February 6, 2014 at 10:00 am | By Guest Blogger,

Learn how IT professionals can get protection against lopsided expectations and lawsuits with business liability insurance like E&O.

Business Liability Insurance for IT Professionals Protects Against Errors and Omissions

Imagine if your Information Technology firm designed the data security system at a mega retailer that was hit with a costly data breach. It wouldn’t take long for your embarrassed client’s attorneys to point the blame at your company. Soon, you could be facing an expensive lawsuit that could very well destroy everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

As most small business owners know, business liability insurance is essential for protection against risks of all kinds. For IT firms, it’s no different. But the nature of IT requires special kinds of tech insurance designed to protect you from scenarios like a security data breach.

E&O Protects IT Firms from Lopsided Expectations and Holes in the Law

E&O insurance is especially useful for technology professionals because many of your clients don’t really understand what you do. A client may explain what they need, and your firm would endeavor to deliver a product based on those requirements. But, for whatever reason, the client might be disappointed with the results and decide to sue you. Without E&O coverage, you could be left with the cost of a huge settlement. That’s not to mention the legal defense costs that you would be responsible for even if you won the court case.

E&O insurance can also protect you from inevitable human errors. Your client may think you’re a magical superman just because you’re in IT, but mistakes do happen, and sometimes the consequences can be costly.

 

Technology professionals aren’t the only professionals who would benefit from E&O coverage. If you provide a professional service for a living, you too should have Commercial Business Insurance.   When you open your property to the general public you are responsible for their well-being. They get injured, even if it is completely their fault, you get to deal with the financial consequences. This is especially important when giving tours or any other activity that brings a large amount of the public to your brewery. One person’s mistake can cause serious harm to every guest you have which is why enough liability insurance for your brewery is so important.

 

Liquor liability

If  you have a bar on site, offer samples or serve alcohol in anyway, you are open to potential liability. If a patron at your establishment becomes intoxicated and causes any damage to property, injury to themselves, or injury to someone else you can be help responsible for any related costs. When alcohol is involved, your general liability insurance will not cover you so a liquor liability policy should be picked up to protect your brewery.

To prevent liability associated with intoxicated guests, make sure you properly train your
staff to prevent over-serving or with sampling limit the offerings. Having regulations in place will defintely help you prevent incidents and possibly save you money on insurance but as a safe guard make sure you have liquor liability insurance for your brewery.

 

Supply chain insurance

To have a profitable business, you rely on your suppliers to provide you with a high quality products and provide them in a timely manner. If your supplier does not come through, that could ruin your productivity, kill profits if nothing is being brewed, and destroy your reputation to the places you supply beer.

Chances are you trust your supplier and they would not purposefully do anything to harm your business. But what if they were shut down for health reasons or a natural disaster put down their opearations? Instead of letting your business go down hill, supply chain insurance for your brewery would allow you to get emergency delieveries from other suppliers or to still provide an income while your production slows down.

 

Equipment Failure

We have all had some type of equipment break at home. The furnace, computers, cooking equipment. Equipment can fail on us at the worse possible moments, but having it happen mid work week to your most valuable piece of equipment could be devastating.

If you are a larger operation or have some kind of back up machinery then you may not need insurance for your equipment. If you do not happen to have back ups just lying around, then insuring your brewery equipment might be a very good idea. There will be high repair costs or replacement costs but just as important you will see a loss in revenue due to the suspending part of your operation.

 

Spoilage, Containment and Product Recall

No matter how diligent you are at producing a quality product, there can be times when situations beyond your control result in a batch of beer unfit for customer consumption. If a contaminated batch is caught before leaving the brewery, you face the cost of wasted materials and production time, disposal and the loss of revenue from not being able to sell the final product. If the batch makes it to store shelves, it can be even more costly.

Not only is there the time and cost of replacing the contaminated product with a sellable one, there is also the need to protect your brand during a recall. A poor product experience can be especially damaging for small brewing operations that rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising. Be prepared to work not only with distributors but also directly with consumers who have received a less-than-quality product.

Calculate how much the entire process would cost your brewery to reclaim the contaminated batch, replace it and the extra marketing to re-establish your brand from a poor product experience. If your brewery does not have that kind of extra money, then your brewery’s insurance can help.

 

Putting it all together

The exposures mentioned above are very common amongst all breweries. Realistically there are many more exposures that your brewery faces and will face as you open up more opportunities. Your brewery insurance plan should be assembled based on your needs and your unique exposures. Sitting down with an agent to explore your business operations will allow you to get the exact brewery insurance coverage you need. Whether you are looking to start a brewery and need insurance or have been growing in the industry, it would be a good decision to review your brewery’s insurance needs with an agent.