RUNNING A HOME-BASED BUSINESS? YOU NEED A SMALL BUSINESS POLICY

Like most new home-based business owners, you might believe that your Homeowners or Renters insurance coverage offers sufficient protection. That is unfortunate, because in most instances these policies offer little to no coverage for business-related losses.

Homeowners policies are not designed to cover business losses. Most offer a small amount of business property coverage, meant to cover incidental items, such as a computer used for office work.

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Depending on your business, you might be able to purchase a Homeowners endorsement to cover your business property. Your insurer is naturally going to want to know more about your business. Questions such as what type of business, how long you have been in business, and how many employees are common.

If your business is small with a low risk profile, and with limited client visits to your home, your Homeowners insurer might offer limited liability protection. This protection would cover slips and falls when a client visits your office, which otherwise would not be covered.

If this option is not available, you might want to consider a Small Business policy. Your Homeowners insurer might offer a home-based business package for a reasonable premium, or another insurer can offer a package policy to cover the liability and property of your business.
Take a look at the following list. If one or more of the items below apply, you might want to consider a Business policy for your business:

• Business Property, Stock or Equipment greater than $10,000 in value. A Business policy will allow you to insure your office contents, equipment, and stock. A Homeowners policy will likely have little, if any, coverage for business-related items.
• Clients visit your office/use your product/depend on your service. Liability insurance can help cover your exposure to lawsuits resulting from slip and falls, product liability claims, personal injury claims, etc. Perhaps even more importantly, it will provide defense costs for such actions. Homeowners policies do not have coverage for business liability. In a few instances, you might be able to purchase an endorsement to allow coverage for slip and falls due to customer visits, depending on your type of business.
• Damage to your office/workspace would require you to relocate/find a temporary substitute. Extra Expense coverage in a Business policy will provide funds for a temporary office/workspace or cost of a mobile trailer near your damaged office site.
• An Error or Omission could result in a lawsuit that would need to be defended/could seriously damage your business. Errors and Omissions coverage will protect you from judgments and defense costs resulting from past mistakes.
• Damage to your workplace could cause you to lose business, perhaps even lose some customers permanently. Business Interruption coverage will help pay for expenses until your property is repaired or sales return to normal (depending on the policy form).
• Your employees use their vehicles to make deliveries or run errands for your business. Non-Owned Automobile Liability will protect your business in the event that your employee has a serious accident during the course of running an errand for your business.

Contact our office today for more information about your home-based business insurance needs!

EMPLOYERS MUST ESTABLISH SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYEES

Business use of social media tools (also known as “social networking tools”) has taken off in recent years. Organizations of all types and sizes are reaching out to customers with blogs, podcasts, networking Web sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and micro-blogging services like Twitter. These technologies are new and exciting, and present vast new opportunities for publicizing a brand. However, a business using any new technology assumes certain risks. Employees using them could allow confidential information to slip. They might post text, pictures, or videos that embarrass the organization. Individuals outside the organization could post negative comments on the organization’s blog or Facebook page. To minimize these risks, every business using these technologies should develop social media use policies.

The first thing managers must decide is how they feel about social media -- do they favor it for business use, consider it a personal pastime for employees to use only on their own time, or are they ambivalent about it? Management’s attitude toward these sites will shape the resulting policy. With that decided, there are several other issues managers must consider for the policy.

• What exactly does the business mean by the terms “social media,” or “social networking”? Is it just Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? Is it other blogging sites, such as Live Journal? Does it include blogs on newspaper and business news Web sites? What about business-related podcasts, including video podcasts? Before managers can set rules for using social media, they must decide what social media is.
• Should the organization permit employees to identify themselves as employees on these sites? Anything employees say or do will reflect on the organization. If they conduct themselves professionally, they will bring credit to the organization, but the reverse will happen if they post inappropriate material or get into arguments that amount to little more than trading insults. Even on personal blogs and Facebook pages, employees who identify their employers can reflect on them. Employers should consider asking employees to post disclaimers stating that their posts do not represent the company’s opinion.
• Should the organization permit employees to recommend other individuals? LinkedIn and other sites let members post recommendations of other members. If a member recommends a person, a company accepts that recommendation and has a bad experience, and the company interprets the member’s recommendation as coming from that member’s employer, the company might try to hold the employer legally liable. Employers must decide whether the risk is so great that they should prohibit employees from doing this.
• Protecting the names of the innocent. Employees could write about customers, partners, and associates on company-approved blogs. Not everyone wants their name, problems, or purchases displayed on a blog for millions of people to see. The policy should require employees to leave other organizations and individuals anonymous unless they have permission to do otherwise.
• Protecting confidential information. Most employees have enough common sense not to post company confidential information in public forums, but they might have a false sense of security about exchanging it in private messages with other authorized individuals. Social networking sites are computer networks, and networks are always vulnerable to hacking. The policy should require employees to use other, more secure methods of communication for confidential topics.
• Priorities. Social media sites are terrific networking and marketing tools, but they can also be horrendous time sinks. Employees can easily and unintentionally get caught up in blog-writing or checking Twitter, with the result that their productivity slips. The policy should emphasize that employees are still responsible for completing their regular work.
• Consequences for violating the policy. To be fair, organizations must inform their employees of the rules and the consequences of breaking them. Setting and enforcing these consequences will show employees how serious the organization is about the policy.

Businesses can use social media effectively to reach new customers, communicate with old customers in new ways, and grow their brands. All organizations should consider using some or all of these tools. With some common sense rules in place for employees, businesses can reap great rewards from these exciting new technologies.

EMPLOYEE’S ONLINE ACTIVITIES MAY BE RISKY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Did you know your business is liable for how your employees use the Internet while they’re on the job? Many business owners protect themselves by monitoring their employees’ e-mail and Internet usage, including instant messaging.

Some employers are reluctant to implement an e-mail and Internet oversight policy. But monitoring e-mail communication and Web surfing has become an important part of protecting your business.

Suppose an employee at your business has been e-mailing inappropriate images or messages around the office, and these images make their way to a co-worker who finds them offensive. If that co-worker chooses to sue for harassment, your company could easily be held liable. Why? Because businesses can be held responsible for their employees’ activities while using company computers.

If your business had a monitoring policy in place that enabled you to review the e-mails going around the office (as well as your employees’ Web surfing), you would have been able to take measures to stop the offensive e-mail before it was sent.

Creating a monitoring program

Here are some useful tips to consider as you formulate your Internet monitoring and usage policy:

• Implement policies about what employees are allowed to send: Tell your employees never to write -- or even forward -- any material that could
  be considered obscene, hateful, defamatory, offensive, harassing or otherwise inappropriate. This includes racist or sexist language and/or jokes.
• Gain control over what can be accessed at your business: You have a right to ban questionable Web sites at your business. Forbid employees from viewing any sites containing sexually explicit messages or imagery, sites that are violent, or sites containing other content that might be considered inappropriate. Consider installing blocking software to stop access to these sites in the first place.
• Disallow non-work-related Web use while employees are on the job: It’s becoming increasingly common for employees to use the Internet at work for non-work-related purposes. This trend is only getting worse with the rise of social-networking sites, such as Facebook. Therefore, unless employees are on a break, it’s a good idea to insist that e-mails are being sent and Web pages are being viewed for business purposes only.
• Provide separate computers for off-the-clock purposes: Consider setting a few computers aside specifically for employee non-business use. Put them in a common area and allow employees to surf while on their lunch hour. Coupled with an Internet monitoring program, this is an effective practice for many companies (remind employees that your monitoring policy also applies to this non-business use).
• Communicate your monitoring policy to employees: A common pitfall of implementing an Internet and e-mail usage program is that many companies don’t tell employees about their policy. By not telling your employees, you’re actually increasing your exposure to employee lawsuits. Telling them you’ll monitor their e-mail and Internet use will help deter improper use.
• Keep reminding your people about your Internet policies: Once your policy has been communicated to employees, remind them about it regularly. It should be included in your company’s employee handbook. You might also want to consider having a reminder on your employees’ log in screen.

When you put effective Internet and e-mail policies in place, you’re taking a positive step toward protecting your company. It takes some time and effort, and communication must be ongoing, but it’s worth it to reduce liability exposures for your business.