever occur but it is your small business to provide for your family as well as your small business. Decide which types of coverage you deem most important...then speak to a professional who can give you the types of coverage you require to protect your enterprise.