PHONE : 1-888-242-4675 | E-MAIL : Info@insureyourcompany.com
Business Type :
Login
Best In-Class Business Insurance for Technology Firms & IT Consultants
Many small businesses are experiencing the benefits of incorporating more technology into their business model. It is without a doubt that technology has propelled business owners into new markets, expanded their marketing opportunities, and helped their business run more efficiently.
More specifically, there are various apps that have been developed specifically to aid in the success of small businesses and their owners.
One of the best ways to increase productivity in the work environment is by staying organized. Evernote is the perfect app for small business owners looking to organize their day by compartmentalizing their thoughts and ideas.
With Evernote, it’s easier than ever to create a project to-do list or write down a quick reminder. One of the best things about Evernote is that the notes you create are immediately available to all of your other devices, making it easily accessible on-the-go.
Staying on top of your finances is integral for every small business owner. Expensify provides automatic reporting and submitting, reimbursement, approval, and account sync. An excellent feature of Expensify is their use of artificial intelligence.
Expensify’s Concierge tool automatically reaches out to users if there are any issues, such as a problem with a receipt or report. Essentially, the concierge tool acts as a virtual assistant to small business owners, allowing a more efficient workflow.
With the various opportunities that the internet has created, it is no wonder that social media has played a key role in the success of small businesses. Social media has essentially created new opportunities and increased visibility for business owners, ultimately resulting in increased revenue.
Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social networks, connect with customers, and grow your brand. Instead of trying to manage each individual social networking site on your own, Hootsuite will handle all of your accounts through one dashboard, allow you to quickly respond to messages and comments, and track your performance across the board.
Slack is a unique app in that it provides a better way for you and your team to communicate. Slack is an instant messaging service for business that allows you to not only instant message, but also send large files and video call.
This convenient app will most certainly save time, increase productivity, and ensure that a line of communication is always present among you and your team. It’s especially useful for remote teams.
It’s important for small businesses to stay up-to-date with current trends in technology. It’s also important for small businesses to have multiple payment options for customers. Square is certainly a way to do both.
Square is a mobile-payment processing app. It’s excellent for businesses because it provides fast-processing, analytics, and a flat-fee option of 2.75%. You can view your Square dashboard to access real-time data and check your sales no matter where you are.
In addition, you can get deposits as soon as the next day thanks to Square sending payments directly to your bank account (typically 1-2 business days).
Small businesses make up a large part of the economy, and thanks to the many advancements of technology, they are running more efficiently. If you run a small business, it’s important that you have the right tools if you want to remain organized, increase productivity, and reach your ultimate goal of success and growth.
The latest wave of cyber attacks have put many small business owners on edge—and rightfully so. According to Small Biz Trends, 43% of cyber attacks were targeted at small businesses as of 2016. And 2017 has already seen a number of alarming attacks across the world.
What if next time, it happens to you?
Despite your best preparations, you can’t always prevent your business from being hacked—but you can be sure that you’re prepared.
Whether you’ve been locked out of your vital data by a ransomware attack or your website has been brought down by a denial of service attack, you want to get back to normal functionality for your customers as soon as possible.
Having solid backups of your data is one of the most critical ways to make this happen. You should also have a backup plan in place that will allow you to bring your business operations up remotely, keeping functionality as smooth as possible while you work out what’s happened and how it will continue to impact your business.
With so many companies facing dramatic consequences from cyber attacks, cyber insurance is a logical investment for your business. Being hacked carries costs that add up fast. Cyber insurance will help you recover from the attack and get your business back to normal sooner.
The company you get your insurance through will likely also provide you with an attorney who will help you navigate the complicated waters of rebuilding customer trust and handling legal obligations following the incident.
How many machines were impacted? What data was stolen? Are there any programs or files that you are unable to access? It’s difficult to bring your business back to normal before you completely understand the ramifications of the attack and how it will continue to impact you later.
This is particularly critical if you’re dealing with private customer information that may now be in the hands of hackers. Letting your customers know what’s happened and what you’re doing to deal with it is critical to maintaining their confidence and keeping them protected.
How did the hackers get into your business? Were you the victim of a social engineering scam, or did they gain access through a third party? By learning how hackers gained access to your business data, you stand better odds of closing up the security holes so that future attacks don’t get in the same way.
Tracing your attack to its source may also help you discover what steps you need to take to make your business safe again. Do you need to shut down an infected machine and remove it from the network? Is there a program in need of a software patch or update? Understanding where the attack originated and how it has spread will help determine the steps you need to take in the future.
It’s not just about patching software holes or removing an infected machine. It’s also about learning what caused the breach and taking steps to prevent a future one.
Do you need better training for employees on how to recognize phishing scams? Is your company in desperate need of an update policy that keeps all of your software updated?
As you learn from your mistakes, you’ll discover that you can create a tighter security net that will go further towards protecting your business.
When a cyber attack hits your business, you need to be prepared. If you’re in need of cyber insurance that will help protect you if your business is hacked, contact us today to learn more about the services we offer and how they can help you weather a cyber attack.
Customer service is one of the most critical parts of your small business. You want to be sure you’re able to connect fully and honestly with your customers, providing them with the high-quality service that they expect and deserve.
Keep in mind that customers are twice as likely to share a bad customer service experience as they are to share a good one, which means that a negative interaction can have serious ramifications for your business.
For that reason, building a great customer service team is an ongoing process that is well worth the effort for your business.
For some people, good customer service seems to come naturally. Others are prepared to provide everything they can for your customers, but they might not know how to go about it. By providing regular, ongoing customer service training for your employees, you can help provide them with the tools they need to give your customers their best.
Today’s customers are short on time and short on patience. Many of them don’t even like communicating with people over the phone. For this reason, online customer service is critical. Over 50% of your customers likely describe online customer service as being one of their preferred methods for contacting your team—and that means you need to be providing it.
If you want a good example of this, check out the live chat feature at the bottom of our own site during business hours!
80% of Twitter users and 50% of Facebook users expected a response to their query within a business day in 2012—and that number has only continued to grow since then. When you make a fast, accurate response a hallmark of your customer service experience, you ensure that you’ll keep bringing satisfied customers back to your doors.
Providing employees with customer service training might fill in some gaps, but it’s important that your team be filled with people who are dedicated to solving the problems customers experience.
Look for problem-solvers who are willing to go the extra mile or who will work hard to figure out how to make a customer happy. This mentality will create a shift throughout your customer service department, especially if you treat them like a coherent team.
This isn’t just about a fast resolution to a problem. It’s also about respecting the time and effort that customers need to put into their queries. They don’t want a complicated customer service process that takes up half of the day. In most cases, that will result in customers who give up on the process—and in many cases, they may give up on your company altogether.
Chances are, your customers are already telling you what they want, both from your company as a whole and from the customer service experience. By listening to them, you can increase your customer service efforts and provide exactly what they’re looking for.
Pay specific attention to complaints or concerns that you hear from numerous customers. In many cases, it could be the key to more effective customer service.
A customer service team that knows they’re appreciated will be more likely to go the extra mile for your customers. Appreciate them when they do something right. Recognize them when something outside their control has gone wrong and they’ve had a lot to deal with. Proper recognition for all they do can be the difference between a customer service team that doesn’t care about the company and one that genuinely wants to make the best of every customer interaction.
With as many as 40% of customers admitting that they have left a company over a bad customer service experience, it’s critical to get your customer service team up to standards. By following these recommendations, you can take your customer service—and therefore your small business as a whole—to the next level.
After working hard to grow your small business, getting robbed can come as a shock to the system. Whether it’s property theft or cash being taken directly on site, it could place you in major financial jeopardy within a few short hours.
It’s typically more fortunate if a robbery happens off-hours. When it does, it prevents any possible threat to human life, like customers or employees. Then again, you never know when a robbery might occur in broad daylight. We all know it can happen to any business and not just financial institutions.
When a robbery does occur, you may feel stunned about how to proceed. The important thing is to call police first. Then you’ll want to look at your insurance policies to see what’s covered.
A robbery might leave more than just stolen items missing. The thieves who broke in perhaps damaged your property as well. Maybe they destroyed an interior door to gain access to a safe, or trashed your business just to wreak havoc.
These damages could cost you even more than the inventory losses you experienced. Having commercial property insurance is going to help you out of this jam. In most cases, property insurance policies help with damage to furniture and your inventory.
While you’ll incur a deductible here, a comprehensive commercial property insurance plan gets you back on your feet quickly. This might include your entire building if the thieves did extensive damage to the exterior as well as interior.
The dreaded scenario of someone being injured or killed during a robbery is likely a recurring nightmare. Liability insurance is a must in these scenarios to help in case you receive a lawsuit.
Commercial general liability insurance is one of the best policies for this because of its comprehensibility. It covers not only property damage, but also helps when dealing with injuries on your property. You’ll want this insurance when going through the pressures of fighting lawsuits.
Robberies definitely cause troubling interruptions in your business. Due to the property damage mentioned above, you may have to shut down for several weeks.
Business interruption insurance is going to help you through with typically three steps. They’ll help you with income you’ve lost during the interruption. Also, they’ll help you deal with expenses you’ve accrued while shut down. And many policy providers additionally offer payroll coverage so you can continue paying your employees during inactive time.
Having a policy like this helps you prepare for the ripple effects typically caused from just one robbery.
It’s possible to find insurance policies directly under the crime category. While you should try to make your insurance as comprehensive as you can afford for all possibilities, crime insurance is one to consider first.
Most policies here are going to help you recover financially if you experience a financial loss due to theft. They also help in cases where you experience inside theft from employees.
The latter is one to take seriously since it happens far too often. Another thing to take seriously is cyber theft being just as prevalent as a physical robbery. Many general liability policies don’t cover cyber crime, so you may need a separate cyber theft policy.
Even though you may have safeguards to withstand robberies, always expect the unexpected, since nothing is completely fail-safe in today’s world.
Planning a data backup strategy for your small business might sound like a simple process, but there’s more to think about to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.
In this unpredictable world we’re living in today, all documentation needed to keep your business functioning could still easily disappear in a second. A natural disaster may wipe out your business within minutes, even if you have some data backed up.
The above usually occurs when relying on an on-site database for all data storage. While it’s better than nothing, what happens if your entire building is destroyed—along with your server where your backups are stored?
This is just one thing to think about when backing up data. You also need to think about the methods you’ll use to save data, what to back up, and how often you’ll save it.
You’ll obviously want a local backup system, one you can turn to within your location to access data again. It doesn’t mean you should keep this within your business property. Using a backup source within a short drive in your local city can mean being able to rescue your business without driving hundreds of miles to another place.
In cases where there are mass power outages, a local backup system isn’t always feasible. Choosing an offsite, third-party backup provider is a smart strategy to keep things going if you need to go elsewhere to find electricity. Many small businesses still use tape backup with offsite rotation, giving multiple options for data access locations.
However, the cloud is truly the best method for more than a few reasons.
While not all small businesses are perfect candidates for using the cloud, it’s something to consider first as the most reliable backup method. Considering you can safely store almost the entirety of your business contents in the cloud, you can literally save your business from a major disastrous event.
With the cloud being easy to access on any mobile device, restoring important documents instantly (even from home) can keep your small business from going under.
Of course, cost is probably a concern. Online sources show many great cloud providers for small businesses that don’t cost a fortune, yet still bringing strong reliability.
If you’re essentially a startup and have minimal data, a USB-based drive can keep your data relatively safe. Also consider a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) system, distributing your data across multiple hard drives. RAID technology is more tolerant to failures, so it’s a good sideline backup to using Time Machine (if you use Apple computers).
Any continuous backup system is better than one only backing up once or twice a day. If your small business has continually changing data every hour, you absolutely need something continuous.
Redundancy is important here so if one data backup system fails, you’ll have other sources available. In this regard, it’s worth remembering continuous backup won’t always be completely reliable in just one location.
Any documents you need to keep your business running require continual backup, including a backup test to assure it’s all being saved properly. Insurance papers and business operation documentation should get particular protection since you’ll need these if your business experiences a disaster.
Plus, all documentation proving compliance needs extra focus on backup. Forgetting to back this up could place you in more financial jeopardy and legal trouble than you may already experience after something unforeseen occurs.
One of the most important parts of running a successful small business is building a team that works well together and cares about the company reaching its goals.
But business owners can’t simply throw a group of people together and expect them to function well as a team right out the gate. In order to create a team that works like a well-oiled machine, you must invest some time and money into team-building activities.
Many employees may find traditional team-building activities like ice breakers forced, boring, and a waste of time. This is why the following 4 activities are a great starting point for business owners looking to strengthen their team.
Employees never want to feel like their time is being wasted. A great way to prevent them from feeling this way is to plan events where employees can team-build while learning new skills and gaining valuable knowledge about their profession.
Take employees on field trips to conferences, exhibits, or unique training opportunities so they can simultaneously get a break from the office and socialize while gaining valuable new knowledge.
Another great way for employees to connect is by organizing team volunteering events. Habitat for Humanity is always looking for groups to help build houses for families in need. Animal shelters are happy to have volunteers to help walk dogs. If it’s the holidays, employees can go out in teams to deliver presents to children’s hospitals.
Volunteering is a great way for employees to strengthen their communication skills and learn how to accomplish tasks as a team. Volunteering is also shown to be good for a person’s health, and can contribute to fulfilling his/her purpose.
Another goal that you should accomplish with team-building is getting employees out of their normal routine. This is especially true for those employees who spend much of their working day behind a desk. Sitting for long periods of time has a negative effect on a person’s health, so team-building activities should get them out of their chairs and up and moving.
Make a list of different physical activities and have the staff vote on which ones they would be interested in doing. This will prevent asking employees to participate in an activity they may not be comfortable with (someone not being able to swim, for example). Encourage these activities to be about how the team works together, rather than making it a competition.
The best way for a group of people to bond is for them to participate in activities that may be out of their comfort zone. These types of activities may push otherwise shy employees to interact more, and if everyone has a chance to do something they thought they would never do, they may feel more comfortable in future interactions with the rest of their team.
Some great team-building activities to get employees out of their comfort zone include karaoke nights, zip-lining, or escape rooms.
By providing employees with the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with co-workers, small business owners can keep their team happy, while ultimately growing their business.
Cyber security is a growing concern for all businesses with an online presence, but especially for those that are smaller in size. There are an ever-expanding number of threats from hackers, identity thieves, and spammers—and smaller businesses are often more vulnerable.
Cyber threats are potentially devastating to your business. They can also harm your credibility and trust with customers, making it harder to recover the way a large business might.
To add to the tips we’ve published in the past, here are 10 more essential cyber security tips for your small business.
Only provide passwords to employees who need access to specific programs and services. Passwords should never be shared with everyone in the company.
Set up guidelines for internet use on company computers for your staff. Make sure employees understand the consequences of violating the security policy. Whenever someone with access to your accounts leaves your business, remember to change all of your passwords.
Email is very useful for casual communication, but it’s seldom secure. That’s why financial institutions never write out entire credit card numbers and other sensitive data in emails.
Using encrypted email helps to make it more secure. You can, for example, set up filters to remind users if they’re sharing sensitive information.
In many cases, individuals and businesses make it easy for hackers by making common mistakes such as clicking on suspicious attachments or responding to phishing emails. Make sure everyone in your company knows not to fall victim to common scams.
If your business is active on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media sites, take the time to upgrade your security and privacy settings on these sites.
Instruct employees never to download apps without permission. It’s often best to separate personal and business usage on social sites. For example, if employees log into your business account with their personal profiles, you incur additional risks.
The cloud is very useful for storing data. However, there’s a wide spectrum of security options on the cloud. Popular cloud storage options such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Apple iCloud are all fairly secure options (as long as you use good passwords and two-factor authentication). If you handle sensitive data in your business, use a service that specializes in secure cloud storage.
If your data isn’t encrypted, it’s fairly easy for hackers to gain access to it. This is crucial if you’re handling customers’ personal and financial data. You or your IT team can place encryption protocols on your networks, email, cloud storage, and operating systems.
Use strong passwords that are difficult to guess. When possible, use two-factor authentication for sensitive accounts. The requires an extra step to log into an account and prevents unauthorized people (or bots) from gaining access.
Make sure all of the computers and other devices used in your business have the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Be sure to buy this type of software from reputable vendors (some malware is actually disguised as anti-virus software!). Keep this software updated to maximize effectiveness.
If you use WiFi, password protect access. Even with passwords, however, public WiFi networks are easily breached. It’s best to keep your network hidden from public view. Hiding your router’s SSID is the best way to prevent hackers from accessing your network.
Cyber criminals often use ransomware, which locks your data until you pay them to retrieve it. To guard yourself against this, make sure you have copies of all important material such as files, spreadsheets, financial data, customer information, and any important documents.
It’s also a good idea to store sensitive information offsite or using a secure cloud storage service. This ensures your data is safe if your computer crashes and if something happens to your property or office space.
Stay safe out there!
For many companies, the costs related to disputes and issues with employees are on the rise. Businesses big and small frequently face lawsuits and claims made by employees as a result of unlawful termination, work harassment discrimination, denied promotion, and deprivation of career opportunity, among others.
Most of the time, the employer doesn’t even need to be in the wrong to face a lawsuit.
No company is immune to lawsuits, no matter the size, but small businesses are particularly vulnerable without the safety net of a large legal team. Every small business therefore needs a good insurance policy in place to protect against costs and damage claims made by disgruntled employees.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) offers protection to small businesses and covers lawsuit costs—whether the company wins the lawsuit or not. To help decrease your chances of running into a legal snafu in the first place, here are some employee risk management tips.
In the case of a lawsuit, evidence provides a fundamental component to the case. Lack of proof that the employee is wrong is a liability and a base for anyone to lay a claim.
To protect against unlawful claims, employers should monitor the employee at all angles. Background investigations about the employee could provide useful information about the overall conduct of the employee to use against them in future in case of a lawsuit.
Monitoring could provide valuable information to use for termination by unlawful conduct. The evidence collected would help defend against a lawsuit for wrongful termination.
On top of monitoring, you should make risk management a core function and habit of your business. Every action, every move should aim at mitigating risk. Every director should manage the risks in their specific areas to prevent any future occurrences.
Companies should keep their staff updated with all health and well-being requirements and compliance training. This knowledge about compliance furnishes the employees with rules and guidelines on different factors that make clear what counts as grounds for termination, thus avoiding the risk of being sued down the line for firing someone who didn’t comply.
Compliance training also offers staff information and techniques on how to react to questionable situations and to reduce the chances of further damage.
Most of the time, organizations entrust employee risk management to one senior employee. In many cases, certain aspects could get overlooked when terminating an employee, thus creating a basis for that employee to seek a legal lawsuit.
Companies should form a board to manage employee risk, a team that includes HR, security guards, and IT personnel. This provides an effective way to identify counter-productive behavior at any level, which can then be quickly explored and resolved in timely manner.
Every company should have a security strategy to identify critical business assets and associated vulnerabilities. You should also use knowledge-based recruitment strategies to protect against injuries brought about by inexperienced staff.
Every small business needs to identify where their most valuable assets are and who is managing them. Only through keeping records will employers be ready to face a lawsuit about injuries occurred at work.
While EPLI is important for any small business to have, don’t get reckless in managing risks simply because you have your business insured. You should ensure that security measures are still in place to prevent against fraudulent claims.
Too many claims made against the company can not only increase your insurance premiums, but can also lead to a loss in credibility, opening the doors to many other employees making fraudulent claims because they know the insurance company will handle the allegation.
Employers should follow these best practices for employee risk management to investigate cases beforehand and follow up on reports carried out before they advance into a lawsuit.
Unfortunately, contract disputes are all too common in the business world. Though contracts may be written with a great deal of care using verbose language, many still leave room for interpretation. And where there’s room for interpretation, high-priced lawyers are often called in to dispute the small details.
No one wants to go down that road of costly litigation, so it’s important to make sure any contract you sign is solid and clearly written before any project begins.
Here are 7 simple tips that can help avoid contract disputes with independent contractors.
Don’t rely on a series of emails, phone conversations, and a handshake to communicate your expectations and back up any claims you make.
Among other details, a written contact should include:
Open communication is a critical part of maintaining healthy relationships with contractors and ensuring they meet contract requirements. Talk with them directly to ensure they’ve understood your expectations.
Meet with them in person as often as necessary to review the work as it progresses. Redirecting efforts at the beginning of a project is much easier and more cost-effective than waiting until after a contractor has wasted multiple hours and resources headed in the wrong direction because they misinterpreted your requests.
As work progresses, unexpected situations arise, and amendments and changes to an original contract are often required. Verbal agreements can be confusing and difficult to prove after the fact. Modifications to any contract should always be made in writing and recognized by all the parties involved with additional signatures or initials.
This ensures that contractors are holding up their end of the communication channel. Get daily reports on the progress made, difficulties encountered, resolutions employed, labor used, and other important details. If a dispute arises, these written reports provide solid proof of what happened, when it happened, and whether you were informed or not.
When faced with court action, unscrupulous individuals may deny they ever signed a contract. It is an expensive process for your lawyer to prove otherwise. Having your signatures witnessed in the presence of a notary is a simple, inexpensive way to provide concrete evidence that a contractor signed your contract. Courts will often automatically deem a notarized document as valid. For a small fee, some notaries will travel to you so you can avoid the hassle of going to them.
Unforeseen circumstances could arise to complicate progress at any stage of the project, leading to chaos and confusion about who owes whom what amount. An early termination clause gives clear direction in situations like these.
It should state the amount of compensation due, by percentage or estimation of the work completed, to one party if the other must withdraw from the contract before the project is fully complete.
On construction projects, contractors may hire subcontractors to complete segments of the work. If subcontractors aren’t fully paid in a timely manner, they may file a lien against your property for relief.
Before you make your final payment to the contractor, demand lien releases from all the subcontractors involved to protect yourself from any future liens.
Of course, if you are on the other side of this equation and are the contractor doing the work, it’s important to follow these guidelines as well to protect your side of the contract. By being absolutely up-front about the details, meeting in person, and tracking ongoing changes in writing, all parties can avoid unnecessary and financially detrimental litigation down the road.
Adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor ncidi quia conseq uuntur magni dolores eos qurti uptatem sequi nesciunt.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute iruLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
InsureYourCompany.com has been treating clients like family for over 15 years. You’ll never have to talk to an automated phone system—we have business insurance experts ready to provide personalized customer service, not only helping you with your insurance and employee benefits needs, but showing you how to be a smarter business owner.
If you are in the IT industry InsureYourCompany.com is the insurance agent you want to work with, we are technology insurance experts and have changed the way you do business. See below a list of professionals who we help today.
Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book. It usually begins with:
We believe in supporting our clients through every step of the insurance process. From choosing the right coverage to filing a claim, we are here to offer guidance and support. Request a free quote today and get coverage that meets your unique needs.
