Home Based Business Insurance for Dummies
Choose the Right In-Home Business Insurance
Written by Gaurav Bhola, MSM on November 20, 2008

A home based business reflects the business owner’s time, persistence, and dedication. After nurturing your home based business, you need to protect your investment. It is important to protect what you have toiled over and nurtured with proper business insurance coverage.
Generally, home insurance policies protect up to $2,500 for business equipment. However, these are not enough funds to cover all business assets. Furthermore, as a business you also need insurance coverage for liability and lost income.
The type of home based business operations covered diverge from one Insurance company to another. Herein, always shop around for the best prices. Make sure you do acquire liability insurance as part of any business insurance package you get. Some in-home businesses, including food product and home-made personal care product sellers may have to buy special policies.
Generally, three basic choices are available for home based business insurance:
1. Home Insurance Endorsement
You may be able to add a straightforward endorsement to a current homeowners policy in order to double your standard insurance coverage for business equipment. This is a cost effective way to amplify the insurance policy’s limits from $2,500 to $5,000. Some insurance companies may allow an increase in coverage up to $10,000 in increments of $2,500.
Also, you can buy homeowners insurance liability endorsement. The liability insurance protects the business should a client or delivery person get injured on the property. The home insurance liability endorsement is mainly offered to home based businesses that have limited business patrons, like authors. Nonetheless, certain insurance companies offer endorsements to particular businesses, such as tutors, depending on the amount of students.

2. In-Home Business Insurance
In-home business insurance policies are exclusive as they offer more comprehensive coverage for business equipment and liability protection than simple home insurance policy endorsements. The in-home business insurance endorsements vary with the insurer.
Additionally, insurance policies reimburse for accounts receivable, loss of important records, and off-site business assets. Some insurers will compensate you for loss of income due to business interruption in the event of home damage, preventing immediate resumption of business activities.
Usually, home based business insurance offers broad liability insurance coverage for high amounts. Liability offers protection against lawsuits for injuries arising out of use of your services or products.
Home based insurance is available from insurance companies that provide homeowners insurance and business insurance.
3. Businessowners Insurance
Businessowners insurance policy offers security for small-to-mid-size businesses. It covers business property, equipment, liability, loss of income, and extra expense. Additionally, businessowners policies offer more expansive coverage than in-home based business policies. However, the policy doesn’t include health insurance, workers compensation or disability insurance.

