If you're a small-business owner, you're by definition a risk-taker. The danger, however, of being comfortable with taking leaps of faith is that you can sometimes overlook smart and simple ways to minimize the damage if your leap ends in a fall.
Here are seven ways to do just that.
If your business includes an online component, determine how effectively your policies cover that aspect of your business. "Assume you have a shoe store," explains Jonathan Ezor, a law professor at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, N.Y. and special counsel to The Lustigman Firm, a New York City law firm. "You probably have coverage for inventory, along with business-interruption insurance. But does the business-interruption insurance cover you if your Web hosting company goes out of business and your online business is down for two months? Probably not. You may also host an online forum where customers can talk about shoes. If someone posts child pornography or a computer virus there, is that covered by liability insurance meant for slips and falls on the sales floor? Probably not."