There are several factors that you should take into account when determining what varieties of insurance coverage you want: how large or small your small business is, how it's organized (partnership, sole proprietorship, corporation, LLC), the number of employees, how you get paid (commissions, salary, fees), whether your small business is service or product oriented, your exposure to liability and location.

Things to ponder:

Do you have enough life insurance to protect your family, should you die prematurely? Why is this so important? Well, if you have a small service oriented business, it will be worth $0 when you die. For example, the spouse of a deceased doctor or lawyer can only sell the tools of the trade, not the clients (the true bread and butter of any small service business). Get a crystal ball and see into the future to know when you are going to die then you could sell your small business before you kick the bucket. Simple and straightforward, every single small service business owner should have at least 7X their gross income to adequately provide for their family.

Do you have a small business that your are setting up to have a family member run after you pass away? Well, be sure that they are capable, willing and licensed to do so.

What happens if you're not capable of running your small business because of an injury or a dehabiltating illness? Are you covered with enough disability insurance? For a stipulated period of time, you will be paid approximately 60% of your income when you have disability insurance. Depending on whether you claimed the premium as a business expense or not, your benefits might be non-taxable.

More important...do you have "business overhead insurance"? Who will cover the costs of running your small business (utilities, insurance, salaries) while you're out of commission? Your small business overhead expenses will not be covered by your disability insurance unless you include it as an add-on.

Do you have business partners? If so, do you have a "Buy and Sell Agreement"? Should your partner die, you will be protecting your interest in the business. Example: your partner dies... his wife claims her share of the business. What if your partner's relatives have no idea how to operate the business? Would they be asset or a liability? Wouldn't you simply rather buy out your partner's share of the company? Well, with this additional insurance, you wouldn't have to worry about your partner's family interfering with your small business.

Do you have "disability buy-out coverage"? What would you do if a partner becomes severely disabled? How would you feel if you had to keep on paying your partner for years to come when they cannot do any work because of their disability? Well, when you have "disability buy-out coverage", you would never have to wory about this situation because after a period of time, your disabled partner would be forced to sell his share of the business to you.

Of course, many of these situations may not occur, but it's your small business. The final step is to determine what varieties of insurance coverage you believe you want to protect your small business and then call and speak to a professtional who can set you up.