Property coverage is an essential when it comes to wildfire season, as many homeowners and business owners in Oregon came to realize in the summer of 2020. When wildfires are raging out of control around you and your property, you will obviously want some compensation if your property succumbs to fire. 

One piece of coverage that some property owners may be unaware of is the equally-important Business Income Coverage. When your place of business is on the receiving end of a natural disaster or vandalism, then your typical revenue may drastically decrease or even come to a halt. Therefore, Business Income Coverage exists strictly for business owners who obtain physical damage or lose their property to disasters such as wildfires, flooding, windstorms, and more, and are forced to temporarily cease their operations in order to repair the property and resume business. 

The purpose of Business Income Coverage is to calculate the average net income (whether it’s net profit or loss) as well as typical continuing operating expenses, and provide protection against certain financial losses that were accrued due to unexpected disaster. If your business was affected by a wildfire and you were forced to close your business for a 3 month time period in order to build it back up, then having Business Income Coverage would protect you against those financial losses by reimbursing the profits that would have been earned during those 3 months that your business is unable to operate. 

Extra Expense Coverage, on the other hand, refers to protection of expenses that are reasonably and necessarily incurred to minimize the time period in which the business is unable to operate as normal. What sets this apart from Business Income Coverage is this—if you were running a business that sold donuts and you became a victim of property loss, then the Extra Expense Coverage would cover the increased costs that you would incur from making your donuts on an off-site location. 

When you are a business owner with a physical storefront, then you will want to consider all aspects of insurance for your property and operations. As the summer of 2020 taught us, damage and devastation can arrive out of nowhere and drastically affect your income and business. If you go out of your way to acquire Business Income Coverage and Extra Expense Coverage, then your worries about your business’s success in the face of a disaster will considerably lessen.