Small Business | Entrepreneurship Blog

There is no point in being anything other than completely honest. The US economy is in trouble and things are going to stay this way for some time. That means unemployment will remain a problem and credit will be hard to find. The majority of people have responded to this situation by switching from a high-spending lifestyle to something more modest to keep enough money to service all the debts. Otherwise, the bank may foreclose on the mortgage and credit scores will be lost. This creates dilemmas. What do you need and what can be cut back? Public transport is poor. Most people need a vehicle to get around. Almost all states make it an offense to drive a vehicle on a public highway without a valid insurance policy in place. The temptation is therefore to cut back on coverage but this can be financially dangerous.

The main types of policy are liability, comprehensive and collision. The minimum legal requirement is liability coverage. Auto loan and leasing contracts usually require comprehensive and collision coverage. Thus, if you own an older car outright, you could buy a liability policy for the minimum amount and save several hundred dollars. This is called self-insurance and is generally popular in the form of deductibles where you agree to pay the first slice of any claim out of your own pocket. Let’s work through an example to see how it works. Suppose you own a car worth $2,500 and it costs you $1,000 a year for all three policies. You decide to cancel the collision coverage and this saves you $300. Sadly, two months later, you are involved in an accident that totals your vehicle. You may have saved $300 but can you afford to replace your car? Worse, you kept you car because it was well-maintained and reliable. There is no guarantee that a secondhand replacement will be as good.

Similarly, you could reduce your liability coverage to the statutory minimum amount. But, if you cause an accident and the victim’s claim for injury and property damage exceeds the minimums, can you afford to pay the balance? If you have assets or savings, these could all be lost if there’s a judgment against you. The more you self-insure, the greater the risk to your financial safety. Of course, if you have no assets, it is unlikely anyone will chase you for payment. But if you own property or have a portfolio of investments for retirement, these are at risk. So you need to take a hard look at your situation and, more importantly, shop around. This site gives you the chance to get car insurance quotes from all the top insurers. You can run the search as many times as you need to get comparative quotes for different levels of cover. Never assume you can cut coverage safely. Never assume you cannot find affordable coverage when you get a good range of car insurance quotes.

Are you satisfied with the quality of coverage you get for the money you pay? Of course, most of us think that cheap means low-quality and tend to overpay just believing that this will give them better insurance or services. In fact, it is not so. Paying too much money for insurance often leads only to over-spending money and doesn’t increase the quality of coverage you get. So if money is vital to you and you want to lower your insurance costs, here are some simple tips how to do it:

Lower theft risk: The majority of new cars carry anti-theft features. And the more such features your car has the lower will be your insurance premiums. Theft is one of the major risks for insurance companies, especially in urban areas, and if you do something to prevent such risks your policy will be much cheaper.

Multiple car discounts: Sometimes insuring two cars can cost you the same amount of money as insuring a single vehicle. People often get pleasantly surprised with multiple car discounts they can get from their insurance companies when asking for one. It’s much cheaper to have a single policy covering all your cars rather than separate policies for each individually. Even if you think of selling your second car, it is better to get it insured too because it will allow you to opt for the multiple car discount. But when you actually sell the car and report it to your insurer it is quite likely that your rates will go up.

Get one-year policies: Not only you save yourself from the hassle of looking for a new policy every six months instead of a year, but you also get fixed rates for a longer period of time. Which is quite nice if you find a cheap policy initially.

Storage discounts: In case you will be storing your car for a certain period of time, it would be smart to inform your insurance company about it. Because during that time you aren’t likely to be needing any collision or liability coverage, making your car insurance much cheaper during the storage period.

Check your exact mileage: When the insurance agent asks you how much mile you drive within a certain period of time, it is better to be as precise as possible. Your mileage strongly affects your rates, so if you drive only a few miles to work and back it is good to know how much “a few” really is.

Opt for group discounts: In case you are a member of a credit union, college association, driver’s club or any other organization, you can opt for a group discount on your car insurance in case the organization is affiliated to your insurance company.

EFT payments are cheaper: You might notice that every time you pay for car insurance by mail, you are charged more than by any other means. Start using your banking account for settling payments: it’s not only more convenient but actually cheaper.

This may sound quite interesting to those business owners who have to deal with alcohol. Because liquor liability insurance is a form of commercial insurance that protects the business from legal action on behalf of the consumers who harm or injure themselves or others from consuming the product (alcoholic beverage). In case your enterprise produces, bottles, distributes or sells any alcoholic drinks, this type of insurance will definitely be helpful.

Liquor liability coverage is somewhat similar to product liability insurance and can be sold as an integral part of it, or as a stand-alone policy, depending on the insurance provider. However, you have to keep in mind that this type of insurance coverage is not included into your standard commercial insurance, which will be unable to protect you if such claims arise.

Keep in mind that this type of insurance coverage can be quite costly, with rates varying from state to state. In fact, experts say that only 35% of enterprises that should carry it actually have it in their insurance policies. It’s partially caused by the common belief within the hospitality industry that there is no such thing as liability with drunk patrons. And while it’s still a subject for intense debate, insurance companies continue to add exceptions to such policies, sometimes making them completely useless when legal action comes.

If your business is located in a “dram shop liability” state and deals with alcoholic beverage as a source of income, then such liability coverage is a must.

What your liquor liability policy should carry:

• Assault and Battery Coverage – In most cases bars, pubs and restaurants face claims caused by drunk fights. That is why your business insurance policy should carry assault and battery liability coverage. Otherwise, there’s not much sense in having such a policy at all.
• Defense Costs Included – One of the biggest parts of expenses in such claims for your business are of course attorney fees. Insurance companies understanding that, quite often exclude defense costs from the coverage amount. And this often means that you won’t have quite much to spend on a skilled lawyer that will be able to defend your interests in court effectively, even if you have a $500,000 business insurance policy.
• Employees Included – In case your business serves alcoholic drinks, then your workers will drink no matter what the rules say. And most insurance companies will exclude your workers from liability coverage. It’s good to have your workers insured as patrons.
• Damage Definition Includes Mental Damages – Some policies exclude non-physical damage from coverage stating that it’s not a direct form of damage. Make sure to get a policy where stress, psychological damage and anguish are also regarded as damage to the patron.
• Reduced Premiums Based on Safety and Claims – Some business insurance companies specialized in providing insurance to bars and restaurants sometimes offer free trainings to policy holders’ employees on how to reduce the damage and improve safety of their business. Having no claim history can even let you opt for a considerable discount, so ask your insurer for one if you comply.

The role of women in society has changed dramatically over the last fifty years. We have moved from an expectation that girls will marry young, stay home and bring up children to a new world in which women are financially independent and less dependent on the decision-making powers of their fathers and “husbands”. This has, in some ways, made life more difficult for women. They must now find a balance between developing a career and the biological drive to have children. Women have also retained their role as carers and are often expected to look after ageing parents. As a result, many neglect their own financial affairs. To protect their interests, the challenge for the modern woman is to make the claim of independence real. This means having a formal life plan. Because life expectancy is longer for women. they should establish goals and set out strategies for achieving them. Just drifting through life is a recipe for disaster.

In all this, proper life insurance is a must. The latest national statistics show that about a quarter of households across the US do not carry any insurance. Why should this change? If you leave debts behind you, the family may be forced to sell off assets to pay off what is owing. If you die young, will your children have enough money to go through college? Will your parents manage on their retirement savings? Having some insurance gives you peace of mind. You know there is an adequate sum of money for those you leave behind. What are the specifics?

If you are a single mom, you are the sole breadwinner. The family looks to you to provide for all their needs. With insurance, there will be enough to pay all the funeral and other expenses, pay off the mortgage on your home and leave some cash to meet future expenditure. Nothing can replace you as a person, but you can leave a lump sum representing your earning capacity behind.

If you and your partner are just starting to get a base together, life insurance cover on both of you gives the survivor a safety net. Otherwise, with young children and a new mortgage, it’s not going to be easy to cope.

As an older woman, having a long-running policy in hand gives you financial room to plan. If there’s a surrender value or an investment element, you can borrow or sell the policy for a lump sum. This gives you access to cash during retirement when all your other savings may be tied up or run down.

This puts the pressure on you to get the right coverage in place from an early age. Shop around and get as many life insurance quotes from different companies as possible. You need to get a feel for what the marketplace can offer. You should also take advice. The life insurance quotes are only useful to a point. An independent professional can tell you which policies make the best long-term investments. Remember, it’s cheaper when you start paying premiums early in your life. If you delay, the premiums will be significantly higher – a shorter working life if you have children to care for and a longer retirement period. Plan now for a long and successful life.

It’s easy to say what the law is – legislatures must write it down and publish it for all to read – but harder to live with its consequences. Looking across the US, almost all states have laws setting mandatory insurance levels for all vehicles on the road. Almost without exception, all these states also have laws making it a crime to drive a vehicle on a public road without a valid policy. This gives all drivers a simple choice. Either carry the minimum insurance or risk fines and the confiscation of the vehicle (in some states). All these laws are a compromise between the interests of responsible drivers and the interests of people who may be injured in traffic accidents. The more Libertarian view is personal responsibility. If you do something wrong, you should be prepared for the consequences. That would mean every driver having enough cash in the bank to pay out every time their driving injures someone else or damages their property. But not everyone can afford to pay the medical costs for treating those they injure. This would be seriously unfair. Suppose you were walking along the sidewalk and a car knocks you down. Surely you should not have to pay your own medical costs? The answer is mandatory insurance so there is always some money to pay out to the innocent victims.

Most people agree this is a good idea but there’s a problem. Almost all these states set the mandatory amount forty or fifty years ago. What was an adequate amount then is a drop in the ocean today. So this February, Wisconsin bit the bullet and increased the mandatory rates both for liability insurance and for insurance against uninsured or underinsured drivers. The governor signed the bill into law and everyone sat back and awaited the results. The mail boxes have recently experienced a flood of renewal notices showing significantly higher premiums for the mandatory minimum cover. Needless to say, the Republicans are now promoting a bill to repeal the law making liability insurance mandatory. As it stands, about 14% of all drivers are uninsured. These premium increases during a recession are likely to increase this percentage significantly.

This review of the minimum amounts after forty years was perfectly reasonable. Most other states will have to follow Wisconsin’s example sooner or later. It’s just not acceptable to have such low minimums when medical and repair costs have risen so sharply. But the timing is unfortunate. Insurers had invested their funds in the stock and bond markets. When the recession hit, they lost a hefty slice of their capital reserves. There’s another law requiring insurers to have enough capital in hand to pay out all the expected claims. To build their capital back up to the required levels, all insurers are therefore raising their premium rates. Each state’s insurance department is insisting on putting more money into the reserves. This means you must shop around. Get auto insurance quotes from as many companies as possible to find the best prices. Not all companies lost heavily. Equally, the smaller companies will have to raise the cash from smaller groups of policy holders, i.e. more from each individual. So get the maximum possible number of auto insurance quotes to survey the market before buying.