Insurance.... that word has been linked to many discriptions and emotions. Whether you are on the one end and think insurance is the best way to go for everything of monetary value or on the other end thinking that insurance is the evil twin of the corrupt banks, there is no doubt that insurance companies do have their place in certain situations.
Before moving to Sweden I had a view of insurance companies as blood-sucking parasites who were bombarding me with television adverts about business insurance, car insurance, health insurance, life insurance, travel insurance, home insurance and every other type of insurance possible.

That view has changed a little bit since I started my own business in Sweden. I kept getting asked if I had business insurance by the bank and other organisations that one encounters while doing the admin required to set up a business.  Everytime I was asked I just rolled my eyes and said no. It did however make me think about it so I decided to get some business insurance quotes to see how much lighter my wallet would be every month. The quotes for a Sole Trader or Enskild Firma as it is called in Swedish, were not too bad so I decided that I would pay for it from the money my next customer was due to pay me for work I was doing for them. Little did I know that I was in for a  "Swedish Lesson" in getting customers to pay you for work you have done.. 

The customer did not pay and I was forced to seek out legal council to find out my options. After phoning around to a few lawyers and being told that their fees would very very very  quickly exceed the 20 000 that I was due, they also asked if I had insurance. Well it turns out that there is a thing called Rättsskyddsförsäkring which means " Court protection insurance" if translated verbatim into English. This particular type of insurance coverage should be included in your business insurance coverage since it covers lawyers costs up to a certain amount in the event of a dispute. The Swedish word for dispute is "tvist" by the way.

So, to cut a long story short, my view is now that when it comes to insurance, business insurance is worth it even if it is only for the rättsskydd ( court protection). You can't get back the hours you spend working for someone who decides not to pay you, but you can get a court to decide who is right or wrong when it does happen.

May you find paying customers!