A lot of startup technology companies are focused on the really cool thing: the idea! And that makes sense. If you can’t sell you’re idea at the outset, why launch it anyway?
And I know what you’re thinking – because I’ve launched start ups too:
Who gives a shit?
The truth is, start up insurance is a really important thing to consider and here’s why… it protects your ass. It can save your company from going under.
While you’re busy thinking up the next big thing to take down Google, you are promising your customers uptime, security for their data, fraud protection and more. And what if that all goes to hell? Because, seriously, it can.
True story. I’m sitting in my office and the unthinkable happens. 5 – FIVE – 5 bailiffs come into our technology company’s front door with a warrant and each of them starts reading me orders and pulling my staff away from computers.
At this point, I’m in Quebec and they are ‘screaming’ in French and I don’t really understand what’s going on. I mean, I speak the language, just not when people are yelling at me like crazy. Nonetheless, they are keeping my team from working. I am no longer doing business. We are in a stronghold.
Things calm down and I start to ask questions. My french is crap in circumstances like this, and I do my best. I mean, we are a technology company and I don’t even know whats happening. Why are they taking away our computers, why are these people stopping my business from running? I ask myself, “what’s happening?”
Long story short, we may have had someone in our team actively sourcing clients from a previous employer.
We were 7 employees that day. 2 managers. 9 computers were seized by the outrageous number of bailiffs called on site.
It was a tough day and, yet, still one of my proudest.
As a business owner and a team leader, I needed to take charge. The bailiffs left. We had no computers. I looked to the team and said, “I need some time to figure this out. I’ll be back tomorrow at 7:30 and I’ll be in touch with all of you for next steps.” We were a small business and I didn’t know how to get replacement computers for the team to work. Without them, they couldn’t make websites and we couldn’t deliver on our sales.
At 7:30 the next morning, I was there to unlock the door. The team was already there. Every one of them, smiling, computer in hand. They didn’t really understand what had happened, they didn’t get that the integrity compromised by an employee – one of their teammates – soliciting clients from a previous employer, but they held the dream. They were present with their computers and I’ve never been more proud.
So we started working again. And again, we continued.
But what if it didn’t work out like that? What if we couldn’t have worked? What if our sales couldn’t have been delivered? What if my business had been completely interrupted?
I didn’t have any kind of insurance – not for liability, property, legal fees, errors and omissions or even business interruption insurance. I would have had families through my company’s family that just didn’t eat. I’m not saying that every owner should be worried but I am saying I didn’t know we should have been worried. I couldn’t have known about that employee, I couldn’t have known we’d be sued. I couldn’t have known our business would be stopped.
Without insurance, I’m just lucky that I also couldn’t have known that I’d have had a team that showed up with their home computers.
Need help with unforeseen start up insurance problems? It doesn’t cost much.
Better, it’s free to talk.
