Insurance for Business Consultants

You’re in the business of helping others grow and protect their businesses. But, have you spent much time thinking about the risks facing your own company? What if you gave someone bad advice that resulted in a lawsuit? Would you have the proper protection to weather that storm?

In this post, we’ll discuss some common risks facing business consultants.

Giving Errant or Incorrect Advice

As a business consultant, you are often asked to help companies make tough decisions. But what happens if your advice is incorrect? After all, you can only work with the facts and figures that are provided to you. Your expert guidance relies on clear communication from your clients. Unfortunately, providing errant advice could be very detrimental to your business reputation. What can you do to protect yourself from a claim like this?

Accidentally Violating a Client Agreement

Business consultants often have non-compete agreements in place with clients. After all, no one wants to be in a position of helping their competitors. Working with two clients who directly compete with one another is not a good situation for any business consultant to be in. But what happens if you have a non-compete in place and then another one of your clients decides to compete in an area that you are already advising a different client in? How would you handle a scenario like that?

Client agreements often require a degree of confidentiality. What happens if you accidentally disclose something that was confidential?

Venturing into Risky Waters

Sometimes clients want you to do things that are outside of your area of expertise. For example, a client may ask you for legal advice. It’s important to have a plan in place for saying “no” to requests that you are not comfortable with. Consider preparing a list of experts that you’ve personally vetted and would trust to help your clients when you cannot. Knowing that you have a resource to draw on can help make it easier for you to say “no” when you know that you should.