With the number of lawsuits these days every small business is so in fear of being sued that they are constantly modifying their business models to prevent the potential of being sued, worse, they know no matter what they do someone might still try to sue them. And they know even if they are in the right, it could cost them 10s of thousands of dollars to defend such a lawsuit, even if they did nothing wrong.
It’s unfortunate that our society and civilization has turned out this way, as it makes businesses apprehensive about the very customer they are there to serve. Nevertheless, there is a savings grace and that is insurance, small businesses can insure against potential risk. Yes, it will cost some money, but if they have a good insurance agent they should be okay and not have to pay too much to protect against lawsuits.
One serious lawsuit that is a result of property damage, injury or god forbid death can wipe out decades of profit and cause a company to go bankrupt. I know because I watched it happen to a very good friend of mine, a local competitor, but we had always been friendly. He ran an auto detailing business.
A car that his crew had been working on got into an accident and the driver blamed it on some rubber dressing and vinyl cleaner that had been used inside the car, making the seat, steering wheel and dashboard slippery. Apparently, the suit also stated that the air vents had blown residue onto the windshield making it difficult for the driver to see the red signal that they ran when they plowed into a car (mini-van) with a soccer mom and 5-kids in the back, 2 were her own and 3 were car pooling, all were injured.
This is just one case study of why you need commercial insurance for your business and it hardly matters if you are in the auto service business, auto detailing business or simply a retail store selling nick-knacks. If you are under insured you risk everything, so please consider this.