As a home inspector, you face multiple types of risk in your work. For example, you evaluate countless characteristics of homes in every assignment. No matter how good you are at your job, you’re almost guaranteed to miss something or make an inaccurate assessment at some point in your career—and any mistake can result in a lawsuit.

Commercial insurance, sometimes called business insurance, provides crucial financial protection for businesses. Liability insurance—one form of commercial insurance—is particularly important because any company can be sued by a customer or someone else who claims that the business caused some type of damage that affects them—physical injury, property damage, or financial harm.

Running a small business comes with many risks. Consequently, having the right small business insurance is essential. Without policies like general liability, workers’ compensation, professional liability, property & liability, commercial auto, cyber insurance, and commercial umbrella, your company could be hit with liability lawsuits or losses that result in an unbearable financial burden. Sadly, many businesses close their doors every year for this reason.

Any business can become the target of a lawsuit from someone who feels the company injured them in some way—physically or financially. However, there are steps you can take to begin legally protecting your business and minimize the risk of a small business lawsuit. You can also prevent serious financial harm to your company by having the right small business protection through insurance coverage.

Operating any type of business involves risk or liability. Fortunately, there is small business insurance that can protect you from the financial impact of those risks. Two of the many types of coverage available are professional liability insurance (also called errors and omissions or E&O insurance) and general liability insurance. When it comes to general liability versus professional liability, it can be difficult to know which type of coverage you need.

Every business faces risk—things like employee injuries, visitor slip-and-fall accidents, professional “errors and omissions,” and work-related auto accidents. The liability and financial loss from these types of incidents and many others can devastate a small company that isn’t properly insured.

Small businesses that have purchased insurance policies such as workers’ compensation, general liability, and professional liability (also called errors & omissions or E&O) from biBERK will sometimes ask, “Do I need a commercial umbrella insurance policy?”

Small business owners who provide professional advice or services often ask, “Do I need errors and omissions insurance?” The answer in virtually all cases is, “Yes, you do.” Errors and omissions insurance (sometimes written as E&O or E and O insurance) is professional liability insurance that protects businesses from claims by clients that the company’s employees made a mistake or neglected certain required actions.

You may have heard the term insurtech. If you have, you might have wondered, “What is insurtech?” Insurtech is short for “insurance technology,” in the same way that fintech is short for “financial technology.”