The Insurance Family Blog

Did you know that one of the largest threats to small businesses is employee theft?

A restaurant is a minefield for workers’ compensation claims.  In the kitchen alone, cooks, dishwashers, and other employees are particularly at risk for sustaining burn injuries from hot food or grease burns from pans or fryers. In a busy restaurant, wet or greasy floors are particularly hazardous. Consider all the boiling water, churning oil, and sharp blades that are part of a restaurant’s daily life. Employees in a hurry can easily slip and fall on a wet or greasy floor. If your restaurant isn’t covered with workers’ compensation insurance, one employee’s mishap can become a financial burden on the business.

In order to maintain a great reputation, California restaurant owners pride themselves on high standards of food, hygiene and safety. Ensuring that the business has insurance coverage for disasters such as food spoilage is prudent.  No restaurant owner wants to have to deal with that, so how can restaurants avoid food spoilage in the first place?

The service industry in California forms the backbone of California’s economy. Employing thousands of people, services like fast food, casual dining and fine dining are operated by dedicated business owners. The task of running a restaurant is not an easy one and most restaurant owners can attest to this fact. With California restaurant regulations and compliance being so tight – there is a lot of bureaucracy to get through. By ensuring that a restaurant business is covered by all the appropriate insurance options means that restaurant owners can stop worrying about the bureaucracy and start doing what they do best, running a great restaurant.

When considering taking out a business or “commercial” auto insurance policy, there are some basic things that business owners need to know. Being armed with this knowledge will aid business owners in getting the best California commercial auto insurance deal, while being fully protected with the right amount of coverage. While many Californians think that business auto insurance is just like personal auto coverage, there are differences everyone should understand when evaluating their options. The more you know as a business owner, the more you can compare each policy, and so you can make an informed commercial auto insurance choice.

In California, no matter what size the business, there tends to be a crossover between business use of a vehicle and personal use of a vehicle. It all depends on the time of day! While at work, a vehicle will be used for business. But what about after work or on the weekend? Californians love a road trip to the beach, and it is no secret that there will be a number of business vehicles at the local beach parking lot each weekend. A high proportion of vehicles are used for both business and pleasure. Ensuring that the vehicle and driver are covered for both types of use can be of concern, but with the right auto insurance company, staying protected is not a problem.

Purchasing a vehicle for a business in California tends to involve a weigh up of price versus features and value. The price of the vehicle, along with the kinds of features it has will also affect your commercial auto insurance premium. This cost will linger every year when a business renews its commercial auto insurance.  Factors such as the vehicle’s age, usage type and class will also have an effect on the commercial auto insurance premium. Having the knowledge about how a commercial insurance premium is calculated will allow a business owner to evaluate the most cost effective option for his or her company.

This is a question we encounter every day from California Business Owners: “Just how much commercial auto coverage does my business need?”  It can be difficult for business owners to evaluate what type of commercial auto insurance is required, because every business is different. There are varying numbers of employees business to business, as are their varying usage types industry to industry.

Liquor liability in California can be a difficult issue, and it makes sense to protect your restaurant with liquor liability insurance. This kind of insurance can be included in your overall restaurant insurance package to protect against any charges of negligence related to the service of alcohol on your premises and it will also indemnify the insured for any financial loss if legal liability is found. Even if you have already protected your restaurant business in this way, the experience of dealing with a liquor liability claim can be an unpleasant one, so you will want to put into place some risk management strategies to further decrease your chances of having to deal with a liquor liability claim.

 This year in California, the rainy season went on longer than expected, and as a result, California homeowners are at risk, says the Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Because the extra rain encouraged increased brush growth and the severe weather loosened branches and falling trees, homeowners should expect an increase in foliage for fires to burn its way through various counties. This means that homeowners in California are more at risk than ever before when it comes to wildfires.