According to the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses make up a very large part of the Georgia economy. There are approximately 1.1 million of them, which represents 99.6 percent of all companies in the state. Smaller operations in Georgia employ 1.7 million workers, which is more than 43 percent of the state’s workforce.
The one thing all small businesses in Georgia share in common is that they face risks, including things like fires, customer and employee injuries, theft, lawsuits, and more. The most important thing business owners can do to get control over these risks is to get business insurance coverage, which can protect against all these things and much more.
In this article, we’ll cover the top seven business insurers in Georgia. We’ll also provide information about business insurance in general and different types of coverages so you’ll have the knowledge you need to get the right coverage at the best possible price.
- The 7 best small business insurance companies in Georgia
- Why do I need business insurance in Georgia?
- What kind of business insurance do I need in Georgia?
- What coverages should Georgia businesses with employees get?
- Is there an easy way to get business insurance coverage in Georgia?
- How much business insurance coverage do I need in Georgia?
- How much does small business insurance cost in Georgia?
- How can I find cheap business insurance in Georgia?
The 7 best small business insurance companies in Georgia
Here are our choices for the best business insurers in Georgia.
- CoverWallet: Best for Georgia small business owners who want to compare quotes quickly
- Tivly: Best for new small businesses in Georgia
- Hiscox: Best for Georgia small business owners who want insurance from an established provider
- The Hartford: Best for Georgia Business Owners Policies (BOP)
- Travelers: Best for companies that want coverage from an industry leader
- Pie: Best for workers comp insurance in Georgia
- Chubb: Best for Georgia businesses that have industry-specific insurance needs
CoverWallet: Best for Georgia small business owners who want to compare quotes quickly
CoverWallet is a cutting-edge insurance provider. The firm has developed its own state-of-the-art platform, based on its own algorithms, to ensure it is able to connect small businesses with all the business insurance they need, at the most reasonable price. The platform makes it quick and easy to get quotes from several providers at once, making it possible to compare coverage and premiums from highly reputable insurers all on a single screen.
The firm’s experts have used their extensive experience to make sure you only have to input the information needed to generate quick and accurate quotes. The entire process should take ten minutes or less.
You can feel confident knowing that CoverWallet is a part of Aon, an established company that provides advice to businesses on things like risk, health, and retirement.
Once you get your quote, CoverWallet makes it easy to purchase business insurance online or through an agent. When you get your policy through CoverWallet, it’s simple to manage your coverage online, including downloading a certificate of insurance, filing a claim, renewing your insurance, and more.
Tivly: Best for new small businesses in Georgia
Tivly is a leading provider of insurance to small businesses that haven’t purchased coverage before. The company does everything possible to make getting coverage for insurance newbies simple.
Tivly is licensed to sell insurance in all states except Alaska, Hawaii, California, and New York. The firm takes the work out of buying commercial insurance for businesses. It makes it easy for small business owners to get quotes for commercial insurance from top insurance companies all in one place.
Hiscox: Best for Georgia small business owners who want insurance from an established provider
Hiscox is a leading insurer that specializes in small business insurance. It offers a complete array of business coverages, but is known for the core property and liability insurance protection every business needs.
Hiscox makes it easy to purchase business property, liability, and other types of insurance online. You can also speak with experienced business insurance experts who can help you customize your coverage to meet your unique company needs. Hiscox also offers top tier service and provides fast quotes, instant coverage, and quick claims processing.
If you choose Hiscox for your business coverage, you can rest assured knowing you’re entrusting your organization to a firm that’s been in operation since 1901. More than 400,000 companies choose Hiscox for their coverage.
The Hartford: Best for Georgia Business Owners Policies (BOP)
The Hartford is one of America’s oldest companies and a solid, stable, and ethical insurer. The company is known for its Business Owners Policy (BOP), which provides most of the core coverages small businesses in Georgia need. A BOP also makes it easy to add other types of coverage. You can get a free quote on The Hartford’s website or through an agent that represents the company’s products. If you get a quote online, insurance experts are available to help if you have any questions.
Travelers: Best for companies that want coverage from an industry leader
Travelers is a small business insurance industry powerhouse.
The company has been in continuous operation for more than 165 years and is the only property casualty company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Travelers is known for leveraging the extensive experience of its more than 30,000 employees to help businesses reduce risk, which typically results in lower premium costs.
Travelers is known for its:
- Flexible solutions. It has insurance packages tailored to different industries that can be customized for individual businesses.
- Responsive and reliable service. An experienced professional is always available to answer your questions about business coverage or to help you with a claim.
- Innovation. Even though Travelers has been around for a long time, it’s known as a leading innovator in the insurance industry.
Bottom line: Travelers offers quality insurance protection for businesses in many industries. You owe it to yourself to see if this industry leader could be the right provider for your Georgia business.
Pie: Best for workers comp insurance in Georgia
Why is this insurance company named Pie? Because they make getting workers comp insurance as easy as pie. They believe shopping for workers’ comp coverage and other business insurance should be as simple and accessible as buying other things online.
Pie has developed their own online insurance experience — from getting a quote to making a claim — from the ground up. The complete quoting process can take as little as three minutes and buying a policy takes just a few minutes more.
Pie’s unique way of doing business, and the machine learning model they use to underwrite workers’ comp policies, makes it possible for small businesses to save up to 30 percent on coverage when compared with more traditional, old-school insurers.
Pie is what is known as an insuretech company. However, even though they have a novel way of doing business, you can rest assured knowing the insurance they offer is underwritten by Sirius Group, which has earned solid industry rankings. Pie also has very good customer service ratings and hundreds of positive online reviews.
Chubb: Best for Georgia businesses that have industry-specific insurance needs
Chubb is not just the largest business insurer in the United States, it’s also the biggest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company in the world.
Chubb focuses on understanding the unique risks faced by businesses in different industries including technology, healthcare and real estate. That means you can choose an insurance package from Chubb (the company has more than 30 of them) to protect against the risks of any small business in virtually any industry.
Because the experts at Chubb have such a deep understanding of the risks faced by different types of businesses, they have programs — and are able to offer advice — on how to reduce risks in the workplace. Not only is lowering risk levels the right thing to do, it can help reduce overall business insurance costs, as well.
Bottom line: If your business is in an industry that has unique risks, it’s likely the Chubb will be able to protect against them.
What is business insurance?
Business insurance, also known as commercial insurance, helps protect business owners from unexpected losses.
There are many types of business insurance options to help cover your operation for property damage, legal liability, and employee-related risks.
What is business insurance for?
Business insurance can help you gain control over your company’s risks, which are considerable. It provides you with financial protection against losses that occur while conducting business. When you have business insurance coverage, your insurer helps pay the costs of covered losses up to the limits of your policy. Without coverage, you might have to pay out of pocket, which can easily bankrupt your business.
Why do I need business insurance in Georgia ?
The purpose of the insurance is to help protect your Georgia based company from common risks most businesses face, along with industry specific ones. It can protect the financial assets of your company, it’s physical property, employees, and intellectual property from:
- Lawsuits
- Property damage
- Theft
- Vandalism
- Loss of income
- Employee injuries and illnesses
- And more.
What kind of business insurance do I need in Georgia?
The most common types of business insurance coverage small companies in Georgia purchase include:
- Workers comp insurance
- Business Owners Policy (or BOP) insurance
- Commercial auto insurance
- General liability insurance
- Professional liability insurance or E&O or malpractice insurance
What is workers’ compensation coverage and do small businesses need it in Georgia?
If your business has employees, the state of Georgia, with few exceptions, will require you to carry workers’ compensation coverage. This insurance provides benefits to your employees to help them recover from work-related injuries or illnesses. Some examples of these include:
- A clerk at your store is stocking shelves, slips off a ladder, and breaks her leg. This makes her unable to do her job.
- An administrative assistant at your business has been working on a computer while sitting on a cheap old chair and comes down with carpal tunnel syndrome. She is no longer able to do her job because she’s in pain.
- A carpenter at your cabinet factory has been breathing in saw dust and chemical fumes for years and comes down with lung disease. His doctor will not allow him to return to work.
Workers’ comp also pays funeral expenses and death benefits to immediate family members should an employee pass away because of a job related incident.
Learn more about workers comp insurance at the best workers comp insurance companies in Georgia and the cheapest workers comp insurance companies.
What does a Business Owners Policy (BOP) cover in Georgia?
A Business Owners Policy (BOP) will help protect your business property, income and financial assets. A BOP typically includes three types of coverage:
Business property coverage protects the buildings your business operates out of, whether you own or rent them and the equipment used to run your company. This includes your:
- Physical location
- Tools
- Inventory
- Supplies
- Computers
- And more.
General liability insurance covers legal claims against your business related to:
- Bodily injury
- Property damage
- Reputational harm, such as libel and slander.
Business income insurance, often referred to as business interruption coverage, helps replace lost income if you can’t operate your business because of property damage that’s covered by your business policy. This includes damage from fire, wind, weather events, and burglaries. Learn more at the best business income insurance companies.
Depending on the specific needs of your business, you can work with your insurance agent or company rep to figure out what other coverages you may need.
Commercial auto insurance in Georgia
Commercial auto insurance pays for damage to vehicles and the cost of medical care if you or an employee is involved in an accident while driving for work related reasons. It is required by state laws to have commercial auto insurance for your business. Personal auto insurance doesn’t cover you and your vehicle if you drive for work.
If you don’t have proper business vehicle insurance, when you are involved in an accident as you are driving for work, your personal auto insurance company will refuse the claim and might drop you from their coverage as well. Learn more about the differences between commercial auto insurance and personal auto insurance and why small businesses need to have commercial auto insurance coverage.
Commercial auto insurance is usually a bit more expensive than personal auto coverage, but without it, you may have to pay out of pocket a lot more. Learn more at how to find cheap commercial auto insurance and the best commercial auto insurance companies in Georgia.
General liability insurance in Georgia
General liability insurance, also referred to as commercial liability coverage, helps protect your business against claims of bodily injury and property damage that happen in your workplace or while your employees are doing their jobs. This includes things like customer injuries that result from a slip and fall in your office or workplace or client property damage that occurs because of a worker incident in a client’s home.
General liability insurance isn’t required by state laws in Georgia for most small businesses. However, it is probably the most popular coverage for small businesses to carry. Learn more at the cheapest general liability insurance companies and the best general liability insurance companies in Georgia.
Professional liability insurance in Georgia
Professional liability insurance covers you and the people who work for you if you’re ever sued by a client for giving them bad advice or not performing services to their satisfaction.
If you are in the business of providing customers with advice and services, you might need professional liability insurance, also called errors and omissions (E&O) in the real estate, insurance, or finance industries, or malpractice insurance in the healthcare and legal industries.
The coverage details are a bit different and nuanced in different industries and specialties. Use our guides specific to each industry and specialty to find the coverage that you need:
- Lawyers – Top 5 Providers of Legal Malpractice Insurance & How Much It Costs
- Accountants & CPAs – Professional Liability Insurance (E&O) for Accountants and CPAs
- Tax preparers – The Best E&O Insurance for Tax Preparers
- Doctors – The 5 Best Providers of Medical Malpractice Insurance
- Consultants – Professional Liability Insurance (E&O) for Consultants
- Real estate agents – Top 5 Providers of Real Estate E&O Insurance & Costs
- Insurance agents – E&O Insurance for Insurance Agents: Cost and Top 5 Providers
- Engineers – Top 5 Providers of Professional Liability Insurance for Architects and Engineers
- Marketing and advertising services
- Psychologists – Top 4 Providers of Malpractice Insurance for Psychologists and Counselors
- Nurses – The Best 4 Providers of Nursing Malpractice Insurance
- Nurse practitioners: The Best Malpractice Insurance for Nurse Practitioners
- Dentists – Top 5 Providers of Dental Malpractice Insurance
- Dental hygienists – The Best Malpractice Insurance for Dental Hygienists
- Physician’s assistants – The Best Malpractice Insurance for Physician’s Assistants
- Physical Therapists – The 6 Best Malpractice Insurance Providers for Physical Therapists
- Chiropractors – 4 Best Choices for Cheap Chiropractic Malpractice Insurance
- Pharmacists – The Best Malpractice Insurance for Pharmacists and Costs
- Social workers – The Best Malpractice Insurance for Social Workers
Other business insurance coverages that small businesses in Georgia might need
- Commercial property, which covers losses in your workplace resulting from things like weather damage, fire, theft, or vandalism.
- Business income interruption, which will help replace a portion of your business income if your company is unable to operate because of covered reasons.
- Product liability, which covers you if a product you manufacture or sell is faulty and doesn’t perform as intended and you’re sued because of it. Learn more at the best product liability insurance companies.
- Cyber insurance, which helps pay expenses related to the theft or loss of critical customer, employee, or business information. Learn more at the best cyber insurance companies and the best data breach insurance companies.
- Directors and officers, or D&O insurance, which will help pay legal expenses and damages if a director or officer at your company is sued because of a business-related decision. Learn more at the best D&O insurance companies.
What coverages should Georgia businesses with employees get?
As covered in the section above, Ohio requires businesses with employees to carry workers’ compensation insurance.
You may also want to consider getting employment practices liability insurance. It helps protect your business if a current or former employee makes an employment related claim. For example, if you are sued for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, or discrimination, employment practices liability insurance can help cover your legal costs.
How can I prevent business losses in Georgia?
Many business insurers offer programs that can help you reduce business related risks. This includes doing things like eliminating workplace hazards and encouraging safe work practices. By doing these things, you should be able to save on your business insurance costs. Check with your business insurer to find out whether they offer workplace safety programs.
Is there an easy way to get business insurance coverage in Georgia?
The simplest way to get small business insurance coverage is through a business owners policy (BOP), which typically bundles together business property and liability coverage. A BOP makes it easy to add on additional types of coverage beyond these.
How much business insurance coverage do I need in Georgia?
The types and amount of coverage you should purchase depend on a number of factors including:
- Your industry
- The size of your business
- Value of your business property
- It’s location or locations in Georgia
- The number of employees
- And more.
At a minimum, you probably want to have liability and property coverage through a BOP for up to $1MM. And if you have employees, the state of Georgia will likely require you to get workers’ compensation insurance. When you apply for coverage online, it’s likely that the insurer will suggest the additional coverages you should get. An experienced business insurance agent or company rep will be able to recommend coverages to you, as well.
How much does small business insurance cost in Georgia?
Premium costs can vary dramatically because they’re based on so many factors including:
- The age and value of your business property
- The contents of your property
- Your business type
- Where in Georgia it’s located
- The limits and coverage options you choose
- Whether or not you select full or partial replacement cost
- And more.
Below are the average costs of different business insurance coverages in Georgia:
| Business insurance coverage | Average costs |
| General liability insurance (for a cafe) | $50/month |
| Workers comp insurance (for a cafe of 2 full-time employees) | $150/month |
| Professional liability insurance (for an small tax preparer firm) | $75/month |
| Commercial auto insurance | $280/month |
These are just the estimated averages for small businesses. What’s important is that you get quotes from multiple providers so you can compare coverages and costs to get the best and most cost effective coverage for your business.
How can I find cheap business insurance in Georgia?
Here are some tips to help you find the coverage you need at a fair price:
- Shop around. Get quotes from a few companies or compare the multiple quotes generated by a service like CoverWallet.
- Don’t stop shopping around. Make sure you get new quotes before you renew your policy.
- Take advantage of discounts. If they’re not offered to you when getting a quote, ask about them, whether you’re buying online or through an agent.
Taking these steps will help ensure you’re not paying too much for your small business insurance.
