Your consulting business is a thriving one, especially if you are a statistical, financial, or sales consultant. As such, protecting your consulting business with consulting insurance is important to keep it safe from extra financial burdens.
You may have asked yourself, “what type of insurance for my consulting business is best?” Making a choice can be hard, especially with many options out there. But we are here to help you choose the best insurance for your consulting business.
Types of Consulting Business that Needs Insurance
The type of consulting business you run can determine the type of business insurance for consulting you should get.
Below are some of the popular categories of consulting businesses that need to get an insurance policy:
1. Marketing Consultancy Business
A marketing consultant helps business owners pilot their marketing efforts. If you run this type of agency, you want to get business insurance to cover the costs of possible damages claimed by your clients if they aren’t satisfied with your inputs.
2. Human Resource Consulting Business
Your job as an HR consultant is to advise business owners on the hiring and firing process. You can also guide them on how to manage their workforce effectively.
3. Sales Consultant
This seems a bit like being a marketing consultant but there are some slight differences. While a marketing consultant helps draw up the marketing tactics, a sales consultant does the actual work.
Your role includes helping the business owners with proven strategies to increase revenue and negotiation tactics.
5 Types of Insurance Policies for Consultants in Canada
Now, let us talk about some of the insurance for my consulting business policies you can get for your consulting agency.
From professional liability to general insurance, your consulting business needs them to thrive in Canada.
1. General Liability Insurance
It is the basic consulting insurance you need. General liability insurance helps protect your business from lawsuits from third parties. It also covers damages done to a third party including your clients.
With general liability insurance, your consulting business can be protected against allegations as well as paying for bodily injuries to third parties.
It is worth mentioning that general liability insurance is not always limited to the business. It is one of the crucial elements needed to establish a consulting business, especially if you are looking to take on many clients.
Depending on the location and conditions, you may be required to have the policy before taking an office space on rent or lease.
2. Business Owner’s Policy (BOP)
A business Owner’s Policy or BOP is a type of bundled insurance policy. It means that more than one insurance policy is added to it to help the policyholder spend less money and get more coverage options.
The dictates of the Business Owner’s Policy stipulate that the policyholder is entitled to both the general liability insurance and the property insurance policies.
You can think of this as a cost-effective way to protect your consulting business in Canada while keeping its properties safe.
Depending on the BOP insurance provider, you may get additional coverage. Some of the additional policies that can come with the Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) include:
- Business Interruption Insurance (BIP)
- Auto insurance
However, you must note that the BOP may not be the ideal insurance for small businesses in BC, Canada. To qualify for the coverage, you must meet some of the following requirements:
- Risk Assessment: Your consulting business must be low-risk. As such, it doesn’t need to be operating in an overly-exposed industry, which aggravates the risk of making a claim.
- Workforce: The consultant insurance policy provider will also want to know the number of persons working in the agency. Typically, you can apply for the policy if you have up to 100 employees on your payroll.
- Physical Location: Having an office space is one of the criteria for getting a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) for your consulting business in Canada.
- Revenue: How much does your consulting business make yearly in Canada? The policy provider may require you to make a yearly turnover of 100K CAD to 1 million CAD to get the policy.
3. Professional Liability Insurance
This type of policy is important for your consulting business because it protects the integrity of your consulting agency. It typically protects consultants in Canada from claims made against the advice and professional services they may have rendered.
For example, a client files a lawsuit against your marketing consulting agency because your professional advice turned out to work against their marketing efforts.
Another scenario is when a client sues your consulting business for bad service delivery based on the recommendations you gave.
With professional liability insurance, your consulting business will be protected against such claims. Also, the agency will be covered for some other professional liability claims, such as:
- Missed deadlines
- Unsatisfactory work
- Non-professional conduct of your staff/employees
4. Legal Expense Insurance
It is inevitable for your consulting business to be free from claims, especially from unsatisfied clients. As such, you want to be prepared beforehand by getting insurance for my consulting business.
One of the popular insurance policies is Legal Expense Insurance. The policy covers the legal expenses emanating from third-party claims.
Legal Expense Insurance also covers the costs of hiring and retaining the services of a legal professional to represent the interests of your consulting business.
Some of the common claims made against your consulting business to require the policy’s coverage are:
- Tax protection
- Disputes amongst your employees
- Contract disputes with your clients.
5. Worker’s Compensation Insurance
All along, we have been talking about how to get insurance for my consulting business. But what about your staff? Your employees and all those who work for your consulting business in Canada?
They deserve to be protected with an insurance policy – and there is one for them. It is called Worker’s Compensation Insurance.
It is an insurance policy that covers the expenses and medical bills of employees who get injured while working for a consultant in Canada.
With the coverage, a worker, staff, or employee of your consulting agency will have his or her medical expenses settled, especially if they got injured while working for the agency.
Worker’s Compensation Insurance also covers the costs of paying lost wages, in a case where the employees are unable to work.
Conclusion
Purchasing insurance for my consulting business in Canada helps protect your business from unplanned financial expenses. You also need the policy to protect your employees and to ensure that the satisfaction of your clients is prioritized.
FAQs
Does a Consulting Business Need Insurance?
A consulting business is a business operating in Canada, providing consultation services in exchange for payment. Therefore, it needs to purchase insurance to protect the business, its employees, and its properties.
What are the Best Consulting Firms in Canada?
Some of the popular consultant insurance providers in Canada are NEXT Insurance, Zensurance, and State Farm.
Is Business Insurance Mandatory in Canada?
Yes, your consulting agency needs to be insured, as this helps it to save costs on legal fees, settle unsatisfied clients, and take care of injured employees.
