As a catering business owner, it’s important to invest in the right insurance. The best catering business insurance should protect your establishment during unwanted circumstances. It should keep your business well and alive. This insurance can benefit independent and full-service caterers, as well as, those serving in weddings, corporate events, social events, and concession stands.
Why Catering Businesses Need Insurance
The catering industry is fast-paced. Caterers are always on their feet and responding to unexpected eventualities in real-time. A caterer can plan a birthday party, corporate lunch, or wedding on paper, only for changes to occur at the last minute. Running a catering business is like working in a place where every day is completely different. Here are some of the major reasons why a catering business needs insurance.
Fire Injury
A customer can burn themselves during a buffet your catering business has organized. Buffets are efficient and convenient. However, they can be a wildcard in terms of the actions of customers. You may have set placards warning customers of hot contents. But, a customer can still spill hot soup on themselves in front of the placards. Even if your services offer towels and ice, the guest may still visit the emergency room.
And just like that, your catering business could face costly third-party liability claims. Without general liability insurance, your catering business can incur significant losses in terms of injury coverage, property destruction, and medical bills.
Conflicts with Clients
Some clients are not easy to deal with. For instance, a client can change their mind and make unreasonable requests. You can even be blamed for snafus by a client. Even if you sign a thorough contract to ensure your protection, it’s important to have professional liability insurance to protect your business against clients that allege your services or advice didn’t meet the expected standards. Without this insurance, it will be their word against yours. In some cases, this can lead to a long legal battle.
Food Poisoning
Food poisoning is the worst nightmare for any caterer. An outbreak can be traced back to your catering business, thereby damaging its reputation, draining your finances, and even closing your business for good.
Road Accidents
When running a catering business, you will be required to serve meals at different venues. That means your service vans can be involved in road accidents. For instance, you can prepare a three-course meal, stack it in trays, and pack it in your business van. Everything could be going on as planned and your van hits the road. Unfortunately, the vehicle behind your business van could rear-end it in transit. This could leave you with a badly damaged company vehicle. You could even lose the current contract.
A good business vehicle insurance policy could help in that situation. In some states, businesses are required to have personal injury protection and bodily injury liability coverage. However, having additional coverage for your business vehicles will get a backup for your vehicle and have your business run smoothly afterward by offsetting the expenses.
Catering business insurance is crucial in every facet of this industry. It is, however, important to get the insurance that suits your business.
Essential Insurance Coverage for a Catering Business
Catering business deals with drinks and foods. As such, it faces liability risk from food that can make a person ill. This can arise from foodborne illness or failure to inform them about the ingredients that may cause allergies. Other risks faced by catering businesses include client and employee injury during an event, as well as, other risks associated with all businesses. Here are some of the most important insurance policies for a catering business.
General Liability Insurance
This insurance covers a catering business against legal claims, bodily injury, property damage, advertising injury, and personal injury.
Liquor Liability Insurance
Your business should have this insurance if you serve liquor at events. This policy covers property damage or personal injury that arises from drinking the liquor served by your business.
Worker’s Compensation Insurance
Worker’s compensation insurance covers employees in case they sustain a work-related injury or illness. For instance, an employee can trip with a food tray on their hand and injure their ankle. This insurance will cover the medical costs and provide income assistance to such an employee until they are fit to resume work.
Commercial Auto Insurance
You use a van to run your catering business every day. As such, it’s important to have commercial vehicle insurance. This will protect your business in case of an accident. It will also cover damage and theft to the vehicle and its contents.
Whether you think your catering business is vulnerable to these risks or not, it’s crucial to have it covered against every risk. That’s because your business can fail due to a risk that you can protect it against by getting affordable catering business insurance.
