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Secondly, disability and personal injury coverage is important to ensure that your most important asset (you!) can remain on the job and receiving income in case of accident. Calculate your absolute baseline living expenses to determine how much coverage would be appropriate to keep you on your feet.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance

Many organizations with full or part-time individuals considered as employees will need worker’s compensation insurance to protect the rights and integrity of employees. However, if you operate by hiring subcontractors or independent contractors, you are most likely exempt from this type of risk or requirement. Legal counsel often has the best information for determining whether an individual is an employee or independent contractor – as the line can often be blurred.

Errors & Omissions Insurance

Professional liability insurance can contain what is known as an “E&O Policy” – and this is what we’re really concerned with as web designers, especially since we provide a largely technological service that is prone to such risks. This type of insurance is designed to cover financial claims by a client due to losses they’ve sustained because of a faulty or low-quality web site, as well as most other types of third-party financial loss that can occur as a result of a web site that you create.

Assessment and Investigation

The world of business insurance is not simple – and many insurance providers can be biased in what advice they provide. It’s important to seek legal counsel when determining what, if any, insurance your business would find beneficial, on top of discussions with insurance advisors. To sum up, the first type of insurance is called “Commercial General Liability” which covers bodily harm and property damage. The second type is Errors and Omissions insurance, which is far more relevant for the web design industry and includes coverage that CGL does not. Lastly, worker’s compensation and asset protection may be worthwhile to look into if you have employees or contractors that may be considered by law to be employees.

Localized Resources

Canada

• About.com list on Small Business Insurance Resources

• Insurance Bureau of Canada

• National Insurance Directory

• Insurance Industry Information

United States

• Insurance Information Institute

• Business Insurance News Headlines

• Small Business Administration – Business Insurance Section

• BusinessInsuranceNow.com – resource site

Australia

• Google Directory Listing for Australian Insurance Services

• Business.gov.au – Government sponsored small business resource

• AAMI Insurance Homepage (sample company)

It’s nearly impossible to cover the areas of all readers, so please feel free to share any resources that you find useful for your specific location in the comments!

Costs

Rates and fees of insurance coverage depend on a variety of factors. First, the country in which you do business will most likely have unique standards and diversity in insurance providers. Second, the type and extent of coverage that you purchase will determine the annual fee. I’ve heard of professional liability coverage ranging from $800/year to several thousand in the United States. The coverage provided often ranges in the one to two million dollars per year range.

A last factor that will affect the cost of your insurance premiums is the nature of your business. How much experience do you have? How long have you been in business? What types of clients do you generally work with? What specific services do you provide? Each of these can affect your final dollar figure fees, much like auto insurance depends on age and accident history.

Conclusion

We’ve covered the nature of our roles and responsibilities as service providers within a service economy, the role and responsibilities of clients, the concept and practice of risk management, and three strategies for safeguarding against breaches of duty and mitigating risk. There is far too much information, that is far too diverse