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Sole Traders Insurance

Sole trader insurance is key to help make sure you and your business are covered for the unexpected.

  • Flexible insurance policies for sole traders covering a range of business types, trades and professions.
  • Build your own policy around your needs by adding public, employers' and product liability insurance. 
  • Access your quotes, policies and renewals in your online account
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If you need additional assistance arranging your insurance, find out how our teams can support

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Why choose sole traders insurance with Towergate?

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Flexible sole trader insurance

Cover for a range of different business types, trades, and professions.

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Optional liability covers

Includes options for public, employers' and product liability insurance for sole traders.

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Build your own policy

Create a sole traders insurance package around your business needs.

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Pay by Direct Debit

We offer a quick and easy Direct Debit instalment scheme so you can spread payment over ten months. 

About sole traders insurance

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What is sole trader insurance?

As a sole trader and owner of your business, you have unlimited personal liability, so you require sole trader insurance to protect you and your company. This covers compensation if a member of the public is accidentally injured, or has their property damaged, due to you or your organisation's fault. We also provide insurance for other types of business structures such as limited companies and partnerships.

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Sole trader insurance for a range of businesses

Whether you work from home, are a mobile caterer, work at clients' premises, run a shop or an online business; we have many sole trader options you can choose from to protect your way of working. We also insure a multitude of different types of businesses. You could be a tradesmen, run a shop or provide consultancy services, either way, we’ll help you to find the most suitable cover for you.

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A range of sole trader cover features

It might be that you only need sole trader public liability insurance. If so we’d help to arrange a basic policy for you. By contrast, larger businesses will require cover for employees, equipment, buildings and more.

In this case, we can put together a bespoke package for you combining all the elements you need into one sole trader insurance policy. By talking to us we can build in additional cover e.g. cover for tools left in a vehicle overnight, as this won't come as standard. It’s always worth being thorough to identify your needs.

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Sole trader insurance that helps your business grow

As you and your business grow and change, we can adapt your policy to suit your new circumstances. If you purchase a permanent premises, or if you engage more employees; we can alter your sole trader insurance policy as and when needed. Just let us know when things change, and we’ll take a look at how we can help.

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Sole trader cover from a panel of insurers 

Once we've established the type of business you run and identified your businesses individual needs, we can go to our carefully selected panel of insurers and find the most suitable combination of cover and price.

When you need to make a claim, we'll guide you through the process and get your claim settled as quickly as possible.

  • Find your insurance documents and make sure you have all your information at hand, including your policy number.
  • Call us on 0344 892 1384 and explain exactly what happened.
  • Provide photos if requested to help us understand what happened as quickly as we can.
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Ready to get covered?

  • Fill in our online quote form or call us
  • Select your insurer and price
  • Relax - you're covered!
Get a Quote

Sole Traders insurance FAQs

As a sole trader you have unlimited personal liability if you are the only owner and you control and manage your business. You are legally responsible for all aspects of the business and will make the decisions about how it is run. You can employ others if you are set up as a sole trader. Sole trader refers to the business structure.

Public liability insurance is very often required by businesses as part of their insurance package. It covers your legal responsibility to provide compensation if a member of the public is accidentally injured, or has their property damaged as a consequence of an accident directly linked to negligence on behalf of you and your business.

We can advise you on the different kinds of liability insurance your business will require, like whether you need employer’s liability or public or products liability.

What we can’t tell you is the limit of the sole traders liability insurance you should take out. It’s very unique to your business and may sometimes be influenced by local councils or authorities. If you’re struggling to figure out what you need, it’s worth speaking to local authorities and councils to see if they have a minimum requirement you should adhere to.

Product liability covers your legal responsibility for the products you supply. If you serve food, this could be a case of food poisoning. If you sell specific products, it may be an accidental injury caused by the malfunction or due to defective manufacture. The premium depends on your type of business and the level of cover you need, either way our team can help advise you.

To help you manage the cost of your tradesman insurance premiums, we offer a quick and easy direct debit scheme for spreading payment over ten months. Please visit our dedicated Direct Debit page to find out more.

Read sole traders insurance articles and guides

What is the Difference Between Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance?

What is the difference between public liability and professional indemnity insurance? We define PL and PI insurance to help you decide if your business needs them.

Read more

How to be Self-Employed: A Guide

Starting your own business is one of the most exciting career moves you can make. Our guide looks at the key things to consider when working for yourself.

Read more