By Tyler Hunter
Starting a new business is exciting — and it’s easy to let insurance slide to the bottom of the to-do list behind licensing, financing, and getting your doors open. But if you’re forming an LLC specifically to separate your personal assets from your business liability, skipping insurance undercuts the whole reason you formed one. An LLC protects you from being personally sued for business debts and lawsuits — but it doesn’t protect the business itself, and it won’t stop a claim from shutting you down before you’ve had a chance to get going.
Here’s what to have in place before you open your doors.
General Liability Insurance
This is the foundation almost every business needs, regardless of industry. General liability covers third-party bodily injury and property damage claims — a customer who slips and falls in your shop, a client who claims your work damaged their property. Many landlords require proof of general liability before they’ll hand over keys to a commercial space, and most B2B contracts won’t get signed without it either.
Workers’ Compensation
If you’re planning to hire even one employee, Missouri and Arkansas both have requirements around workers’ compensation coverage, and the rules kick in faster than most new owners expect. This is also where LLC owners get tripped up — if you’re a member of the LLC yourself, the way your own payroll is rated for comp purposes is different from how it’s rated for your employees, and it’s worth understanding before your first policy is written, not at audit time.
Commercial Property Insurance
If you’re leasing or purchasing space, you’ll want coverage for your building (if owned), your equipment, inventory, and improvements you’ve made to a leased space. A lot of new owners assume a landlord’s policy covers their contents — it doesn’t. Their policy protects their building; everything inside that belongs to your business is on you to insure.
Commercial Auto Insurance
If your business owns a vehicle, or if you or an employee drives a personal vehicle for business errands, a personal auto policy typically won’t respond to a claim that happens during business use. This is one of the most commonly missed coverages for new businesses that don’t think of themselves as “needing a commercial vehicle” because they’re not a delivery company or a contractor — but any regular business use of a vehicle changes the exposure.
Errors & Omissions (Professional Liability)
If your business gives advice, provides a professional service, or does design/consulting work of any kind, general liability alone won’t cover a claim that your work or advice was deficient. E&O fills that gap. This applies more broadly than people expect — not just to lawyers and accountants, but to contractors doing design work, consultants, and service businesses making professional judgment calls.
Cyber Liability
Even a small business that collects customer names, emails, or payment information carries some level of cyber exposure. A data breach, a phishing scam that hits your business bank account, or a ransomware attack can be expensive to recover from — and increasingly, larger clients and landlords are starting to ask about it in contracts.
A Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) Can Simplify All of This
For a lot of new LLCs, the most efficient path is a Business Owner’s Policy — a package that bundles general liability and commercial property into one policy, often at a better combined rate than buying each separately. From there, we layer in workers’ comp, commercial auto, E&O, or cyber based on what your specific business actually does. You can see how this fits into our broader small business coverage on that page.
Talk to an Independent Agent Before You Open
Every new business is a little different, and the coverage that makes sense for a service-based LLC looks different from what a retail storefront or a contractor needs. As an independent agency, MBG Insurance shops your new business across 20+ carriers to build a policy around how you’re actually operating — not a one-size-fits-all package. Visit our Small Business Insurance page to see the full range of coverage we offer, or reach out to our Oak Grove office and we’ll walk through exactly what you need before your doors open, not after something happens.
About the Author
Tyler Hunter is a licensed producing agent at MBG Insurance’s Oak Grove office, where he helps Missouri and Arkansas business owners find the right coverage across MBG’s full carrier lineup. An Oak Grove native, Tyler brings a local, relationship-first approach to every policy he builds.