Next Insurance Offers Small Businesses Flexible and Affordable Options

Would you drive a car without insurance? Of course you wouldn’t. How about run a business without the protection of an insurance policy? If you’re like nearly half of the small businesses surveyed by Next Insurance earlier this year, the answer is yes.

In an examination of more than 30,000 companies, including professional service providers such as contractors, photographers and landscapers, the leading digital insurance company found that a surprising number of small businesses have a habit of operating without insurance protection. In fact, in addition to the 44 percent that had never had insurance coverage, 21 percent had allowed their previous policy to lapse for more than two months.

RewardExpert spoke with Rachel Schreter, Marketing Manager for Next Insurance, about the implications of the survey’s findings and how the small business insurance company can make protecting your professional investment simple.

Tailored and Affordable Coverage 24/7

Founded by Guy Goldstein, Nissim Tapiro and Alon Huri in 2016, and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company was created to revolutionize small business insurance.

“Our cofounders saw that getting different types of business insurance was a struggle for small business owners,” Schreter explained. “So, they created Next Insurance, which offers simple, affordable and tailored service.”

Traditionally, if a small business owner needed to buy insurance for her business, she’d need to do so on a weekday during business hours and work directly with an insurance agent who may or may not fully understand the needs of the type of small business she operates. It was a time consuming, inconvenient process that often resulted in expensive, ill-suited coverage.

“Next Insurance flips that whole thing on its head,” Schreter continued. “Small businesses buy their policies on our website. Everything from getting a quote to paying for the insurance is online and can be completed 24/7. And every product that we sell is tailored to the specific profession that it is for. We spend months building each policy that we roll out so that we know that the entrepreneurs who are buying it are getting the very best.”

The convenience is a boon to small business owners who may not work traditional hours but who still need the protection professional liability insurance and general liability insurance can provide. Schreter said Next Insurance’s more than 15,000 customers span more than 16 classes of business and include different types of sports-related professionals, photographers, contractors, cleaning services and in-home daycare providers.

In addition to a 24/7 service portal offering Next Insurance customers “the service that they need, where they need it and whenever they need it,” Schreter added that the company “really believes in small business.”

“We don’t charge any of the fees that small businesses often encounter with insurance,” she continued. “For example, there are no fees for certificates of insurance, which we hear from a lot of our customers that they need in order to close jobs. Those are available 24/7 for free download on our website, not for the up to $50 per certificate other companies charge.”

The company recently launched a new feature, Live Certificate, to make policy validation even easier for its customers. It enables policyholders to email links to their certificate of insurance to their clients using the Next Insurance online customer portal. When the client clicks on the link, they can instantly check the validity of the policy, including additional insured and policy expiry information.

Empowering Small Businesses Owners to Thrive

Schreter said Next Insurance was shocked by the numbers around uninsured small businesses its survey uncovered and is concerned about the unnecessary danger to small business owners.

“Accidents happen that you may have no control over,” she said. “If you don’t have insurance and you have an accident, you have a problem on your hands. You can be stuck with huge medical bills. You can be stuck with massive lawsuit costs. You might be the most professional handyman in the world, but if someone falls over your tool kit, you have a problem.”

Rather than risk these potentially catastrophic expenses, Schreter said small business insurance through Next Insurance gives the company’s customers “the confidence to do what they do without fear.”

“We’re like a bicycle helmet,” she explained. “You might be afraid to ride a bike, but if you know that you have a really solid bicycle helmet, it gives you the confidence to take that risk. That’s sort of how we view ourselves. We’re the thing that stands behind the small business and encourages it to move forward.”