Understanding the steps you need to take to get your dog grooming business insurance is quite simple. Just approach it in these simple five steps and you will get the perfect insurance that matches your business needs
Step 1: Understand the different types of business insurance:
Granted, no one likes to research things nowadays, but buying any insurance policy without understanding what you are buying is like walking into a bar fight blindfolded. You don’t need to be an insurance expert, but having a little understanding of the types of business insurance out there would put you in a better position to choose what is perfect for your business.
Taking some minutes to look up the different types of business insurance would do you a world of good and end up saving you time, money, and more importantly stress. Basically, business insurance would be made up of these different types:
- General Liability
- Commercial Auto
- Professional Liability
- Cyber Insurance
- Business Owners Policy
- Worker Compensation
A quick note: of the six types mentioned here four of them are more geared toward the dog grooming business as we have already defined them above. These are General Liability, Commercial Auto, Business Owners Policy, and the Worker Compensation.
STEP 2: Take a general assessment of your business.
As a business owner, you are the best person to know how your business is set up. At this stage, we believe you should have some understanding of general business insurance and the options that will best suit your business. For example, if you are the owner of the property where you are doing the dog grooming business, you might need a Business Owners Policy, but if you run your business using an auto vehicle, you will be better served by a commercial Auto policy. Same business, different risks
STEP 3: Get a quote for your business.
When you have finished with the first two steps, the next thing to do is to get a quote for what the insurance would cost. This is actually easy as you can get this online or by calling the Insurance companies that offer this service. Our suggestion would be to contact the following:
- PetBiz Insurance
- Progressive
- Hartford Insurance
- Pet Care Insurance
STEP 4: Review the quote and buy the insurance.
Now you have a good grasp of the types of business insurance and also a good grasp of your own business, you can easily see in the quote what you may need and what you may not need. You can decide to review the quote with a pet insurance professional or better still review it directly with the company of your choice. Simply request follow-up calls or if necessary visit them if they are close by and agree on what you are going to purchase.
The next thing would be to simply make the purchase.
A quick note: Always request a copy of your final quote. This is the main proof of what you purchase in case of amendments in the future.
Step 5: Always review your policy at renewal.
Reviewing your policy at renewal every year is important. All business owners know that too many things can happen in a year and a dog grooming business is no exception. Reasons for wanting a review of your policy can be:
Acquisition of property: If you were renting and acquired a new property for your business within the year, you should consider a Business Owners Policy to cover the new risks you may be taking on now.
Expansion to Auto services: If in addition to owning a property, you have included auto services, then you would need a Commercial Auto policy in addition to whatever you have. You may be changing your mode of operation to only auto services, in that case, you will be needing the Commercial Auto policy to the exclusion of some other policy.
Change in the number of employees: Did you employ more people or are you downsizing? This would definitely affect what you will be paying for the worker’s compensation.
Customer risk: For the dog grooming business, both human clients and dogs are to be covered. The more clients you have the higher the risk you may need to bear.