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Are you running a business in Massachusetts or planning on opening your doors soon? Already feeling overwhelmed with expenses and are stressed about having to add insurance to the list? We understand the pressure! As business owners, it’s our job to ensure we protect every asset - in order for our company and clientele to be safely covered in the event of a claim. At Berry Insurance, we help to insure a number of businesses in diverse industries across Massachusetts and beyond! So whether you’re selling cupcakes in Springfield or knick knacks down the Cape, our agency can help you! Plus as a business owner ourselves, we deal with the complexities of business insurance daily. Below we’ll discuss what you can expect to pay for multiple types of business insurance (including general liability, auto, and workers’ compensation), what determines cost, and additional coverages you should know about. Table of contents: How much does business insurance cost? What factors influence the cost of business insurance? How much can I expect to pay for my Massachusetts business insurance? What insurance coverage does my business need? How much does business insurance cost? While a lot goes into determining the cost of insuring your business, it’s important to know the range you can expect to pay. Here are the cost ranges for the main types of business insurance coverage: Business owners policy (BOP): Comprising general liability and property insurance, annual premiums range from $233 for a home-based business to $80,000 for larger businesses with higher risk operations. Commercial auto: Annual premiums for commercial auto insurance can range from $1,500 for a private passenger vehicle to $40,000 for a larger company with many work vehicles. Workers compensation: Premiums for workers compensation policies can range from $282 for a basic nanny policy, for instance, to $100,000 or more for large corporations with higher-risk operations. What factors influence the cost of business insurance? Property insurance: Property insurance covers the actual structure of your business’ building and its contents, as well as the exterior features such as fencing, or signage. Premiums for property coverage are typically based on replacement value or actual cash value and take into account the location, cost to rebuild, building construction, type of materials, sprinklers, alarm systems, distance to the coast, and the limits and deductibles you select. General liability: General liability covers costs arising from claims against businesses resulting from their operations, such as property damage, physical injury, and personal injury, including libel and slander. Premiums for liability coverage are typically based on sales for the year, payroll, square foot of the premises or even average number of guests/attendees at the business, and the limits and deductibles you select. Commercial auto: Commercial or business auto insurance covers the cost of bodily damage or property damage caused by vehicles as well as physical damage of your own vehicles, just like personal car insurance does, but for commercially owned vehicles. Premiums for this type of policy are based on the number of vehicles owned by the company, the cost of the vehicles, where they are garaged, business operations, coverages inclusions, limits, and driver history. Workers compensation: Workers compensation covers wage replacement and medical payments to employees injured while performing job-related duties and protects companies from liability against employee claims. The cost of this coverage is usually based on the number of employees in the company, estimated yearly payrolls, and job duties/business operations, and the limits you select. How much can I expect to pay for my Massachusetts business insurance? While the cost of business insurance will vary greatly between companies, let’s look at a few realistic scenarios of what insurance could cost business owners. Small businesses, such as a singular residential house cleaner with no employees, no property, and no commercial vehicles, may only need to pay around $500 a year for business insurance; as they’d only require general liability coverage. If we instead take a larger business, such as an HVAC contractor. If the contractor has property limits of $60,000, general liability limits at $1M/$2M, a $625,000 payroll, and 10 vehicles they may pay around $60,000 per year for their business insurance coverage. Even larger corporations with more employees, vehicles, equipment, or higher risk (like a mechanical engineering company) could expect to pay around $250,000 each year. What insurance coverage does my business need? Above, we talked about the most common types of business insurance that nearly every business needs to buy, but there are more types. Depending on the specifics of your business, you may need one or more of the following more specialty coverages. These types of coverage typically will require you to spend additional money to get them - check out the links below for more information on the cost of coverages you’re interested in. Professional liability insurance: Also known as errors and omissions insurance, professional liability protects certain types of professionals from costs associated with accusations of negligence. Business umbrella insurance: Business umbrella insurance provides excess coverage on business liability insurance in the case of a lawsuit exceeding policy limits. Cyber and identity theft insurance: This insurance covers costs associated with a cyber attack or data breach. This includes malicious actions such as hacking, viruses, phishing, denial of service (DoS) ransomware, malware and more; but also data losses from incidents such as computer glitches, power surges, and accidental deletions. Flood insurance: For businesses at risk of floods, flood insurance provides coverage from damages caused by floods. Pollution insurance: Pollution insurance covers costs related to pollution caused by a business’ operations. Bonds: Commercial bonds are required in certain industries to protect the business and its customers from specific risks. Having one or more of these insurance policies would increase the amount you spend on insurance for your business. Protect your business with a comprehensive business insurance policy: We know your business is important to you, so it is crucial you protect it. While the combination of business insurance policies you need can sometimes be pricey, it’s worth the protection against even more costly incidents that can put you out of business. As I’m sure you can tell, the cost of business insurance can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors. The best way to know what you will need to pay is by reaching out to your agent or carrier. An agent, like our agents at Berry, can help you create a custom policy to protect your business without breaking the bank. Don’t have an agent or carrier yet? Check out this article about what to look for when selecting an agency or company.

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