Shopkeeper’s Insurance

Self-Employment, the term has gained quite a lot importance in recent years. Everywhere we see there are campaigns and schemes going on to encourage small retailers and entrepreneurs to start their own business, to make them less dependent on jobs and making our economy a place for job givers rather than job seekers. When we talk about Self Employment it includes small and medium as well as big entrepreneurs who have small shops to medium and large enterprises. Well whether big, medium or small, every kind of business requires capital (seed Capital) and yes very important, the patience.

Let me share a story with you about my uncle who started his small shop at age of 18. Being eldest in the family and due to some unfavourable family situation he quit his studies to make the living for the family. He started with whatever he had at that time. Fortunately, his business started flourishing and family condition got better. Well it is an obvious thing that when a person starts something on his own or tries to do something different than society, people always judge them. Well if you fail then they criticise and if you succeed then they start following you. So does happen with my uncle. After seeing his growth in business, one of my uncle’s friend got motivated and started his own shop just beside my Uncle’s. But luck does not favour everyone and on one unfortunate night his shop got burglarized. All the valuable items were gone. Nothing has left.

Now if we analyse the above situation then what we always forget or often gets missed in our priority list is insuring it against the various uncertainties like the one happened with my Uncle’s friend. We always see the explicit factors while carrying out a business but the implicit one i.e. Insurance always got missed by us. Insurance is a tool which protects not only our property or assets it is also protects our hard earned money which we have invested in order to get our business stand. Well now three questions arises in our mind and they are like what should be done, how it should be done what all can we insure. Answer to all these question is one Shopkeeper Insurance. Please do not get confused with the term, it is a part of general insurance which you can take against your shop. Like you take car insurance against your car, home insurance against your house likewise it is against your shop.

Yes we are humans and as soon as we are given the alternative we often stuck with the questions like how should we go for it and what will be covered? Well the answer is not so difficult. Let me explain, shopkeeper insurance is the insurance which you take against your shop. It works in the same manner like other insurance does. The sum insured in this insurance is calculated by taking into consideration the Reinstatement value of your shop and the market value of the present valuable items in your shop. Reinstatement value means the cost of rebuilding your shop by considering the market value of your shop at the time of opting for this insurance. Same happens when your products inside your shops get covered, market value of those items at the time of taking the insurance. It seems too technical, let’s understand it with an example. Let’s say, your shop’s current market value is 10 lakhs and the items inside your shop costs around 5 lakhs then your total sum insured will be 15 lakhs. If some unfortunate event occurs and your shops gets damage then you will get this money to reinstate or rebuild your shop and get your business into life again.

When it comes to from where you should take this insurance, then again the answer is simple, it is being offered by various insurance companies. You can choose the insurance company from which you want to take the policy. However, being the insured, it is your duty and responsibility to do a proper due diligence before choosing the company. Your Financial Planner can help you with this. In general, the points which you should take into consideration are history of company, Claim settlement ratio, premium charged by different companies for the same insurance policy. You should also be careful and should read the various terms and conditions relating to the policy given in the policy document. Claim Settlement Ratio is a measure of how much claims a company is paying out of total claims during a period of a year. A higher ratio is always better for the policyholder. If you get confused then you can always consult your Financial Planner for better understanding. To get yourself adequately secured and insured, taking an unbiased advice is very important and that can be provided by Financial Planner only as he or she is the person who is guarded by the professional code of ethics and will provide you suitable product by considering your requirement. When something bad happens you need to fill a claim form and submit with the relative documents. The insurance company will take care of the things accordingly.

We all have dreams and purpose in life. In the race of chasing our dreams and to fulfil our purpose, we often take risk , do experiments to make it better. Doing business is also a risk. We take the risk not only for ourselves but also for our country although sometimes unknowingly. Our initiatives makes our country more financially strong, creates jobs and a better economy. By taking a correct approach towards it we can make it successful and less risky. When we start a business we give it everything, our time, money, sweat. Why not give it a little extra, by insuring it and protecting it against the various contingencies. Our business not only involve money, it also involves our emotions and soon it became a family. It is the thing through which our family’s needs are getting fulfilled. So if we can take life insurance, then why not taking a General Insurance like in this case shopkeeper insurance to insure our little business, a source of our finances. Hence by doing and little extra we can give us a better life and mental peace. Yes, you must be thinking that what happened next in my story, well my uncle learned a lesson by the incident and he took the shopkeeper Insurance against his shop and recommended his friend too. So, you too please do take the one for your little business.