The Insurance for Texans World HQ is located in a neighborhood of Colleyville known as The Village. It is a traditional mixed use area that has been a wonderful home for us. Today, the topic of insurance hits a bit close to home as a result. We watched one of our favorite restaurants, Ruggeri's, be devastated by fire along with the other tenants of the building on Village Lane. It is a stark reminder of why we talk to people and attempt to work with them to protect what matters most.
As we stood and watched the outstanding Colleyville Fire Department tackle the fire, we we're reminded of just how big disasters really are when they become a bit more personal than a story on the news. Fire claims against home insurance come with certain ramifications such as how do I rebuild my home, where will I live, or how do I replace my stuff. All of those items are easily taken care of when you have proper protection that is put in place. It's why we spend time educating people about what their home insurance does for them.
This building in reality, was home to businesses rather than families. So it comes with a slightly different set of concerns. But many of them are still the same. Commercial Insurance still has things like dwelling value and personal property. But it extends in some unique ways to take care of business owners. Let's look at a few.
Tenants Improvements & Betterments
Many small businesses rent the space that they operate out of rather than own it. When moving into a space, you likely will at least some light remodeling work to make the space work for you and your business. This may mean walls, special counters, or even built in furniture. All of these items cost money and can some times be difficult to replace. This particular coverage will help put that portion of your space back together.
Business Personal Property
When we talked about replacing stuff above with a homeowners policy and said that there are similarities to businesses, this is one of the first things that comes to mind. If you are running a business, you likely have property inside the space like computers, desks, tables, chairs, plates, drink ware, or other items needed to run it. This is just as you would with putting a home together. Business Personal Property coverage makes sure that you can put those items back in your business to continue running efficiently.
Business Interruption
What happens when your business can't be open to serve customers? If you are a coffee shop or restaurant, you cannot make money. If you cannot make money, you cannot pay bills or staff. The entire event can have a snow balling effect that can push you to the brink of trouble. With business interruption coverage, you can secure the ability to maintain cash flow, pay bills, make payroll, and live to fight another day. This becomes vitally important when planning for your future post disaster.
The Craziest Part Of It All
No matter how careful you are and no matter how many precautions you, you're still at risk of losing everything. This particular incident was a building that had fire suppression and sprinkler systems. You could hear the alarms as the Fire Fighters worked the fire. The source of the blaze has not been confirmed, but is believed to be from work being performed on the roof. So the businesses inside did nothing wrong. Things do happen out of your control that you need to protect against.
The bottom line is that no one likes or wants to deal with this kind of interruption to our lives or work. We have incredible sadness seeing our neighbor's livelihood and hard work be erased so quickly. If you aren't sure what you do and don't have, please speak with a trusted adviser today about your insurance coverage. You never know when something may strike.