Whatever the size and scale of your business it is almost certain to have soaked up more than its share of blood, sweat, tears and not a small amount of invested money on your part. This is no small undertaking to do your very best to protect and probably the safest and most reliable way of doing so lies in business insurance.

Our experience and expertise here at GSI Insurance may help you to secure just the type and level of protection you need for your business, so what are some of the risks and perils that need safeguarding against?

Public liability

• any one of us has a responsibility for ensuring that our actions – or indeed failure to act – cause no personal injury to or result in the loss or damage to the property of another person. In English law, this is known as a duty of care;

• what many might not realise, however, is that your business also has such a duty of care and that any member of the public who is injured or suffers some other loss as a result of your business activities may sue the business for compensation;

• the claims – especially in the case of personal injury – may be very substantial, so it is common to arrange indemnity of at least £1 million and may arise from members of public, customers or suppliers visiting your premises or any other locating in which you are doing business;

Product liability

• closely related to the concept of public liability – especially if your business involves you making, selling or repairing goods – is product liability;

• if any of these products is responsible for physical injury to, causes a medical condition to, or results in loss or damage to the property of one of your customers, you may be sued for negligence;

• this holds true even where there is a warranty or guarantee in place from the manufacturer of the goods you are selling;

• as the government-backed Money Advice Service also makes clear, product liability is also a risk to which your business might be exposed even if you are self-employed as a sole trader;

Professional indemnity

• if you are in the business of selling professional services and advice, you have a duty of care to ensure that any advice o service you provide meets the standards generally exercised by someone in your profession – failure to do so, may result in your being sued for professional negligence;

• in certain professions – such as medicine, the law and accountancy – this insurance needs to be held as a matter of law;

• even where there is no legal obligation, however, if you offer advice, guidance or make other suggestions to your customers, you might still want the protection of professional liability insurance – and many of your customers may insist on your having it before considering doing business with you;

Employer’s liability

• if you employ anyone else in the running of your business, you are almost certain – with few exceptions – to have a legal obligation to hold a minimum of £5 million employer’s liability indemnity;

• this is designed to ensure compensation for any employees who may have been injured or sustained a medical illness as a consequence of their employment;

• such claims may be made many years after any such individual has left your employment.

These are some of the principal liabilities to which your business may be exposed. There are other risks and perils to which your particular business may be vulnerable, however, and a suitable form of business insurance may be tailored to cover them.

Read our in depth guide to business insurance here, or please feel free to get in touch to find out how we can help protect your business.