“UNINTERRUPT” MY BUSINESS INTERRUPTION

Hey business owner. You’re running a business; your concern is finally going but suddenly it gets interrupted by an event. An unexpected event like smoke rising up into your clothing store renders all the clothes unsellable at least not unless you foot the ridiculous dry cleaning bill which forces you to change the price tags from new to used. Fire may have started at a business close by but we all know smoke rises.

Or a cyber breach forces you to unplug all your computers or close your restaurant for a few days until your tech experts can restore your digital environment safe enough to accept another credit card. Regardless of the industry you're in, there are many unforeseen events that could interrupt your daily course of doing business for the short or long term.

The good news is you have insurance, bad news is your policy has a 72 hour waiting period for claim payments to apply. What’s worse? This said event takes place on a big-ticket day for your company and you lose out on all those restaurant reservations or clothes sales. Even though you and your team move swiftly and get things back up and running by day 4, you get the sting from the waiting period lurking inside your policy by default.

Waiting periods serve no one. Review your policy and ask to remove any waiting periods attached to “business interruption” coverage. The feature isn’t saving you much and yet could potentially cost you much more. That math certainly does not add up. Some insurance policies may not have the option of a 0-days waiting period. Ask your Insurance Professional if there is a shorter waiting period or a workaround.

Keep your going-concern going.


Written by Emmanuel Osuyah, MBA, CIC, LUTCF, TRS

Principal @ Alpha Direct Agency