If you are in a trade, trying to run your own business, you probably know how difficult it may be to make a financial success of things. A generally difficult economic climate, steadily increasing costs and the time spent simply travelling from one job to another, may all seem to conspire against you – and that’s before you have to deal with the unplanned and unexpected crises that may threaten even the best run of businesses.

Protecting your enterprise against such unwelcome threats, therefore, may make the difference between overcoming a temporary setback or your entire business going under.

All-purpose tradesman insurance, therefore, is designed to safeguard your business against a number of unforeseen – but potentially terminally expensive – events. Included in the typical package might be cover against:

• personal accident – if you are out of action through an accident, of course, you are no longer earning a living from your trade. This element of insurance may help to provide an income safety net, at least until you are back on your feet once again;

• public liability – accidents might not only happen to you, of course, but may as easily befall your customers or members of the public as the result of your work. If that happens, you might face an expensive public liability claim. Indemnity against such claims may prove to be the kind of security that saves your business;

• employers liability – if your business has grown to a size where you are able to employ others, then you may face a legal requirement to ensure that you have adequate insurance to cover any claims they may make against you for personal injury or illness sustained during the course of their employment. Once again, claims of this nature may run into thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of pounds and the level of indemnity required even by a relatively small-scale tradesman enterprise is typically correspondingly high;

• tools of your trade – there is more than a grain of truth in the old maxim that a tradesman is only as good as his tools. They are likely to be the tools on which your very business depends, so adequate insurance against loss or damage might be considered essential, whether you operate from home and normally keep your tools there or whether they are stored at your business premises;

• items in transit – where you are responsible for the transport and delivery of goods and materials to your work site, you may also need to ensure that they remain fully insured whilst in transit.