A businessowners policy is a good starting point, and it is a starting point.
A BOP bundles the two coverages nearly every small business needs into one policy at one price. Knowing what it leaves out matters just as much, because the gaps are the expensive part. Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with Stillwater and places small commercial coverage for Arkansas businesses.
The short version
A businessowners policy packages commercial property and general liability for a small business into a single policy. For a shop, an office or a straightforward service business, it is an efficient and appropriate answer.
What it is not is a complete commercial program. Employee injury, vehicles, professional services and several other exposures sit outside it, and Arkansas requires workers compensation sooner than most owners expect. This page is mostly about the edges, because the edges are where the surprises live.
Two coverages, one policy.
The appeal of a BOP is real: it puts the two things nearly every small business needs into a single policy with a single renewal and a single bill.
Commercial property
The building if you own it, the contents, your equipment and inventory, and improvements you made to a space you lease. Most BOP forms also include business income and extra expense, which replaces income and covers the additional costs of operating after a covered loss shuts you down — frequently the most valuable thing in the package and almost always the least discussed.
General liability
Bodily injury and property damage your operations cause to somebody else, personal and advertising injury, and medical payments. It includes products and completed operations, which responds to harm arising from your work or your product after it has left your hands — the exposure that outlives the job.
Beyond those two, BOP forms commonly offer endorsements for exposures a small business picks up as it grows: property away from the premises, equipment breakdown, employee dishonesty, and data or cyber exposure. Which are available and which are worth adding depends on the operation, and that is a conversation rather than a checklist.
For the wider picture rather than this carrier specifically, start with the business insurance section.
The four gaps that catch small businesses.
None of these are defects in the product. A BOP is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and these simply sit outside its design.
- Employee injuryNot in a BOP. Injuries to your own employees belong to workers compensation and its employers liability half, which is a separate policy. This is the largest and most consequential gap, and it is covered in detail below.
- VehiclesNot in a BOP. Owned vehicles need commercial auto. Employees driving their own cars on your business creates hired and non-owned exposure, which is its own coverage and is routinely missed by businesses that own no vehicles at all.
- Professional servicesNot in a BOP. Exposure arising from advice, design or professional judgment is a different coverage line with its own form. If people pay you for what you know rather than for what you make or sell, this matters.
- Growth past the productA BOP is built for small, reasonably straightforward operations. As payroll, locations, contracts and complexity increase, an account reaches a point where a package built for it fits better than a package it has outgrown. We would rather tell you that than renew you into the wrong product.
Arkansas wants workers compensation sooner than owners expect.
A BOP does not include workers compensation, and Arkansas does not use a single employee count to decide who needs it. Those two facts together produce the most expensive misunderstanding in Arkansas small business insurance.
Ark. Code 11-9-102 defines covered employment four different ways
Most owners carry a rough sense that workers compensation kicks in at some headcount. Arkansas is more specific than that, and the specifics move in the direction of requiring coverage sooner rather than later. Ark. Code 11-9-102 defines covered employment four ways: three or more employees regularly employed by the same employer in the course of business, subject to the exceptions the statute lists; two or more employed in building or building repair work; one or more employed by a contractor who subcontracts any part of the contract; and one or more employed by a subcontractor.
So the general rule is three. Construction work reaches the requirement sooner. And read the last two together and the practical result is plain: the moment you farm out part of a job, the count that matters drops to one. A great many small operations assume they are comfortably under the line when the arithmetic actually changed the day they hired their first sub.
Here is why this belongs on a page about a businessowners policy rather than only on a workers compensation page. A BOP feels comprehensive. It has property, it has liability, it has a certificate you can send to a customer, and it renews once a year like a complete program. It is entirely possible to hold one, feel covered, and have no answer at all for an employee injury — which is both the most likely serious claim a small business will face and the one with the fewest alternatives once it happens.
In practice your contracts usually get there before the statute does. A general contractor or a commercial customer will want a certificate showing workers compensation long before your headcount triggers the requirement, and an uninsured sub on your job can land on your audit as payroll — which is how a clean year turns into an unexpected bill. When we set up an account we go through class codes, certificate requirements and what the audit is likely to look like at the end of the term, because that is where the surprises actually live.
Ark. Code 11-9-102, summarized. The section carries exceptions this page does not cover and may be amended. General information, not legal advice.
What a businessowners policy is not.
The neighbors, not the gaps. These belong to other policies rather than being holes in this one.
Not workers compensation
Employee injury belongs to a workers compensation policy and its employers liability half. Separate policy, separate carrier decision, separate audit.
Not commercial auto
Owned, hired and non-owned vehicles belong to a commercial auto policy. A business that owns no vehicles can still have hired and non-owned exposure.
Not professional liability
Exposure arising from advice, design or professional services has its own coverage line and its own form.
Not a full cyber policy
Data and cyber exposure is commonly addressed by endorsement at modest levels rather than by a standalone form. What that endorsement does and does not reach is worth reading rather than assuming.
Not a warranty on your work
Liability coverage is not a guarantee that work will perform. The cost of redoing something is a different question from damage the work caused.
Not a substitute for reading the form
BOP forms vary between carriers more than the shared name suggests, particularly in what is included versus optional. Ask us what yours actually says.
The part that lasts twelve months.
Small business policies drift faster than personal ones, because businesses change faster than households do.
Certificates and endorsements
A certificate is evidence a policy existed on the day it was issued. It does not amend the policy and it does not by itself make anyone an additional insured — the endorsements do that. Send us the contract requirement, not just the request for a certificate.
Operations that change
A new service line, a new location, work in another state, a category of customer you did not serve last year. The description of operations is part of how the policy was underwritten.
Your first employee, or your first sub
Either one can change your workers compensation position, and hiring a subcontractor changes it faster than hiring an employee does. Tell us at the time.
Values that move
Equipment, inventory and improvements to a leased space accumulate. A property limit set at opening rarely still matches the business two or three years later.
Reporting a claim
Report promptly, including anything that looks like it might become a claim. Call the office and we will walk you through it and coordinate with the carrier.
Outgrowing the product
When the account is bigger than the product, moving it is not an admission that something went wrong. It is the point of holding more than forty appointments.
Other Stillwater lines.
Stillwater overview
The carrier profile: what Stillwater writes, how the appointment works, and where its financial strength ratings currently sit.
Stillwater homeowners
Settlement basis, the Arkansas roof rule, wind and hail deductibles, and the twelve percent claim penalty.
Stillwater auto
Arkansas minimum liability, uninsured motorist, total loss settlement, and the credit re-rate you can compel.
Stillwater condo and renters
Where the association master policy stops, loss assessment, and what renters coverage actually does.
Stillwater landlord and dwelling fire
Rental property structure, loss of rents, tenant-caused damage, and the Arkansas deposit rules.
Stillwater personal umbrella
How an umbrella sits over the limits underneath it, and the underlying-limit requirement nobody mentions.
Small business questions we get in Arkansas.
What does a businessowners policy include?
Does a BOP include workers compensation?
Which Arkansas employers have to carry workers compensation?
Do I need commercial auto if my business does not own a vehicle?
Does a certificate of insurance prove I have the coverage a contract requires?
How do I know when my business has outgrown a BOP?
Cribb Insurance Group publishes carrier explainers, Arkansas coverage guidance and insurance education. Add Cribb Insurance as a preferred source on Google.
Send us the operations, not just the address.
What the business actually does, how many people work there, whether you use subcontractors, what you own, and the insurance requirements section of anything you are about to sign. We will tell you whether a businessowners policy is the right shape for the account and what has to sit alongside it.
Bentonville, AR 72713
Stillwater and related marks are marks of their respective owners and are used here nominatively to identify a carrier Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of Stillwater Insurance Group or any Stillwater underwriting company.
Coverage descriptions on this page are general and simplified. Coverage, availability, eligibility, endorsements, internal limits and terms vary by policy and by state, and the actual policy language controls in every case. Nothing here amends any policy or creates coverage.
A businessowners policy does not provide workers compensation, commercial auto, or professional liability coverage. Availability of coverages, endorsements and eligibility for a businessowners policy depend on the class of business, the state and underwriting.
No premium figures, rate estimates, savings figures, suggested coverage limits or suggested deductibles are published on this page. Pricing and limit structure are developed from the individual account. Discounts are named without amounts; availability and application depend on the account, the state and the carrier’s filings.
Financial strength and financial stability ratings are assigned by independent rating agencies using their own separate scales, are opinions about a company’s ability to meet its insurance obligations rather than about claims handling or service, are subject to change, and are not recommendations to purchase any policy. The current rating position for this carrier is stated on the Stillwater carrier overview page and at ambest.com and demotech.com.
Arkansas statutory and Arkansas Insurance Department references are general information and not legal advice. Statutes and bulletins are summarized, carry provisions and exceptions this page does not cover, are subject to judicial interpretation, and may be amended. How any of this applies to a particular policy, property or claim depends on facts this page cannot know. Consult a licensed Arkansas attorney before relying on any of it in a dispute.
Last reviewed August 2026.