Like most of small netrepenuer, I am a one man show too. I work from my home as a Web site designer. Thinking thru like other business model, especially the traditional offline business where you have a shop or office, I wonder what's the requirement in liability for my case where I just venture online without any real business entity, or if any?
Basically, I would like something to cover for areas like Errors, Ommisions..etc. But it seems that such liability insurance for my instance quite a rare thing!! Or should I just go the traditional way, where I register my home address and my formal business entity and go thru all the regulatory things??
I don't know if I am close at all in terms of "giving advice", but I say that since you are just starting to leave this area untouched (or in the back of your mind) until you become busier and bigger. I may be wrong too...but I would say that people may get scared of the new guy that puts a thousand clauses on his first job...my two cents..
There is a company that specializes in insurance for Web-based service businesses: www.ispinsurance.com. You may wish to check them out, as some type of insurance would certainly be beneficial to you.
emm..thanks for the link, I'll check them out, well at least I could learn a thing or two from there. In the mean time, I re-look and re-think about my current situation and progress so far, I do believe that I might not be in need of such protection yet. But who know one day the time will come where my little venture has grown better
Thanks guys for your kind advise. I find this forum is useful dude and able to give me some lights ahead!
But... what kind of liability could you need as a web designer? Could someone sue you if you made a boo-boo in their web design?
I don't know about insurance exactly, but there is all sorts of potential liability when you start to think about it - things like consequential loss (you didn't SEO my website so I never got any traffic and went bust), or perhaps failing to deal with accessibility issues in the future, perhaps a bug that meant certain pages were never accessed.
I don't know the legal precedents, but it is worth thinking about, even if not acting on at the moment.
I don't know if I am close at all in terms of "giving advice", but I say that since you are just starting to leave this area untouched (or in the back of your mind) until you become busier and bigger. I may be wrong too...but I would say that people may get scared of the new guy that puts a thousand clauses on his first job...my two cents..
I must say, I disagree with this Slashmire.
Things can go wrong regardless of your size. Though I'm not an expert either I do know that you can get different levels of cover.
If you looking for protection of being sued, I'd say, at the beginning of each job, have them sign a Service Agreement. I'd also recommend a DBA name or obtaining an LLC. LLC's are good, or eve a Sole-Proprietor license would be good if you ask me, its up to you and I apologize if my analysis is off point.
Liability Protection for web designer? 
where my little venture has grown better
,) I was just saying that if the job isn't big, that I wouldn't see the need for a protection.
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