New business fear

lolacherry

I have a virtual assistant business which I’m planning on starting soon.  It’s a trial run for now to see how it goes that I’ve been researching for the business plan for almost a year but when looking into insurance (specialist insurance for the sector) I saw you are insured up to £3m (can go higher for your types of clients) which suddenly put the fear of god into me - I’m well experienced in the area and also in additional areas to benefit the client to run their business, the thought I could make a mistake which could be sued up to £3m petrified me

Am I being silly, is fear of setting up a new business normal? 

motorguy

lolacherry said:

I have a virtual assistant business which I’m planning on starting soon.  It’s a trial run for now to see how it goes that I’ve been researching for the business plan for almost a year but when looking into insurance (specialist insurance for the sector) I saw you are insured up to £3m (can go higher for your types of clients) which suddenly put the fear of god into me - I’m well experienced in the area and also in additional areas to benefit the client to run their business, the thought I could make a mistake which could be sued up to £3m petrified me

Am I being silly, is fear of setting up a new business normal? 

Yeah fairly normal to have those sorts of amounts.  I wouldnt worry about it.  

You could operate via a Limited Company - as i do - which would limit your risk further.

Mistral001

Do you know any cases where virtual assistant's were sued successfully.  There might not have been any and the amount of £3M is just a conservatively high estimate by the insurance underwriters based on their knowledge of what virtual assistants do and pay-outs to similar, more established, professions where there is historical knowledge of damages awarded by the courts

Percy1983

Most insurance has silly amounts; I am a photographer with coverage up to 5m. As per you I can't see a way to I could personally cause that damage to anything/anyone.

In my case I am sure photographers have been successfully sued due to poor performance, not turning up etc but even in these cases I don't know of any cases reaching £5m or even 50k at that.

On that if you covered up £3m there is nothing to worry about being sued up to 3m, doesn’t matter if its £3m or £1000 the process will be the same and the insurance company will sort it and fight it where needed.

Mistral001

Percy1983 said:

Most insurance has silly amounts; I am a photographer with coverage up to 5m. As per you I can't see a way to I could personally cause that damage to anything/anyone.

In my case I am sure photographers have been successfully sued due to poor performance, not turning up etc but even in these cases I don't know of any cases reaching £5m or even 50k at that.

On that if you covered up £3m there is nothing to worry about being sued up to 3m, doesn’t matter if its £3m or £1000 the process will be the same and the insurance company will sort it and fight it where needed.

Any profession where there is a high possibility that you are dealing with celebrities, then the insurers will be nervous and price accordingly.  Think of the case of you trying to get a picture of a celebrity and you accidently knock said celeb. over.