business liability insurance for web designers
No matter what field your business is in, you can benefit from having a business insurance policy. In fact, it’s recommended if you want to protect your company’s finances and reputation in case the unexpected ever happens. Even if you’re in the technology industry and mainly design or develop websites and graphics for clients, you need a few types of business insurance coverage. Before you get a policy for your business, take a look at what kind of coverage you should get as part of the technology industry.

General Liability Insurance

Most businesses need general liability at the very least, because this pays for any property damage or bodily injury when you’re interacting with clients. You might think you can skip it if you work from home and therefore don’t have an office where you meet with clients. But the fact is that if you ever meet with clients—even at their office or at a local coffee shop—you need general liability as part of your business insurance coverage.

After all, there’s always a chance you could accidentally injure your client during your meeting. For example, your clients could trip over your laptop cord as you present your ideas, or you might spill hot coffee on them during your meeting. Unless you have the means to pay for their hospital bills yourself, you need general liability insurance.

You also need it to pay for any property damage you might cause. So if you arrive at their office to present your visions for their new website, and you spill a drink on a computer, you’re going to need general liability to pay for to fix or replace it. In this instance, general liability coverage is well worth the small cost you’ll pay as a web designer.

Professional Liability Insurance

The other type of insurance you need as a designer is professional liability coverage, which pays for any damage your work causes to your clients. You might be surprised how often web and graphic designers have to pay for damages after they complete a project for a new client, so be sure you don’t overlook this business essential.

general vs professional liability
Read also: General vs Professional Liability Insurance Coverage

For example, if you design a website that totally misses the mark on your client’s vision, you might assume you can simply make some revisions. But there’s not always time for a new design. Maybe your client promised customers the website would be up and functional by a certain date, and if it’s not, he or she might start losing money on potential sales. At that point, your client could try to sue you to recoup the money he or she isn’t making due to the site not being up. That’s when you’ll be glad to have professional liability insurance to pay for your legal defense costs.

Professional liability insurance can also cover your legal costs if you are ever accused of copyright infringement, which is not uncommon in the web design world. If you’re not prepared to pay out of pocket for legal defense, you need this coverage for your business.

Final summary

In general, if you provide any professional services or give advice to clients, you need professional liability insurance. And if you ever come in contact with clients, you need general liability coverage to pay for property damage or medical expenses. Fortunately, web design and similar occupations are common enough now to have their own recommended coverage types with most insurance providers, so you should be able to find a policy that perfectly suits your business.