For small business owners, unpredictable winter weather conditions can lead to costly repairs, liability claims, and significant business interruption.
Here are some ways to protect your commercial property and/or brick-and-mortar businesses from unpredictable weather conditions that seem to be happening more frequently, and just in general, so you can reduce risks, avoid expensive damage, and keep your operations running safely all season long.
Get Commercial Insurance
If you are a commercial property owner or a brick-and-mortar business, it is critical to protect yourself and your business in general, and not just from unpredictable weather conditions and losses year-round, with a comprehensive business insurance policy.
These are the coverages your policy should include:
- General Liability Insurance – This covers third-party bodily injury (like a customer slip-and-fall accident) or third-party property damage claims that occur on your business property and elsewhere, especially if employees are travelling off-site to a client’s location as part of the day-to-day operations of the business.
- Commercial Property Insurance – This covers damage and loss to business property, contents, and inventory caused by unpredictable weather like floods, wind, and snowstorms, but also fires, theft, and vandalism.
- Business Interruption Insurance – This type of coverage is sometimes included in a commercial property policy and covers losses from an insurable event, should the property or business be required to close temporarily for repairs.
Outside Your Business, Always Monitor the Sidewalks and Entrances to the Property – Slip and fall accidents that can injure customers and visitors to your business can happen all year long, but are more common in wet and winter weather conditions, which increase the risks for businesses.
So, make sure that you stock up on sand or de-icing salt and have a process in place, whether internally or by hiring a maintenance company, to make sure that parking lots, sidewalks, and pathways leading to the entrances and exits of your business are free of ice, and that emergency exits and delivery bays, if you have them, are cleared and usable. If your property has a parking lot, we also recommend that you mark curbs, speed bumps, and ramps with high-contrast paint or stakes so that they are visible in all weather conditions, day or night, with proper lighting.
We also recommend that business owners keep a log book of dates and times when snow was cleared from the property and de-icing salt was applied and make this part of your business’s risk protection process.
Snow from outside the business can be brought indoors by customers and employees lead to wet, slick floors, posing another slip-and-fall hazard.
Use Anti-Slip Mats for any areas and entrances where there could be a possible slip-and-fall hazard
Also, make sure that you use Signs to Warn Customers of Potential Slip-and-Fall Hazards both indoors and outdoors, so customers and visitors to your business property are warned that a surface they’re on could be wet and slippery by displaying prominent signage in those areas. Some say that this is a common-sense issue, but one thing we have learned over the years is that common sense is not that common, so better to be safe than sorry.
Ensure Indoor and Outdoor Handrails Along Stairs Are Sturdy – If your business property has stairs or ramps that customers and employees use, check the handrails to ensure they’re sturdy and not loose.
Monitor Rooves for Snow, Ice, and Debris – Clear snow and ice (or hire a contractor to do it for you), to prevent it from melting and falling along with other debris like loose shingles or branches from your roof to the ground, especially near pathways and entrances to the building, where they could injure those entering the business.
Fire Safety Measures and Procedures – Fire is a year-round threat to every business and property owner. So, it goes without saying that there should be fire safety measures, processes, and procedures in place for all business and commercial properties.
These measures should ensure the fire extinguishers are in good working order and easily accessible and visible. That all smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide alarms have been checked, batteries replaced alarm tested. We also recommend that twice a year, you give all staff members a refresher on fire safety protocols and your company’s emergency procedures, so everyone is up-to-date and aware of the procedures.
Given that it is the holiday season, if the business does decorate for Christmas, make sure decorations are set up in places away from heating sources indoors, and holiday lights are used in their appropriate applications. Outside lights, outdoors, and indoor lights for indoor use.
Exterior Lighting, Surveillance Cameras, and Alarm Systems – Winter brings longer, darker nights, when your business is closed, which can tempt thieves to break into your property.
Keeping the exterior of your business lit up, installing monitored surveillance cameras and an alarm system, and posting signage warning potential thieves that they are under the watchful eye of security cameras are great ways to deter theft and vandalism.
by Ryan Myson