What insurance do you need for your photography business?
Photography might not be a trade as such, but there are many similarities, including in the types of business insurance you require.
As a photographer you rely heavily on your own abilities along with your gear. But instead of power tools, you have your cameras, lenses, lighting and other gear to protect.
At Trade Risk we can assist professional photographers to insure what’s important to you:
Property Insurance – To protect your precious gear.
Personal Accident – To protect your income.
Public Liability – To protect you in the event you cause property damage or personal injury.
Professional Indemnity – To protect you when breaching your professional duties.
Cyber Insurance – To protect you from hackers.
Studio Insurance – To protect your studio and contents.
We’ll now take a closer look at the various forms of photographer’s insurance.
Public Liability Insurance
Whether you’re a sole trader or own a large photography studio, one of the most important forms of insurance is public liability.
This form of insurance will protect you and your business in the event that a third party suffers property damage or personal injury as a result of your activities.
Property damage claims tend to be fairly straightforward for photographers, but there is still a risk there.
You could be photographing a luxury home for a real estate client, and you accidentally walk back into a $10,000 vase that falls and smashes to pieces.
This is the type of claim that public liability can cover.
Personal injury claims tend to be more serious.
You might be taking photos in a public space and leave some tripods laying across a path whilst you’re distracted by something else. Then a member of the public trips on the tripods and hits their head on the pavement when falling.
That’s an extreme example, but it’s why photographers and other business owners need public liability insurance.
If you operate from your own studio, your public liability insurance will also cover any injuries that your clients or visitors suffer whilst on your premises.
Despite the scary examples above, photography is generally seen as a fairly low-risk business type by the insurers, so the cost of public liability insurance is relatively low.
Property Insurance
Serious photography equipment can easily climb well in to the tens of thousands, especially if you’ve built up a solid collection over the years.
Just like a tradie needs to insure the tools of their trade, photographers should be doing the same.
Property insurance, also known as general property cover or tool of trade insurance, can protect your precious gear against a rage of different risks.
Your photography equipment can be covered for loss or damage caused by a fire or a vehicle collision.
Theft cover can also be provided. Most policies only provide cover if forced entry is required to access the equipment.
So if a thief had to break into your home or your vehicle to access the gear, it would be covered, but if it was just sitting in the open air during a photoshoot, it would not be covered.
Some insurers do offer cover for your equipment in the open air, however the insurance cost will be higher for this option.
Personal Accident Insurance
Photography is of course a very hand-on profession. Whether it’s the actual taking of the photos, or traveling to various shoot locations, you need to be up and about.
If you suffer an injury or illness that leaves you unable to undertake your work, you generally won’t be able to earn any income during that time.
It might be okay if you have a team of photographers working for you and bringing in the money, but if you’re on your own, you need to be up and about.
Personal accident insurance can cover a large portion of your income for a period of time whilst you’re unable to work due to an injury or illness (if the illness option in added).
Pricing for personal accident insurance will depend heavily on the options you select, such as the benefit amount, benefit period and waiting period.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
As a professional photographer your clients are depending on you to get everything right.
Some errors result in property damage or personal injury, which is why we have public liability insurance.
But what about those errors that don’t result in physical damage or injury, but still have major consequences for your client?
An example could be the loss of memory cards or data following a wedding shoot. Your client is most likely going to seek some form on compensation from you and your business.
Professional indemnity insurance can provide cover for such instances where you have made an error or breached your professional duties.
Cyber Insurance
A growing threat for all businesses is cyber risk. This is the risk that someone may hack into your systems or various online accounts with the aim of extorting money from you and your business.
Cyber insurance can’t stop that from happening, but it can help to provide the expertise and the funds to fight off or recover from an attack.
Studio Insurance
If you’ve grown your photography business to the point where you have your own studio, you’re doing great!
The insurance needed for your studio will depend on a number of factors, the first of which is whether your studio is owned or rented.
For a rented studio, you will generally find that public liability and glass insurance are requirements of the lease.
These will be your minimum requirements, and beyond that you’ll be looking at contents insurance to cover any of your furniture and other equipment you have in the studio.
If you’ve purchased your own photography studio, in addition to the above you’ll also need to insure the physical building.
Your exact requirements here will depend on whether or not your studio is a stand-alone building or part of a strata complex.
Either way, our insurance brokers will be able to provide advice on exactly what you need.
Next Steps
Our insurance brokers have been helping photographers and photography business owners for over a decade.
We can discuss your needs and put together recommendations that match your requirements and your budget.
We can recommend which insurance companies are going to provide the most competitive premiums, along with those who we know from experience will look after us at claim time.
To get started please call our office on 1800 808 800 or complete our online quote request.
