September is a good time for business owners to look ahead to the final months of the year. Between planning for the holiday season, preparing budgets and reviewing business goals, insurance may not be at the top of the list. But an annual insurance review can be an important part of making sure your coverage continues to keep pace with your business.

Businesses rarely stay exactly the same from one year to the next. You may have added employees, purchased equipment, expanded your operations, acquired vehicles or changed the services you offer. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends reconsidering insurance coverage as business circumstances change rather than simply renewing the same policies year after year.

Here are some areas to discuss with your Connors Agency insurance professional before the end of the year.

1. Have Your Business Property and Equipment Changed?

Take a look around your business. Have you purchased new computers, machinery, tools, furniture, inventory or other equipment?

New property can increase the value of what your business needs to protect. The SBA recommends reviewing the level of property coverage needed at renewal, particularly when a business has added expensive machinery or other property.

It is also important to consider whether renovations, additions or other changes to your building could affect your insurance needs.

A coverage review can help determine whether your current limits and policy accurately reflect your business property today.

2. Does Your Business Income Coverage Still Make Sense?

Property damage isn’t the only financial concern following a major loss. If a covered event forces your business to temporarily close or suspend operations, you could also face lost revenue while continuing to pay expenses.

Business interruption, also called business income insurance, can help cover certain lost income and continuing expenses following a covered event that causes a business to suspend operations. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) notes that business interruption coverage can work alongside commercial property insurance to help a business manage the financial impact of a covered shutdown.

If your revenue or operating expenses have changed significantly, it may be worth discussing whether your business income coverage still reflects your current situation.

3. Have You Added or Lost Employees?

Changes in staffing can affect your insurance needs.

If your business has grown, added new positions or changed employees’ responsibilities, let your insurance professional know. Changes in payroll, job duties and business operations can be important when reviewing workers’ compensation and other commercial insurance coverage.

This is especially important if employees are now performing different types of work than when your policy was originally written.

4. Have You Added or Changed Business Vehicles?

Businesses frequently add vehicles, replace older vehicles or change the way existing vehicles are used.

Review your commercial auto coverage if you have:

• Purchased or leased a new vehicle
• Sold or stopped using a vehicle
• Added or changed drivers
• Changed how vehicles are used
• Started using vehicles for deliveries, customer visits or other business purposes

The SBA specifically recommends reviewing vehicle insurance and considering whether vehicles that are being used for business are appropriately insured.

If employees use personal vehicles for business purposes, that is another exposure worth discussing with your Connors Agency insurance professional.

5. Has the Way You Do Business Changed?

This may be one of the most important questions to ask during an insurance review:

Is your business doing anything today that it wasn’t doing when your policy was written?

Perhaps you’ve added a new service, started selling products online, expanded into a new market, begun working at customer locations or added a new type of equipment.

Even positive changes and business growth can introduce new risks. Your insurance coverage should be based on your actual business operations, not what your business looked like several years ago.

6. Are Your Liability Limits Still Appropriate?

As your business grows, your potential liability exposure can change as well.

Your Connors Agency insurance professional can review your general liability coverage and discuss whether your current limits continue to make sense for your business, its operations and the contracts you enter into.

For some businesses, a commercial umbrella policy may also be worth considering for additional liability protection above the limits of certain underlying policies.

7. Have Your Contracts and Insurance Requirements Changed?

If you’ve signed new contracts with customers, landlords, vendors, municipalities or other businesses, take a look at their insurance requirements.

Contracts can include requirements related to liability limits, additional insureds, certificates of insurance and other coverage provisions.

Sharing new contracts or insurance requirements with your insurance agent can help make sure your coverage is structured appropriately.

8. Should You Review Cyber Coverage?

Technology is an important part of nearly every modern business. If your company stores customer information, processes payments electronically, relies on computer systems or conducts business online, cyber-related risks should be part of your insurance conversation.

The SBA identifies data breach coverage as one type of additional coverage that businesses may want to consider depending on their operations.

Cyber coverage is not automatically appropriate for every business, but it is worth discussing whether your current insurance program addresses your particular exposures.

9. Don’t Assume Last Year’s Coverage Is Automatically Right for This Year

One of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make is treating insurance renewal as a routine transaction without considering what’s changed.

The NAIC explains that a business owners policy, commonly called a BOP, can combine property, business interruption and liability coverage for many small businesses. However, businesses may need additional or specialized coverage depending on their operations and circumstances.

Your business has likely changed since your current policy was written. Your insurance should be reviewed with those changes in mind.

Make an Insurance Review Part of Your Year-End Planning

September is a good time to start a conversation about your commercial insurance before the year gets busy. Take a few minutes to consider what has changed in your business over the past year and share those changes with your insurance professional.

At The Connors Agency, we work with businesses in Mechanicville, Stillwater, Saratoga County and throughout the Capital Region to help them evaluate their commercial insurance needs.

If your business has added employees, equipment, vehicles, services, locations or other changes this year, contact The Connors Agency to schedule a commercial insurance review.

Sources

• National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Small Business Insurance
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Business Interruption and Business Owner Policy, updated June 25, 2026
• U.S. Small Business Administration, Rethinking Insurance Coverage
• Insurance Information Institute, Business Income (Interruption) Insurance: Key Facts