Are you looking forward to start your own business in the near future? If yes, keep in mind that you will have different costs to cover each month and insurance is n important element of theses costs. Insuring your business is very important especially if you are a small business just starting out. Fact is that even big companies with large risk funds use insurance as a risk management tool. And paying for insurance can cost you quite a lot sometimes.

But it doesn't mean that insuring your business should always be expensive. There are ways you can lower your insurance costs and still keep the coverage your enterprise needs. However, before you actually start reviewing your policy you should learn the main elements of insurance for business. And by adjusting the coverage for these elements you will be able to cut insurance costs effectively. Basic forms of insurance for business:

1. Business Owner's Policy (BOP) -The most advantageous form of insurance for a small enterprise that has less than 100 employees. This insurance delivers both property and liability insurance and only one premium has to be paid.

2. General liability - Most liability exposures are covered under this form of insurance. Situations that are covered range from accidents to legal action.

3. Property insurance - As the name suggests, this form of insurance covers the property of the business against different risks. Most policies cover fire, flood, theft and natural calamities, however you should analyze the policy for an exact list of covered situations.

4. Workers' compensation - This type of business insurance assures the responsibility of the employer towards his workers by providing medical care, compensation and lost income in case of accidents or other work-related situations.

5. Professional liability/Error and omissions - Covers your enterprise if it gets exposed to liability from clients or partners due to operational errors or malpractice.

6. Directors and officers - Protects senior staff from work related risks.

 7. Business automobile - Specific auto insurance for vehicles that are used in commercial purposes by your company.

8. Umbrella - Insuring different assets with a single coverage in case the costs reach a certain level rather than buying separate policies for numerous assets such as property, vehicles. Etc.

9. Travel - Pays for the accidents that take place when an employer is in a business travel.

10. Key person life - This form of business insurance protects the enterprise from the losses that are caused by disability or death of a key employee.

11. Business interruption - Covers the losses that the business has to face due to temporary suspension of operations due to unpredictable events such as fire. It will cover the net profits that are lost during this period.

Once you learn the coverage amounts for these forms of business insurance and analyze your insurance needs it will be much easier for you to adjust the policy to your exact requirements. Remember that the key to cheap business insurance is having the right coverage for the risk your business needs protection against, not what your insurance provider thinks is best for you.
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If you recall, when I had my retirement luncheon with my colleagues from the office early this year, they presented me with many gifts. One of them was a photo essay of Algonquin and that was how I came across Ralph Bice. He stated in his book, Along The Trail in Algonquin that he was perhaps the person who had travelled the most of park lakes. So when he claimed that Butt Lake, now named after him as Bice Lake, is the most beautiful among all of them, I knew I had to check it out and so here is this story.

I knew when I started to read the book that Butt Lake, a.k.a. Bice Lake could only be reached through access point 3. I had to figure out how far to reach it from Toronto, whether we would be able to get to the lake on the same day. This is a standard planning, knowing when will the sun sets and when will we be able to reach the put-in, the first place we put the canoe on the water. The closest town, rather village, to access point 3 is Kearney, 250 km from TO. When we reached it around noon, the lady in the Park Office nodded when I asked if she knew the late Ralph Bice. Yes, Ralph lived in Kearney, where with a population of 800, I am sure everybody knows everybody's dogs and cats' names. I had been to access point 4, Algonquin Rain Lake, close to access point 3 and we knew therefore that after the small town, we still had to drive quite a distance. In this case, it was another 40 km to really reach the put in, through dirt road or gravel road. As it was late autumn, we could still enjoy the fall colour of the trees along the road.

It was 1 PM when we reached the put-in on Magnetawan Lake. Just when we started to paddle, we realized that this lake had already scenic views. It is connected to another lake on the south, Little Eagle Lake. We headed east toward the portage to Hambone Lake. A very short paddling to P135 portage, a piece of cake for my wife Cecilia. She needed all the exercises, she said. So reluctantly I allowed her to portage :-). Hambone Lake is also a small lake. It is connected to Daisy Lake in the south, the source of the famous Petawawa River. Once finished portaging to Hambone, we paddled again and headed eastward to another portage to Bice Lake, a P295, one more piece of cake for my wife. If you see her getting plum in the winter, now you know why. I offered her to portage the canoe to a nearby park the other day, but she told me that I was crazy. :-) So we lifted the canoe and hung it inside our garage these days.

Once we finished the portaging and were on Bice Lake, we kept looking around, Ralph Bice was right, Bice Lake is a lovely lake without weeds with sandy beaches and clear water. We had been watching the weather forecast before we departed from Toronto and were aware that there could be bad weather on the day we planned to be back. Since we couldn't afford to be windbound or stranded, we decided not to venture too far away to an island at the end of the lake. We brought just enough food to last during our camping trip, no spare and we had to be back in Toronto on the week-end. As soon as we spotted a nice and scenic campsite, we landed our canoe and made the place our home and glorious land for the next 3 nights.

Some people 'recharge their batteries' meaning rejuvenating their bodies and souls doing other things, but for us it is a camping trip to the interior. If you recall my essay entitled 'The Healing Nature' you know what it is like to get healed by nature. As usual, we got a loon on the lake who would sing lullaby for us in the evening as soon as we 'turn off' the fireplace :-). Well, there was no aurora borealis performance on this trip but we still had the opportunity to watch the planets and the stars from a pitch-dark place. Too bad it was already cold and I didn't own any wetsuit other than my natural 'wetsuit' :-). I knew I would freeze if I jumped to the water because the weather was already freezing, close to zero Celsius. Luckily I had a 100 Watt nature 'warmer' at night. We played Scrabble as usual, we read our books, we pondered and chatted. There was never a dull moment to be in the interior, to feel close and so dependent on our Maker. What is also good in campsite living, we have to go to 'basic'. It means we had to work to keep on living, prepared and cooked the food, pumped the water through the filter for drinking, looked for and cut wood for fire, etc. Our happiness came from doing the chores and sharing them together. Our joy happened when we did an outing, be it by just paddling around or fishing or hiking. We felt we were blessed on being able to do this and we were happy to be back in time for the Thanksgiving Day.


Bice Lake, October 8, 2002

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