A clear, beginner-friendly breakdown of business insurance: what it is, why it matters, how to choose the right coverage, what it costs, and how to avoid losing opportunities because you’re uninsured. This guide gives women of color founders the infrastructure knowledge they’ve never been taught.
Before we get into the details, I want to be honest: I hesitated to write this. Most early-stage entrepreneurs — especially women of color — don’t think they need business insurance. Not because they’re careless, but because they’re stretched thin. There are legal tasks, marketing tasks, sales tasks, admin tasks, and exhaustion layered under all of it. Insurance feels like something to deal with later.
But “later” is exactly how we lose money we never even knew we were eligible for.
A few weeks ago, I was booking vendors for an event I’m hosting as President of the Women of Color Alliance at my law school. A colleague recommended a Black woman who started a catering business last year. I wanted to put her on. I planned to pay her $1,000 for an intimate dinner for our membership.
And she lost the opportunity — not because her food wasn’t good, not because she lacked credibility, not because she wasn’t skilled.
She lost it because the school requires business insurance for all catering vendors, and she didn’t have any.
She lost the bag.
She lost future bookings.
She lost content she could use to promote her brand.
She lost a client with a recurring event budget.
And it hit me: women of color founders are missing out on entire tiers of opportunity simply because nobody told us insurance is an entry ticket.
Today’s article removes that gap.
