# General Liability/Work comp



## barrjr1 (Jan 13, 2006)

I am trying to start my own company in Illinois and have done all the things needed except get insurance quotes. I am waiting and all said it would be a week or so. I was wondering what some of you pay for Gen Liability and work comp? I had one guy say gen liability would be min between 10-15 Gs and work comp would double that. Another guy said Liability is not that bad it's the work comp that is. I will have no more than 2 employees plus myself. I want to officially order my trucks, but am waiting to hear from insurance guys. Not only that, but one guy told me that being a new company will require 50% down. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## Redbull (Jan 13, 2006)

I think one of those guys is trying to take you and your pocket book for a ride. But, without knowing your business, I can't say. A lot of the cost in your liability plan depends on how much business you do ( more business means more exposure to liability ). So, without knowing what kind of work, how much work, and what equipment you are going to have makes a big difference. Get a lot of qoutes, you'll be surprised how much of a difference there will be. WC should be pretty much the same across the board in your state. Good luck with your business and welcome to Arboristsite!


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## Ax-man (Jan 13, 2006)

Illinois is an expensive state to get insurance for doing tree work for either liability or work comp . Liability will vary and goes by your gross dollar income. WC is especially hard just for a guy just starting out with no track record, you will probaly get thrown into the pool ( high risk pool ) Last spring 's quote, I hope your sitting down $41 bucks / $100, minumum payroll $5000 add that to your overhead plus FICA, FUTA, IDES, (unemployment, which went up this year ) it is a little over 8% for small guys. Makes you do a double take when you see what you have to charge for just one employee on an hourly basis, makes you look like some high priced crook when you bid against others who don't carry any insurance of any kind.

I hope you got all your ducks in a row because if you don't your going to be be working for the goverment and the insurance companies, they could care less if you make money, but they want theirs. I used to run a bigger show than I do now, found WC to be a big drain on cash flow and downsized. We are incorporated family type biz so we can side skirt the WC, we are all legal owners and have certain percentages of shares in the corp, but I still carry the bare bones minumum payroll deposit to cover any part time help we may need in the busy season, if you don't use it you get a credit for the money and a refund which can be turned over for the next year. 

Good luck on your new venture, maybe we will run into each other some time at some Illinois arbor function.

Larry


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## mpatch (Feb 11, 2006)

*my liability*

my liability runs me $750 a year through Pekin Insurance out of Il. $300k per job, 15k in equipment. I know in WI work comp is based upon how much the employee makes and what he is doing. It's around $2-$4 per hr.


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