As a small business owner, you are constantly juggling a lot of tasks. I know I always have a long list of tasks that never seem to get done. By the time I mark a task, three more have been added to the list.
One aspect of small business owning that often falls through the cracks is getting small business insurance. However, proper insurance is key to the survival of your business.
It just takes one mistake or lawsuit to add up to a huge liability that you may not be able to pay for. Instead of watching your business go away, you can insure yourself against many possible negative events.
While insurance costs money upfront, you pay the cost of spreading the risk. That way, the cost will be cheaper over time. In the rarer event that you have significant liability due to failure or injury, the right type of insurance should cover you up to your chosen limits, as long as you follow the rules in the policy.
Knowing where to get small business insurance and what policies to get can be overwhelming for someone who has never looked at it. That is why I have compiled this list of the best small business insurance companies to get you started.
These companies can help you learn what types of insurance you need and how to get started.
Overview of the best insurance companies for small business
The best small business insurance company is the one that can meet your company’s insurance needs while providing great customer service and reasonable prices. Here are some companies you might want to check out.
CoverWallet
CoverWallet makes shopping for small business insurance much easier. Instead of receiving quotes from multiple insurance companies individually, CoverWallet allows you to fill out an application and receive many quotes from different insurers.
This process saves you time and money compared to price shopping. The downside is that CoverWallet may not have access to all of the corporate insurers that you may have received quotes from. Even so, CoverWallet can do most of the legwork. You can then receive offers from other companies that you are interested in.
CoverWallet offers the following coverage options:
- General and professional liability.
- Workers compensation.
- Business Owner Guidelines.
- Commercial real estate and car.
- Inland shipping insurance and more.
If you don’t know what kind of small business insurance you need, CoverWallet can help. They provide a phone number on their website that you can call to speak to a CoverWallet advisor.
You can also send a message to CoverWallet using the chat function, but this is not always available. If they’re not available, they’ll message you when they get back. You can also email them questions.
Since CoverWallet offers you offers from several insurers, they offer a variety of corporate insurances. They should be able to help you find the type you need with at least one of their many providers.
Learn more about CoverWallet.
Progressive advertising
Progressive is known for its personal auto insurance and other insurance policies. They also sell corporate insurance through Progressive Commercial. They have many types of business auto insurance, including:
- Tow truck.
- Truck.
- Dump truck.
- Van.
- Food truck.
They also sell standard corporate insurance options like:
- General and professional liability.
- Workers compensation.
- Contractor.
- Business Owner Guidelines.
- Cyber ​​insurance.
To get a quote, you can fill out the online quote tool, find a local representative, or call the toll-free number to speak to an expert. While your personal corporate insurance costs vary, Progressive states that over the past year (2019), the average cost of 12 months of corporate insurance through Progressive ranged from $ 46 per month for professional indemnity to $ 85 per month for employee compensation.
Learn more about Progressive or read our full review.
Nationwide
Nationwide focuses on the insurance of regular small business and small farm businesses. In fact, they are the number one farm and ranch insurer and number one in customer satisfaction with small commercial insurance.
They offer many types of guidelines, including:
- Business Owner Guidelines.
- Business car.
- Workers compensation.
- Business property and more.
Progressive Commercial provides an easy way to view insurance options based on the type of small business you run, such as: B. photography, advice or contractor.
You can get a quote online or find a sales representative to get your quote started as your personal costs will vary depending on the type of insurance you’re looking for.
Learn more about Nationwide or read our full review.
District farm
You’re probably familiar with State Farm’s personal insurance options, but the company also offers small business insurance. As with their personal insurance, State Farm uses a network of agents to provide services to its customers.
To get a small business insurance quote, you must first locate a local State Farm representative. Your experience will likely depend on how knowledgeable and responsive your local agent is. For people who find it important to have a personal relationship with their insurance agent, State Farm definitely offers it.
State Farm sells several types of small business insurance, including:
- Business Owner Policy.
- Business and commercial car.
- Individual health.
- Commercial and professional liability.
- Workers compensation.
They also offer other types of business insurance to check with you as your business grows and needs new coverage.
Learn more about State Farm.
The Hartford
If you are looking for an insurance company to get a quick quote online, The Hartford might be a great option for you. All you have to do is fill out a few information screens to get an initial quote. However, you should speak to an agent to make sure you have all the coverage you need.
The Hartford offers several types of corporate insurance. These include:
- Business Owner Policy.
- Business property.
- General liability.
- Business income.
- Commercial car.
- Data breach insurance and more.
They also sell specific types of insurance depending on your industry.
They could very well have all of the business insurance options your small business needs. This would make it easier to keep track of your insurance costs and any claims you may have made.
The Hartford doesn’t make it easy to see how to get in touch with them if you have any questions, but you can still do it. Options include finding a local agent to speak to or calling the toll-free number by navigating to the appropriate pages on the website.
Learn more about The Hartford.
Hiscox
Instead of focusing on insurance for large companies, Hiscox focuses solely on large coverage for small companies. They make for the quick and tailored coverage your small business needs.
Hiscox offers insurance for over 180 professions. Typical insurance products that they sell are:
- General and professional liability.
- Business Owner Guidelines.
- Online Safety.
- Short term liability.
- Workers compensation.
- umbrella
- Car and more.
You can start to get a quote online from the homepage by entering your state and profession. Based on these factors, Hiscox recommends types of insurance that you may be able to get quotes for. If you’re not sure what coverage you need, you can fill out a short questionnaire that takes around 20 seconds to see what they recommend.
This can of course be overwhelming. To reinforce that feeling, Hiscox is providing a prominent phone number to speak to a licensed insurance agent during the normal work week, Monday through Friday, 7:00 am to 10:00 pm ET.
Learn more about Hiscox.
Chubb
Chubb is a global insurance company that can help meet your small business insurance needs for international coverage. They operate in 54 countries and territories and have 44 offices in the United States.
They display their insurance options in two ways. First, they list the industries they support and the insurance options they sell to those industries. If you’d rather shop by insurance category, you will also see the different types of insurance they offer.
To give you an idea of ​​what products they offer, some include:
- Accident and health.
- Commercial general liability.
- Cyber.
- Environment.
- Medical liability.
- Product recall.
- Professional liability.
Unfortunately, it’s a little more difficult to get an offer through Chubb. Their website only directs you to an independent agent in your area. There is no way to get quotes online or over the phone.
For this reason, your best bet is to check that they offer the type of insurance that you need. Then, contact an agent for help understanding the specific options and coverage of the policies they sell.
Learn more about Chubb.
How I came up with this list
To make this list, I looked at various small business insurance companies and selected a handful that offer a variety of options for different small business owners. I looked at their company history, the types of insurance they sell, the ways they can get quotes, their customer service rankings, and their financial stability.
Because of the wide variety of companies and their different needs, an insurer may offer you a better option. Another company may find that a separate insurance company works better for them. This is why you should always shop and I have selected a variety of the best small business insurance companies.
What does small business insurance cost?
Small business insurance coverage prices vary dramatically due to many factors. Some of the most influential factors are:
- The type of insurance you take out.
- How Much Coverage Do You Buy?
- The specific attributes and history of your company.
- The risk to the insurance company.
- The location of your company.
- The company’s damage history.
Some policies could be relatively cheap, starting at just a few hundred or thousand dollars a year. Others could be a lot more expensive.
How do you keep your small business insurance costs down?
As a small business owner trying to keep spending under control, keeping insurance costs down is a legitimate concern. You can save money by shopping to find the best prices on the insurance coverage you need.
Just make sure that every policy you buy covers what you think. The guidelines may vary from company to company. A policy with a lower price may have less coverage.
If you have multiple small business insurance policies, you can get a discount by keeping all of them with one insurer. Check with your representative to see if you can get discounts for consolidating your policies with an insurer.