Auto Insurance
Auto insurance includes both property coverage (damage to or theft of your vehicle) and liability coverage (claims against you related to the use of your vehicle). A certain amount of business use may be covered under your current policy, but if your home-based business will be making extensive use of your car, truck, or van, you need to discuss your policy and its limits with your insurer. There may be state- or province-mandated minimums for liability coverage for commercial use, for example.
Even if you think your policy covers business use, be sure to let your insurer know if your vehicle use is changing — for example, if you're no longer driving it downtown to work every day and instead you're using it to deliver goods to the customers of your home-based business. Insurers appreciate — and in fact demand — full disclosure.
Your needs may change considerably if the vehicle is registered in the business's name or if your employees will be riding in or driving the vehicle. And if you have employees who use their own vehicles for your business (not for commuting, but for delivery, for example), you need to add non-owned auto insurance, which covers you and your employees while they're driving their own vehicles.
