The place you do business says a lot about your success. Maybe your wholesale company acquired a second warehouse. Perhaps your ad agency just moved to a stylish new office space. Or you might have added extra stations at your beauty salon.
Whatever purpose your commercial property serves, you need to protect it from the unexpected. As a small business owner, too, a Farmers® agent understands your challenges — and can help you understand your coverage options so you can select the coverage you want.
Business Property Insurance Coverage Options:
Here are some of the property risks business owners face:
Property damage
Risk: While operating a forklift in your warehouse, an employee collides with a storage rack and it collapses.
Coverage: Business property coverage can help when your business personal property is damaged by a covered event.
Damaged inventory
Risk: When that storage rack collapses, it destroys inventory worth several thousand dollars.
Coverage: Business personal property insurance can help you repair or replace covered business items, such as computers, tools and inventory.
Loss of income
Risk: You lose business income when you must temporarily close your company for repairs from a small electrical fire.
Coverage: Business income insurance can help replace lost profit up to policy limits. This may provide you with operating and payroll expenses that keep your company running.
That’s why Farmers® offers small business general liability insurance, which can help with challenging situations and the associated costs of legal defense and legal damages, up to policy limits selected for covered claims.
Because every Farmers agent is also a small business owner, each one has an understanding of some challenges faced by small businesses like yours. They can offer insights and discuss commercial general liability insurance options as you choose customizable coverage options for your company.
Business liability risks you may want to manage — and potential solutions:
Injuries
Risk: A customer trips on a fixture at your business and is injured.
Coverage: Premises and operations insurance can help with hospital bills and damages — as well as coverage for your business if the customer sues for negligence.
Lawsuits
Risk: A former client files and wins a lawsuit over work performed by your company.
Coverage: Products and completed operations insurance can help with the defense costs and — in some cases — the legal damages for which you may be responsible.
Data breaches
Risk: You lose confidential business and customer data when your computer system is hacked.
Coverage: Cyber liability and data breach can help provide you with legal and forensic assistance to attempt to recover stolen data, as well as ongoing data security consultation to help you manage cyber risks.
Disgruntled employees
Risk: A disgruntled former employee — or even an applicant you didn’t hire — brings a legal action against your company.
Coverage: Employment Practices Liability can help cover your business entity, directors and employees if you are accused of wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination or other employment-related offenses.
However you use vehicles in your business, one thing is clear: You need commercial auto insurance. And Farmers® can help with coverage options that reduce risk and improve operations.
Because Farmers agents are also small business owners, they understand the unique challenges of commercial driving in today’s increasingly distracted world.
Here are some typical commercial vehicle risks — and the coverage Farmers offers:
While running a company errand in his own car, your employee rear-ends a church van. Injuries aren’t severe, but several people are hurt — and your employee’s low liability limits aren’t enough to cover medical costs.
Non-owned auto coverage can help if employees cause accidents in their own cars on company business.
You’re on your way to a business lunch when an uninsured driver runs a stop sign and hits your car. The impact is strong enough to fracture your wrist.
Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage can help when drivers who don’t have enough insurance are responsible for injuries or damage in an accident.
Your diesel cargo van overturns, spilling fuel onto the highway and a nearby grassy area. You discover that the government requires testing for environmental damage.
A Farmers commercial auto policy can help if fuels or lubricants from one of your company’s vehicles cause damage.
Useful coverage options and operational support
Accident damage might take your vehicle out of commission, but business must continue. To help minimize cost and inconvenience, Farmers offers a broad range of coverage options so you can select coverage that best fits your needs — from towing and labor to rentals and loss of use.
Other options worth considering:
- In some states, a telematics feature that uses GPS is available to help you monitor the locations and safe driving habits of your employees.
- Lease/loan coverage provides coverage for amounts you owe under the terms of a lease or loan agreement.
Highly specialized coverage for contractors
A contractor’s truck is usually filled with expensive tools and equipment — leaving you with the risk of damage or theft as it’s driven to job sites and parked for the day. Your Farmers agent can help as you choose personalized coverage for the tools of your trade.
Your agent can also explain options when indemnity agreements require something called primary and non-contributory coverage. With this insurance, the general contractor’s coverage won’t be responsible for covered damage caused by you — the subcontractor.
Coverage developed specifically for food trucks
Food trucks face unique risks while driving and operating, especially if they serve alcohol.
- Mobile business interruption coverage available on the auto policy is designed to indemnify you for income lost when a vehicle used as a mobile business is out of commission due to a covered loss.
- Farmers’ primary mobile food vendor insurance provides coverage for business property carried on your truck, equipment breakdowns, and money and securities.
- The premier package offers generous limits in coverage for food spoilage and food-borne illness.
Farmers has an insurance solution designed to fit the needs of food truck operators — from mobile weekend warriors to full-time vendor.
In a best-case scenario, you’re able to manage an injury so employees can get back to work as quickly as possible. And Farmers® has highly specialized workers’ compensation services that can help.
A workers’ compensation policy can address medical care and lost income for your employees, death benefits for survivors, and your potential liability for covered claims.
Farmers works with you to reduce costs and improve recovery times — by making quick contact with an injured employee and using excellent medical providers for a specific injury or illness.
Workers’ Comp Challenges and How Farmers Can Help
Multiple state operations
Challenge: You operate in multiple states, each of which administers workers’ compensation differently.
Farmers response: Farmers’ highly experienced adjusting team can deliver injury management strategies that comply with the complex maze of state administrative laws.
Reduce risk across organizations
Challenge: Your office doesn’t have many obvious risks — but you’re not sure if your employees have had enough safety training.
Farmers response: From O S H A compliance to safety education, Farmers can help you improve safety practices and reduce risk. A stronger culture of safety helps you manage work conditions and your employees more effectively, which can help improve profitability.
Potential fraud
Challenge: You’re concerned about the negative impact of fraud on workers’ compensation costs.
Farmers response: Farmers adjusters work with industry healthcare experts to review, identify and re-price questionably dishonest medical bills.
Employee injuries
Challenge: You want to know if employees recovering from injuries can perform their jobs with temporary modifications.
Farmers response: By speaking with an employee’s treating physician and work supervisor, adjusters can help identify physical limitations and the availability of appropriate modified duty.
Restaurant and Food Trucks
Whatever your culinary specialty, you want to keep an “OPEN” sign in your restaurant’s window — and you can help protect your business with Farmers® coverage if the unexpected threatens to close your kitchen.
Farmers agents are small business owners like you, and understand challenges small businesses may face. They can discuss business insurance options as you choose coverage for your restaurant or food truck.
Farmers Restaurant Business Insurance helps manage these risks:
Property damage
Risk: A grease fire ignites in a flash and spreads quickly through your stove’s exhaust hood and flue duct.
Coverage: Restaurant property insurance can help when fire, vandalism or other unforeseen disasters cause damage to your restaurant.
Customer illness or injuries
Risk: A customer suffers from food poisoning after a meal prepared by your food truck.
Coverage: Restaurant liability insurance can help cover costs when the food or drink you serve is responsible for accidents, mistakes or injuries.
Employee theft
Risk: An employee forges your signature on a company check that is cashed by a third party.
Coverage: Restaurant crime insurance can help with losses from robbery, fraud, forgery or theft.
Employee injuries
Risk: A busy waiter scalds his leg when he trips and falls under a tray of hot drinks.
Coverage: Workers’ compensation insurance can help with medical costs and related lawsuits when employees are hurt on the job.
Customized coverage for restaurants and food trucks
Farmers has many coverage options designed for restaurateurs — including:
- Equipment breakdown coverage can help when a covered equipment failure causes damage or lost income.
- Spoilage insurance can help if food spoils when a refrigerator breaks or the power goes out.
- Food contamination shutdown insurance can help with income lost when you’re forced to close for contamination — and it may even assist with the costs of complying with required fixes.
- Business auto insurance can help with the cost of repairs and medical care when your delivery vehicle or food truck is responsible for an accident.
Farmers works to build strong customer relationships
Farmers has spent almost 90 years putting customers first. Are you shopping for coverage, or do you have a question about your policy? Maybe you’re ready to get a restaurant store insurance quote. Be sure to let a Farmers agent deliver personalized service and support.
You’ll experience a similar level of care from our knowledgeable claims representatives, who will provide assistance as quickly as possible.
Retail
Whatever your specialization, you know you need to protect your retail store from the unexpected. And because Farmers® agents are small business owners just like you, they can help you understand coverage options as you analyze your needs and select coverage.
Here are just some of the risks you can help manage with Farmers coverage:
Property damage
Risk: A tree topples onto your building during a heavy ice storm, damaging your roof — and some inventory.
Coverage: Business property insurance can help pay for damage to your building and business caused by vandalism, fires or other covered events.
Loss of income
Risk: Your shop must remain closed for several weeks to repair damage from a large fire that started in your storeroom.
Coverage: Business income coverage can help replace lost profits while damage to your store and equipment is being repaired.
Injuries
Risk: A customer in your boutique sprains a wrist when she trips over a shoebox that was left on the floor.
Coverage: Business liability insurance can help with the cost of claims when a customer is injured at your place of business.
Employee theft
Risk: An employee forges your signature in order to cash a company check.
Coverage: Business crime insurance helps cover money and securities losses stemming from robbery, fraud, forgery or employee theft of money or securities.
Get insurance you can tailor to your particular needs
With coverage from Farmers, you can select the coverage you want — and decide what insurance is right for your business. For example:
- Equipment breakdown coverage can help pay for damage — and the resulting loss of income — if covered equipment fails as a result of a covered cause of loss.
- Spoilage coverage can help reimburse you if perishable goods are ruined by a mechanical breakdown or power outage.
- Transportation and cargo insurance can help with the cost of goods you are transporting for others if they’re damaged or lost in transit.
- Personal and advertising injury insurance can help with legal liabilities if you inadvertently use another company’s slogan in an advertisement — or a competitor accuses you of slander.
Contractors
That’s why Farmers makes it easy for plumbers, electricians and landscapers and other contractors to get the coverage they want in a single, easy-to-manage policy.
Farmers agents are small business owners, too, and serve as a knowledgeable resource when you’re choosing coverage for your home and building service.
Here are some of the ways you can manage typical risks:
Property damage
Risk: A faulty electrical socket sparks a fire in your main office.
Coverage: Business property insurance can help with the repair and replacement of structures, equipment and valuable paperwork damaged in a fire or other covered disaster.
Injuries
Risk: You’re liable when an elderly homeowner breaks a hip after tripping on your extension cord during a remodeling project.
Coverage: Business liability insurance can help cover expenses when you or your employees are responsible for injuries or property damage.
Theft
Risk: Someone breaks into your trailer while it’s parked at a work site and steals all of your tools.
Coverage: Contractors’ tools and equipment coverage can help repair and replace tools and equipment that are lost to theft.
Employee Theft
Risk: After an employee quits abruptly, you discover he stole equipment from your company van.
Coverage: Business crime insurance helps cover losses resulting from robbery or employee wrongdoing, such as fraud, forgery or theft.
Farmers helps you stay in control
Farmers wants to make your experience as seamless and personalized as possible:
- At Farmers, you build your own policy and decide exactly what coverage you need — perhaps that includes workers’ compensation, commercial auto coverage and life insurance.
- If you need to file a claim, you won’t waste time navigating an automated phone system — you or your agent can get online and file a first notice of loss at your convenience.
- Free loss control services can help you identify existing hazards and educate your employees with safety seminars and customized materials. There may also be discounts when you implement safety recommendations.