I just registered my business. Do I actually have to buy insurance?

Mostly not by the state — and that is exactly why so many new owners are uninsured the day they need it.

Forming an LLC protects your personal assets from the business’s debts. It does not protect the business from anything. The truck still crashes, the customer still slips, the laptop with the client list still gets stolen. The entity is a wall between the business and you; insurance is what keeps the business standing.

What Texas actually requires

Texas is unusual. Most states require an employer to carry workers’ compensation; Texas lets most private employers opt out, with conditions and real consequences for doing so. TODO — verify current TDI language before publication

What the state does require:

• Commercial auto liability on any vehicle titled to or used by the business, at the state minimum. Your personal auto policy almost certainly excludes business use — check the exclusion before you assume.
• Professional or industry-specific coverage where your license demands it. Contractors, tow operators, security firms, and alcohol permit holders each have requirements attached to the license itself. TODO — confirm per license type with TDLR / TABC

That is a short list on purpose. The state sets a floor, not a plan.

What everyone else will require

This is the list that actually governs a small business, and none of it is law:

• Your landlord will require general liability before you sign the lease, usually at a stated minimum, usually naming them as additional insured.
• Your clients — especially any larger company — will require a certificate of insurance before they pay you a dollar. Often general liability and professional liability both.
• Your lender will require property coverage on anything they financed.
• Your event venue will require special event coverage for anything you host.

You will not lose a court case for lacking these. You will lose the lease, the contract, and the loan.

The order to buy it in

1. Commercial auto, if a vehicle is involved. It is required, and personal policies exclude it.
2. General liability — the coverage the lease and the first contract will ask for. Slips, property damage, the ordinary things.
3. A Business Owners Policy (BOP), which bundles general liability with property coverage and often costs less than the two apart. For most shops, offices, and service businesses, this is the right first policy.
4. Professional liability, if you give advice or do work someone could claim was done wrong.
5. Cyber liability, the moment you store customer data or take payments. Small businesses are targeted precisely because they are uninsured.

The tradeoff, out loud: every one of these is a monthly cost against a loss that may never come. The question is not whether the loss is likely. It is whether the business survives it if it does.

The one thing to do this week

Pull out your lease, or the first client contract you are chasing, and find the insurance clause. It will tell you, in writing, what you need before anyone sells you anything. Bring it to the call.