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Our friend and ancient philosopher Lao-Tzu gave excellent business advice: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Here are a few first steps for your business.

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What kind of liability insurance do you carry?

I am a sole proprietor. What kind of liability insurance can I buy to cover my business? My biggest concern is data loss of a customers computer. Other possibilities are breaking the hardware, but that can be replaced. I would also like loss due to fire or theft. Hopefully I'll never have to use the insurance, but I'd like to cover myself.

Second question, I would like a customer release form. Something to the general effect that they will not hold me liable as long as I take reasonable precautions and do good work. Most of my business revolves around fixing windows issues, but I occasionally also work on hardware. Are there any generic forms out there that I can use or tweak?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

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Hi,

Thanks for this thread. Just added General Business Liability from Biserk Co for $275 a year. Awesome....That is a great product at a very good cost to my business.

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Hello,

Any company with general liability will cover theft and fire damage for the business. as far as data loss goes, you should not be liable for any data loss as long as you get a signed form from the customer prior to doing the repair. We do a checklist and get a waiver signed by every customer before the repair to avoid such a problem. Hope that helps.

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Just put a disclaimer in your receiving quote that states just what you said. If they don't have an external backup, it's called negligence and lack of due diligence. On the rest, talk to your insurance agent.

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Great advise! I don't ever promise recovery of any device. That's just me... Like you said unless they have Nucked it so to speak. Most drives are recoverable.

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I know this is old, but probably still relevant to a lot of people.

First of all, i'm not a lawyer or insurance agent (obviously). However, you should seriously consider forming a LLC or Incorporate your business regardless of how big or small you are. You can do this yourself with some online reading if its just you and not complicated, most states now allow a guided e-file process and cost is generally around $100. You are taking quite the risk as a sole proprietor which creates a situation, if sued, where you personally are on the hook financially versus a corporation/llc where if you separate finances and legalities you would not be.

Again, consult an attorney. If you cannot afford a regular local one, check out freelancer sites and find one (and verify) that is licensed in your state, they typically charge $25-75/hour versus the normal $250/350/hour. The small amount of money upfront will save you potentially tens of thousands in the long run, and help you critique a template into something valid with your state and local laws.

If you, or anyone here, needs a release form I would be happy to provide ours. It shields against:

- Accidents / Damage during Repair

- Backup disclaimer

- Abandoned Devices

- Part Ordering Stipulations

- Refund terms of service (none allowed once started)

- Legal & Collection Fees

- Condition of Device

Just post here with your contact info or email me James.White@EliteTechs.com and i'll be happy to send a copy.

One comment about a waiver, if you damage something by accident during a repair. It does not matter what your waiver says, don't point to it and say sorry. Replace the device with something exactly the same or better condition. Its the right thing to do, and if you don't follow this it will surely lead to your demise.

Insurance, check out Nationwide, Hixcox or Biberk (Berkshire Insurance Co) as I found they, at least for me, were the cheapest full coverage quotes I was receiving after a lot of searching. You can basically get every option available for $200-300/month with the including:

- General Liability

- Premises Liability

- Business Owners

- Data/Systems

- Workers Comp (3 employees)

- Commercial Auto

- Umbrella

Commercial Auto and Workers comp are the majority of the cost. If you remove those you can see $25-50/month average. Does this type of insurance cover if you damage repairs? Sure. However, its also going to depend on what your deductible is. Do you really want to file an insurance claim under $1000 to only jack up your rates and damage your insurance "credit score" ? Probably not. Set aside in your safe $1k for that purpose alone, no matter how good you are - it happens to everyone.

Data loss of clients hardware can be included/selected, but thats hard to valuate and its certain that they will value it much more than you. If it were me, I would be kind to the customers and help them with the process of filing an incident with your company and give them your insurance companies information. Put your insurance carrier on notice and then, let it be between them. That way, insurance company is the bad guy and you can be helpful with your customer.

Hope this helps someone.

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Could you email me a copy of your disclaimer to ldlang@providentialcomputers.com, Thanks

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Could you email me your disclaimer please reliableapplianceky@gmail.com

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Sent over. Hope it helps.

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Please send me a copy. benton@control-freaks.net

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James thank you for giving time in helping us little mom and pop startups. yayitsfixd@gmail.com

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This may be a little late for this forum but what country are we talking about . I know that most of you are Americans on this form but a lot are not and US law is different from most of the rest of the world . What works for you does not work for others . The first question that should have been asked was where are you located and from there dispense advice. Liability in the US compared to liability in Saudi Arabia is the difference between a few bucks and a hand.

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Ah, the sound of one hand clapping from the Canuck ;-) Mike is south of Portland, Oregon according to his profile.

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Which company are you guys using for insurance? I'm looking for quotes.

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Farmers Insurance in the U.S.A.

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Also go to Technibble.com and buy there BusinessKit for the U.S.A.. It has everything you may need in the way of forms, etc. that are editable. I have been using them for years.

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I have business insurance through State Farm in the U.S.

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I just pray a lot and only had one threat in the last thirty-two years and it was bogus.

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Like a few of the others I have businesse insurance through State Farm. With that said one thing you will need and should have on any repair contract. Is a disclaimer. Addressing back up of devices, PC's, etc.

I'm sure you can find many on the internet or I would be glad to share what I have. I also had my lawyer review my repair contract. You never know what you may run into when making any repair. Also beware of not doing anything you don't feel comfortable doing!

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I would love to check out what you have. email if possible: Austin@renophonerepair.com

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If you're still sharing your repair contract, I'd love to have a copy! miles.clark@wefixittech.com

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Send me your repair contract. jimmccormack@ameritech.net

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This is an older post, but if you are still willing I would love a copy! Jordon.monk@denvermetrocomputing.com

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Would love a copy of your repair contract as well. Tony@ovolv3.com. Thanks!

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Depending on what I am doing with someone's computer, I will advise that I can back up their data as a safety precaution prior to the work. If I am attempting data recovery, most software programs will not lose any of the data. Remember, data is rarely lost no matter what you are doing. Even if you accidentally delete something, it is truly never gone off the drive. There are several programs out there that will recover all kinds of data, even if the drive has been formatted or overwritten. The only way to destroy the data completely, is to use a program designed to "NUKE" the drive or to otherwise render it totally erased.

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You should still have the release just in case they do agree and a unicorn moment does pop up. Im 41 now a Tandy 1000 was my Christmas present when I just turned 13. Looking back at my Parents now as a grown man. Nighter one of them could even help me do anything with it when took it out of the box and set up for the time . All They know is the sales person at Radio Shack said it was hot item that year for Parents that could afford that year for there kids. Lucky for my Parents there gave birth to a son that would spend all the time he could bang on the keyboard untill it did something that was different the the last time. I'm had a lot both hands slapping and mashing ever key I could get. Trouble is when dorring monmemts. The unicorn popped head up.

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Sent over. Hope it helps.

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James I first want to say thank you. I appreciate the fact that your volunteering you own time to help out the little guy like my company. I have always wanted to start out like the guy who everyone thought was thorwing his future away to chase a silly vision that was never going to go anywhere. My own Dad thought the was something loose my head be cause because what little boy choo

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