If you clean pools professionally, you know you face significant risks. These include unintended damage to a pool, chemical spills, water issues and damaged equipment. Like any business, you need basic business insurance, but as a pool cleaning business, you have some other, more specialized policies to consider. We’ll look at the most important ones here. Business insurance basics There are two fundamental types of coverage every business must have: Commercial property insurance to protect your buildings and their contents Commercial general liability insurance in case someone claims you ..read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots offer round-the-clock assistance. They can answer questions, reduce wait times, process transactions, and guide you through complex websites or enrollment processes.  With the release of conversational large language models like ChatGPT and Bard, chatbots have become more humanlike in their inferences and responses. Unfortunately, advancing AI has also increased scams like phishing and deepfakes. AI can be trained for good or bad things — and you can count on criminals to train theirs to scheme. How chatbots exploit humans Scammers have learned to exp ..read more

When you welcome visitors to your farm, vineyard or ranch, you also welcome risk. Yet agritourism affords small farms a growing business opportunity. Depending on your interests and operations, the activities you promote can include equipment displays, rent-a-garden plots, barn dances, pick-your-own produce, corn mazes, hayrides, product sampling and more. Develop a plan to avoid hazards When you open your farm or ranch to visitors, you risk injuries from equipment, falls, animal bites, physical activities and more. But most of your guests will have little awareness or understanding of th ..read more

Roofers are in high demand and can make good money. But roofing has its risks, some of which can financially devastate your roofing company if you aren’t properly insured. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roofers have some of the highest rates of occupational injury, illness and death compared to other jobs. You must also contend with property damage, both at job sites and during supply deliveries. If you’re an experienced roofer, you know insurance is key to managing your risk and protecting your business from property damage, liability claims and work-related accidents. You may ..read more

Fraudsters have been targeting properties with absent or deceased owners and transferring the titles to other names or corporations. The scam is known as house deed or title theft.  Some criminals falsify property deed documentation using stolen information and assume the property owner’s identity. Others are trusted caregivers who target seniors, taking advantage of their frailties. One real-life example involved an unscrupulous caregiver. The caregiver tricked her elderly client into signing over his power of attorney. With the help of a shady notary public, she transferred the man’s ti ..read more

Blackbaud is a software company that provides customer relationship management cloud solutions to about 45,000 nonprofits. Its services include client data management, communications and fundraising solutions.  Sometime between February and May 2020, when the world’s attention was elsewhere, ransomware code made its way through Blackbaud’s systems. That ransomware slowly corralled Blackbaud’s data and locked it down for ransom. Once it learned of the hack, Blackbaud paid the ransom to have the data returned and then informed its clients. In turn, those nonprofit clients had to b ..read more

Since the COVID-19 shutdowns, restaurateurs have taken bold steps that have redefined the food service industry. For example: Outdoor dining alongside or in converted roadways Robotic servers Kiosk ordering Online menus patrons pull up on their phones Dynamic pricing, where the price of food changes based on supplies or demand for seating These innovations, along with the persistent labor shortage, make it more important than ever to develop a solid risk management program. This should include training employees on workplace safety, keeping track of hours and wages, managing worker stress, a ..read more

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over half of the U.S. workforce either owns or works for a small business. Twenty-five percent of small businesses with employees are home based. When you consider single-owner operations with no employees, this percentage jumps to approximately 50%. If you run your business from home, you may think directors and officers (D&O) insurance isn’t necessary. However, the size and location of your business aren’t what determines the need for protection or the amount of coverage you need. If you have employees, or work with vendors, companies ..read more

Cybercriminals use lo-fi manipulation tactics to infiltrate personal and work networks. Their aim: to gain your trust before scamming you out of everything. In late 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) alerted financial institutions and the broader public about an investment scam that’s been circulating. It’s called “pig butchering,” named after the practice of fattening a pig for slaughter. In this case, the pigs are the human victims, and the slaughter is draining their bank accounts. Read on to learn the scam and ways to avoid becoming a ..read more

Crop insurance is just as essential for urban farmers and gardeners as it is for large-scale farms. Farmers need crop insurance to secure their ability to feed their community. Coverage helps minimize financial losses after natural disasters, extreme weather or other catastrophes that can affect crops. Urban farmers have two options for crop insurance: Federally subsidized multiple-peril crop insurance (MPCI) U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-regulated private crop insurance The USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) provides urban farmers with resources that help them manage risks to their ..read more