Insuring a small business shouldn’t be hard. After all, you have enough work to do otherwise. Therefore, one of the most convenient ways to get business insurance efficiently is to buy a business owners policy, also called a BOP. Designed with the coverage needs of small businesses in mind, this policy will offer critical coverage that most businesses need within one package.

However, BOPs are not specific to your business until you work with your insurance agent to tailor them to your needs. This will mean adding various policy endorsements to your plan and making other coverage adjustments. Let’s take a closer look at some of the extra coverage options you might need.

Understanding BOPs

When you buy a BOP, you receive several types of commercial insurance in one package and for one price. Therefore, it’s easy to manage some of the most essential types coverage that you are likely to need. Most BOPs contain three basic types of coverage:

·        Property & Contents Insurance

·        General Liability Coverage

·        Business Interruption Coverage/Loss of Income Coverage

However, it is wrong to assume that the terms of your BOP will automatically contain the adequate coverage for your industry liabilities and property risks. BOPs are supposed to be adjustable, and to make those adjustments, you will likely need to include endorsements in your BOP.

How do endorsements work?

A policy endorsement is simply a change in coverage that makes it better fit your insurance needs. Therefore, nearly every insurance policy contains several, BOPs included.

When putting together your BOP, your agent can help you add various endorsements into your coverage to more extensively address your coverage needs. Therefore, beyond your standard property, liability and business interruption coverage, some of the endorsements you might need to add to your policy include:

·        Cyber liability insurance that protects you against the risks that computer system hacks or theft cause to your clients.

·        Equipment breakdown coverage insures repairs to essential systems that, should they fail without warning, could cause your business a significant loss of time and money.

·        Employee dishonesty coverage pays when your employees dishonestly harm customers, such as by stealing from them.

·        Money & securities coverage pays when cash itself gets stolen from the business.

·        Outdoor signage coverage insures detached signage on the property in case it sustains damage.

·        Errors & omissions (E&O) insurance pays when your professional mistakes or advice lead to third-party losses and cost a customer money.

Keep in mind, however, that some other essential forms of business insurance—workers' compensation, commercial auto insurance—cannot be purchased as part of a BOP, and you must buy them separately. However, adding these benefits into your commercial insurance portfolio along with other policy endorsements can help you create a comprehensive level of protection for yourself against all property loss risks.