Some insurance, of course, will be very familiar to most people from their own personal lives – buildings and contents insurance for anyone who owns their home or car insurance for anyone who drives.

If premises are owned by a business or a vehicle is used for business purposes, however, it is important that these uses are reflected in the particular insurance cover purchased. If the premises are used as a business activity in themselves – in other words, the business also acts as a landlord for other tenants – then the insurance should also reflect this particular use. In addition to the standard cover for safeguarding the fabric of the building and its contents, the business would also want to consider the protection of landlord liability insurance, which would indemnify the business in the event of claims from tenants who suffer injury as a result of some fault or defect in the property.

Where insurance for a small business is concerned it will also be important to ensure that cover for any company cars, vans or other vehicles reflects the fact that they will be driven and used for business purposes.

But there are additional areas of small business activity that may prove less familiar to those who have previously only considered those insurance policies necessary for their personal lives. Probably the most important of these areas is public liability. Anyone who owns their own home is likely also to have some cover for public liability written into their home insurance (to safeguard them from claims for damage or injury caused by the property – falling roof tiles, for example). In the case of a small business, however, there is a much greater risk of public liability arising from anything connected with the enterprise’s normal, everyday activity. Public liability insurance, therefore, can prove an indispensable financial lifesaver following such potentially expensive claims against the small business.

Additional areas of insurance for a small business can include typically employers’ liability (a legal requirement if the small business employs any number of staff), professional indemnity insurance (if the business sells consultancy services or advice and where such insurance will be a necessity in the case of lawyers, accountants and financial advisers), and product indemnity insurance (if the business supplies manufactured products).