What is one strategy you used to control personal or business expenses with insurance?
To help entrepreneurs and small business owners control costs with insurance, we asked founders and CEOs their top tips on how to do just that. From equipment rental insurance equipment to medical evacuation insurance, there are several strategies to control costs with insurance!
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Here are 14 top strategies to control costs with insurance:
- Equipment Rental Insurance
- Workers Compensation Insurance
- Get Home Insurance Coverage
- Life Insurance
- Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenses With Health Insurance
- Limit Your Liability With Commercial Insurance
- Find Overlapping Coverage to Reduce Expenses
- Reduce Risk With Loan Protection Insurance
- Consider Dental Insurance
- Don’t Auto-renew Insurance Policies
- Pay Premiums in Full to Save On the Back End
- Maintain a Good Credit Score
- A Yearly Review
- Medical Evacuation Insurance
Equipment Rental Insurance
Equipment financing is important, but so is securing equipment rental insurance. Equipment rental insurance will not only cover any repair costs to leased equipment, but also covers cleanup costs in the event of an accident. Equipment is expensive, and whether it’s on your property or at a rental location, you should protect yourself. Equipment rental insurance can significantly reduce your company’s expenses if something goes wrong.
Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital
Workers Compensation Insurance
Workers compensation reduces our liability for on-the-job injuries. Combined with championing a safety culture, workers comp gives our employees the confidence that they’ll be covered if anything goes wrong. It also gives us the confidence that in that same scenario, our employees will be taken care of. The best thing is to reduce the chance of injury, but workers compensation helps us cover all our bases.
Blake Murphey, American Pipeline Solutions
Get Home Insurance Coverage
Home ownership is the dream of so many people, but it comes with added responsibilities. When you rent, the cost of repairing a property or replacing appliances is on your landlord. When you own, it’s on you, the homeowner. While home insurance does not cover maintenance and damage from normal wear and tear, with home insurance, you get coverage against general property loss or theft and personal liability for harm to others. If you own a home, you must have home insurance, so try to get the best coverage for all your needs.
Vicky Franko, Insura
Life Insurance
You should absolutely incorporate life insurance as part of your long-term financial plans. Certain life insurance policies have something called cash value, which can increase over time. With these policies, you can usually even add money that further increases the cash value. In some cases, you can then use that cash value while still alive to help cover life insurance policy expenses, which can reduce your costs!
Brian Greenberg, Insurist
Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenses With Health Insurance
Health insurance not only reduces out-of-pocket costs when you visit a doctor or clinic. Prescription savings are usually also bundled into health insurance plans, and this can grant you access to the treatment you need at reduced cost. You can even further reduce your costs by comparing the rates of different providers and getting the best possible insurance rate that can save you money while ensuring the care you need.
Chris Abrams, Abrams Insurance
Limit Your Liability With Commercial Insurance
As a business owner, I strongly recognize the value in commercial insurance. You never know if someone is going to get hurt on your property. There is also every chance that something could happen that results in damage to it. In either event, in limiting your liability, commercial insurance can help reduce your costs. Make sure your business is properly insured for your sake and your customers.
Brandon Berglund, Berglund Insurance
Find Overlapping Coverage to Reduce Expenses
There is an old adage which says you should always read the fine print, and this rule should be applied to insurance, as many details are hidden in policies, meaning that business owners should survey their plans for overlapping coverage. Insurance coverage for businesses can often come from several policies with one company, or from multiple ones depending on a business’s needs, thus, increasing the chance for overlap.
Looking into such items as auto and property insurance, as well as liability, health, and personal injury coverage, an owner can find and highlight duplicate or overlapping areas. Reducing insurance costs is as much about finding waste and utilization management, as it is about shopping prices, and by eliminating the overlapping areas, you can successfully accomplish that task.
Yuvi Alpert, Noémie
Reduce Risk With Loan Protection Insurance
You never want anything bad to happen to you, but if it does, you need to ensure that your loan is still going to be paid even if you lose the ability to make payments. The best way to do this is with loan protection insurance. It reduces the risk to your finances, helping you meet your monthly bill obligations. I don’t go without it, and neither should you.
Allan Switalski, LendThrive
Consider Dental Insurance
Dental work can be expensive, but dental insurance significantly reduces costs. I think dental insurance is a necessity, as it helps patients keep up with their overall dental health, and also particularly helps our patients keep their dentures in working order. Do yourself a favor, and acquire dental insurance to give yourself a greater ability to maintain that beautiful smile with fewer out-of-pocket costs.
Henry Babicheknko, Stomadent
Don’t Auto-renew Insurance Policies
You can deduct the ordinary and necessary cost of insurance as a business expense. This reduces your taxable income. Reviewing your business-related insurance premiums every year rather than auto-renewal can save hundreds of dollars. Whether life insurance for employees, automobile insurance for company cars, or fire, flood, storm, crop, theft, liability insurance. Set up agenda reminders for your policies as the time spent comparing providers will prove to be time well spent!
Saskia Ketz, Mojomox
Pay Premiums in Full to Save On the Back End
We budget for all sorts of expenditures, however, while we factor in the cost of healthcare and other insurance, rarely do we pay attention to the fees we incur for a monthly payment plan, making paying your premium up front a good way to reduce expenses. Depending on the size of your business, these monthly installment fees can go from a thousand to several thousand a year, draining your ability to meet other needs.
By adjusting your cash flows, spending less on items not as essential, holding off spending on specific needs that have more flexibility, or simply keeping a sinking fund, you can save a significant amount. While paying the premium up front may affect your first quarter, in the long run, it will free up money on the backend, giving your business more flexibility come year’s end.
Woody Sears, Hearhere
Maintain a Good Credit Score
Having a good credit history might help you save money on insurance. The majority of insurers use credit information to determine the cost of auto insurance policies. Pay your payments on time, don’t take out more credit than you need, and keep your credit balances as low as possible to safeguard your credit score. Regularly review your credit report and repair any problems as soon as possible to ensure that your record remains accurate.
Daniela Sawyer, FindPeopleFast
A Yearly Review
In the beginning, we simply rubber stamped our insurance annually, and assumed it as fixed cost, however, by implementing a yearly review and seeking sufficient insurance or an alternative payment model, we were able to reduce our cost significantly. Over time, our business changed, and so did our needs, as we no longer required certain coverage.
By sitting down with our insurance agent before the beginning of the new year, and carefully examining where we had sufficient coverage, where we were paying for items that we would never use, and where we were overcovering, we were able to find waste and reduce our overall costs. This is why, at our end of the year review, we make reevaluating our insurance coverage a priority, so we are not just carrying over old coverage needs into a new year.
Zach Letter, Wonder Works
Medical Evacuation Insurance
Any time you travel, especially outside the country, make sure that your travel insurance includes evacuation and repatriation benefits. These cover the potential exorbitant expenses you might incur if you fall ill outside the country and need a medical transport back home or to the nearest major medical center. A short-term medical evacuation policy is not that expensive and can be easily obtained online. Some of the high-end premium credit cards include these benefits if you use them to purchase your tickets. Read the fine print and make sure you protect yourself and your family against unpredictable mishaps.
Norman Bizon, TravelBug Health
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