Business owner's policy.
One policy bundling general liability, commercial property, and lost-income coverage for qualifying small businesses. Usually less than buying the pieces separately.
One request, shopped across 60+ carriers by a licensed agent.
About three minutes. No obligation.
What it is
What is a business owner's policy?
A business owner's policy, or BOP, bundles the three coverages most small businesses need anyway (general liability, commercial property, and business income) into one policy. It usually costs less than buying the pieces separately, because carriers built it for small, predictable operations.
Each part earns its place. General liability covers injuries and property damage your business causes to other people. Commercial property covers the building, if you own it, and the things inside that belong to you. Business income coverage, the part most owners have never heard of, replaces the revenue you lose while a covered loss keeps you closed. Because the package is priced for predictability, there are eligibility rules: carriers cap the revenue, square footage, and business classes that qualify. Offices, shops, restaurants, and light service businesses usually fit. A demolition contractor does not.
One thing to be clear about up front: a BOP is a package, not a force field. Employee injuries, business vehicles, professional mistakes, and data breaches are all deliberately excluded and sold as their own policies. The section below on what it does not cover is not fine print. It is the map.
Who usually carries it
- Retail storefronts: boutiques, bakeries, corner markets.
- Cafes and restaurants without late-night bar service.
- Professional offices (accounting, design, real estate) with a lease and equipment worth protecting.
- Salons, barbershops, and studios that built out a rented space.
- Light service businesses small enough to fit under a carrier's revenue and square-footage caps.
Coverage
What business owner's policy coverage handles.
Your building and everything in it
A building you own plus your equipment, inventory, furniture, and the improvements you made to a rented space, against fire, theft, wind, vandalism, and burst pipes.
Injuries and damage you cause others
The liability side works like standalone general liability: customers hurt on your premises, damage to other people's property, product claims, and the lawyers to defend you.
Lost income while you are closed
Business income coverage replaces lost revenue and keeps paying rent and payroll while a covered loss keeps you shut, with extra expense funds to reopen sooner.
Personal and advertising injury
Libel, slander, and using a competitor's advertising idea in your own ads, a quiet corner of the coverage, right up until a lawyer's letter arrives.
The endorsements worth asking about
Equipment breakdown, food spoilage, outdoor signs, employee dishonesty, and hired and non-owned auto can each be added for a modest bump. And we'll tell you which ones you don't need, too.
Exclusions: read these first
What it does not cover.
Every policy has edges. Knowing them now is the difference between a covered claim and a surprise.
Your employees' injuries
An employee hurt on the job is a workers' compensation claim, a separate policy most states require the moment you hire.
Anything with wheels
Business vehicles are excluded whether the company owns the van or an employee drives their own car on a delivery run. That's commercial auto.
Professional advice and services
A claim that your advice, design, or professional service cost a client money belongs to professional liability (E&O), not the BOP.
Flood and earthquake
Rising water and earth movement are excluded entirely. A flooded stockroom needs a separate flood policy, and earthquake damage needs its own endorsement.
Hacks and data breaches
Breach response, ransomware, stolen funds, and customer notification costs live in a cyber policy. The BOP treats your data as barely-covered property.
Where carriers differ
BOP eligibility, sublimits, and included endorsements vary more by carrier than almost any other package, so we read the specific form before you buy, not after.
A fryer fire on a Friday night
A twelve-table cafe has a fryer flare up an hour before close. The suppression system does its job, but the kitchen is scorched, smoke has reached everything porous in the building, and the health department is not waving anyone back in on Monday.
How the coverage responds: the BOP answers on three fronts at once. Property coverage rebuilds the kitchen and replaces the smoke-damaged equipment, furnishings, and inventory. Business income coverage carries the lost revenue, the rent, and the core payroll through six weeks of closure. And extra expense coverage funds the overtime and expedited equipment order that turn eight weeks of downtime into six. Without the policy, the owner is rebuilding a kitchen out of savings while revenue sits at zero and the rent does not, the combination that quietly ends small restaurants.
An illustrative example, not a real claim. Actual coverage depends on the policy issued.
What moves the price
We don’t quote prices on a website. Anyone who does is guessing. These are the factors underwriters actually weigh.
- What the business does: carriers rate a bookkeeping office and a restaurant very differently, and some classes are not BOP-eligible at all.
- The building: construction type, age, and when the roof, wiring, plumbing, and heating were last updated.
- Location, including the local fire protection class and the distance to a hydrant and fire station.
- How much property you are insuring: building value if you own it, plus equipment, inventory, and improvements.
- Annual revenue and square footage, which also decide whether you qualify for a BOP in the first place.
- Protective systems: sprinklers, monitored alarms, and for restaurants, a maintained kitchen suppression system.
- Your claims history and the deductible you choose.
Credits that can move this price
The factors above push the price up. These are the named credits that pull it back. Which ones exist, and what they’re worth, varies by carrier and state. We check every one that could apply before we quote.
- Claims-free credit at renewal
- Multi-policy credit for adding commercial auto, umbrella, or workers' comp with the same carrier
- Central-station fire and burglar alarm credits
- Automatic sprinkler credit
- Years-in-business credit for established operations
- Trade-association and franchise program pricing where your industry has one
Questions
Business Owner's Policy, asked and answered.
Reviewed by a licensed property & casualty agent · Updated July 2026
Pairs with
Coverage that usually travels together.
- 01Workers' CompensationMedical bills and lost wages when an employee is hurt at work. Required by law in nearly every state, starting with your first hire.Explore →
- 02Commercial AutoLiability and physical damage for vehicles that work for a living, where a personal auto policy stops.Explore →
- 03Cyber LiabilityCovers breach response, ransomware, and funds-transfer fraud: the losses a property policy was never written for.Explore →
What happens next
A licensed agent reads it
Your request goes to a person, not a queue, the same business day.
We shop the carriers
We quote it across the markets that actually write this line and compare what comes back.
You decide
Options side by side, in plain English. Nothing is bound until you confirm it in writing.
Rather do the whole thing by phone? Call (917) 246-7038.
Carrier count reflects current appointments. Availability varies by state and line.
Start here
Let's price your business owner's policy coverage.
Tell us what you need. We shop it across 60+ carriers. You pick, and nothing is in force until it's confirmed in writing.
About three minutes. No obligation.
