Cover Charge

Finding the right kind of insurance at a price that fits your pocketbook isn't easy. Drexel and Deanna Collins can testify to that.

The Cinnaminson, New Jersey, couple co-own DDAT (Distinguished Diversified Adventure Tours) Club Inc., which manufactures and sells T-shirts, jackets, lithographs, baseball cards and other paraphernalia from the Negro Baseball Leagues of the early 1900s. They sell their merchandise primarily through trade shows-and that was the crux of their insurance problem.

"At trade shows, we were always at risk because we didn't have any [show] insurance. And at one show, some of our things were stolen," recalls Drexel, CEO of the 4-year-old company. When the couple went looking for insurance, they found that some companies could provide liability but couldn't cover inventory if they didn't have a storefront or wouldn't protect them as they traveled. It took about two years, Drexel says, to find a company that could fulfill all their insurance needs.

Finding the proper insurance may seem like a daunting task, but it's essential to your business's continued success. And given all the things that can go wrong, putting in a little effort to protect what you've built doesn't seem like such a chore, after all.

This article was originally published in the February 1996 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Cover Charge.