Are you thinking about staring a hardware store business? A practical, down to earth person with an outgoing personality who wants to make a contribution to the local community may the perfect person to open a hardware store. A little experience in DIY projects won’t go astray either – your customers will have many questions! You’ll need to invest substantial capital in the project and be prepared to do a lot of hard work, and it’s important to protect the time, capital and effort you invest by purchasing New York business insurance.

New York businesses that have one or more employees are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This mandatory insurance pays benefits to workers who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses. Another mandatory insurance requirement is auto insurance if you run a company vehicle.

Workers compensation and commercial auto insurance provide quite specific protection; for more general insurance for a small business operation many business owners purchase business owners’ insurance policies that provide coverage for a variety of business risks including buildings and contents, business income, liability, electronic data and equipment breakdown.

Building and contents insurance protects the physical assets of the hardware store including the inventory of hardware products for sale. Business income insurance pays when you lose income in certain circumstances, for example if there was a fire in the store and you had to close your business temporarily while the building was repaired.

The liability portion of the business owners’ policy is designed to pay when a third party is harmed, for example a customer who is injured in your hardware store. Electronic data coverage is there to compensate for the recovery of data; hardware stores often utilize sophisticated inventory software, and electronic data coverage helps to minimize downtime if data is lost because of a computer glitch or power outage. Equipment breakdown coverage helps to ensure that equipment that fails can be fixed quickly, so if the hardware store’s paint mixing machinery breaks down it can be back in service without too much delay.

Owning a hardware store can be a rewarding occupation and performs a valuable community service. New York business insurance helps to protect your investment in this venture.

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