A business owners policy is a great way to bundle property coverage and liability coverage into one policy, but it doesn’t cover everything. There are many dangers businesses face that cannot be covered by a standard business owners policy. Luckily, there are ways to adjust your policy to feature additional coverage.

The property damage coverage featured with a business owners policy can be changed to open-peril coverage, meaning that it will cover both named and unnamed perils. A standard policy will only cover mentioned perils, meaning that if “fire” isn’t named on your policy, it won’t be covered. An open-peril policy covers mentioned and non-mentioned perils.

Other additional coverages to add to your business owners policy include:

• Business Interruption: Business interruption insurance is a common coverage added to a business owners policy. It provides monetary compensation for income lost if the business cannot operate for a certain amount of time after disaster.
• Professional Liability: Unlike general liability, professional liability (also known as Errors and Omissions insurance) deals specifically with incidents involving an employee causing a client to lose money through poor advice or error.
• Cyber Liability: A lot of work is conducted online now. Cyber liability can cover against data breaches, cyber-attacks, cyber blackmail and more. This does not cover the physical computer or monitor.
• Employment Practices Liability: Also known as EPLI, this liability insurance steps in if an employee sues their employer due to sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination or other claim in which the employee believes their rights were violated.
• Hired and Non-Owned Auto: If your company rents or borrows vehicles for work, you may want to purchase hired and non-owned auto so that a potential accident doesn’t fall back on your company to pay for. This is especially important if you already have a business auto insurance policy.

There are also many coverages specified for certain businesses. Restaurants may want to invest in spoilage of merchandise while law firms may want to purchase a lawyer’s endorsement.

What is the Cost of a Business Owners Policy?

The price of a BOP depends on the industry of your business, the amount of coverage and the business’ average annual income. On average, a business owners policy costs approximately $1,200 a year. General liability alone for a business can cost up to $2,758 a year, saving over $1,558 a year for both general liability and property insurance coverage.