As redundancies increase and work becomes harder to come by many people will consider the option of starting their own business as a means of insuring their future is in their own hands.
Recession has a habit of throwing up new genres in the service sector, encouraging budding entrepreneurs to gain the credentials required to take up a new challenge often in a consultancy capacity to other businesses and the public.
Past recessions saw a whole market grow out of nothing as ISO Accreditation became the latest must have for any business that intended to go places, and previous to that there was a huge growth in the number of Financial Advisers offering their services.
With the right credentials it is possible to start up a new business relatively cheaply by working from home and keeping overheads to a minimum.
However, one thing that should not be overlooked by anyone intending to offer advice and service on a consultancy basis is a good Professional Indemnity Insurance.
This is an essential insurance product for anyone offering advice and consultancy as it protects your business from potential financially crippling and possibly reputation damaging claims from dissatisfied clients.
While no-one in their right mind would go out of their way to set up a business that makes false claims, mistakes can and do happen and Professional Indemnity Insurance will give you peace of mind by protecting your business in a number of ways.
- It will cover you if you make a mistake in the professional services you have provided that leads to a dispute with a client.
- The Indemnity insurance policy will also cover the cost of fixing any mistake on your part, thus avoiding a larger claim being made.
- You are also protected if you lose or damage any clients documents in your care or if one of your employees are involved in the theft of a clients money.
- Intellectual property: unintentionally infringing on others copyrights, trademarks, broadcasting rights, any act of passing off
- Loss of documents/data: damaged, lost or stolen data and documents belonging to your clients
- Dishonesty: liability arising from the theft of your clients money
- Negligence: or breach of duty of care
These are just some of the benefits of , but packages are tailored to suit individual businesses, professions and occupations.
Whatever you do, be wary of offering advice or consultancy without the relevant insurance in place.