culldav wrote on Dec 2
nd, 2011 at 11:13am:
She runs the business from her home/garage/shed. She does incorporate GST, but no insurance because its just her working the business so far, and hubby sometimes with the heavy lifting and so forth. She just keeps general records for tax purpose.
She will be introducing ladies shoes into her business in January, which are directly imported from Italy. She is going to start something “very unique” to internet selling that is bound to make her very wealthy - brilliant idea that she came up with when investigating the shoe manufactures in Italy.
She is going to try to advertise it on ‘today tonight’ and ‘a current affair’ and other shows…its that good.
Auspost is definitely benefiting from internet sales, and probably the only thing that’s stopped it from being sold by the Government.
I reccommend your firend, may want to seriously her insurance issues!
If she has Home/Contents insurance that has a "Personal Liability" cover, but it will not cover any event related to her business.
A possible example -
Whilst doing an interview for ‘a current affair’ (?), she offers the reporter a pair of these fine Italian shoes to model for a promo. As the reporter is modelling the shoes, the fine stilletto heel on the left foot snaps, the reporter collapses backwards, hitting her spine on the coffee table on the way down and as a result becomes a paraplegic.
Her house insurer declines the claim, which will most likely be worth millions, because it related to your friends business, which means your friend & her husbands personal assets are exposed to large legal expenses & an eventual settlement, for the reporter & possible claims from ‘a current affair’.
Trust me, the insurance industry is based on two words and for very good reasons and those two words are -
Sh!t Happens. If the business isn't solid enough to support the proper insurances, then it just isn't solid enough to be there. Public Liability should be a minmum & your friend really should have a chat to a reliable Insurance broker, for some advice!
The irony is if someone buys the same pair of shoes directly from an overseas online seller they have no come back whatsoever. It seems the online revolution favours overseas sellers but that also applies to aussies selling to overseas buyers