Insurance Question!! small service, part-time, low property damage risk (houses etc), mostly cash, not "a business" What type of insurance??

[Austin Josephs]

Im not good with figuring out logistical stuff, and my situation isnt necessarily "on the books normal", so Im hoping someone here can steer me in the right direction.

Looking to start up a small low risk service, maybe not "a business", dont want to do it full time, and wont necessarily have employees.. Ill climb & fell, train and hire my parters bro as a (trusted skilled) groundy for some jobs, but theres also another experienced climber in the area looking to contract out for other jobs. Probably mostly cash and we each get whatever rate we agree on etc. I live rurally with gnarly winters lately so everyones desperate for getting even the easy downed or preventative stuff taken care of, pruning/care etc. So Im interested in low-risk/damage potential jobs (not over houses etc,). I own the truck and chipper (Vermeer BC1800A), we both own/maintenance our own gear.

I know I should (legally?) get insurance for the potential, also folks want to see that, but is there something I can get so the Insurance company doesnt think im a full scale daily service that would kill the bank, cover what I need?

If were not "a business", would liability fall on the contracted person that did the damage and we should have our own insurances? Or since my name is on the business card would that fall on me? Etc

Are these plans for damage and liability? Or do they cover health too..?

I have years of gear/rigging/rock climbing experience in the past, over the past 4 years Ive grown skills learning and working with my partners dad, a longtime San Diego service owner Arborist, talking the ears off and working with other old timers in the area, certified by and completed The Academy's "boot camp" (I know this doesnt hold a lot of weight), and have now fell well over a hundred CA coast fatties pretty well precise with diverse techniques, and climbed limbed and taken down damn near a hundred, some requiring "moderate" extra rigging. Going for that license here and want to get something going!

Any advice, info, reflections on any of this would be appreciated!

 

[hitchhikersthumb]

My monthly insurance bill is very cheap. I basically pay for liability for the client and health coverage for me if I get hurt. Less than $100 a month. Even if you do 2 jobs a month, it's worth having. I've started with cheap, antique equipment and it's going well so far. Certainly a good feeling not having any business debt to begin with. The obvious drawback is that the equipment has lots of quirky gremlins and may or may not work when you want (or need) it to. But that's the reality of having a chipper, skid loader w/grapple, dump truck all under $20k. Not worth having insurance on that stuff. And if someone steals a $40 saw, that'll suck, but I've accumulated half a dozen more $0-$70 saws to take its place.

 

[ClimberBusinessman]

While general liability insurance isn't always legally required, you need it if you want to not be sued for a huge amount of money (that you might not have) should something happen. You need the same insurance whether the customer pays you in cash or check. There's no such thing as a "cash business" not needing to follow the same rules as everyone else as far as the law and IRS is concerned; pay taxes regardless of the form (cash or check or Venmo) you get paid in, and have worker's comp on any employees, and run them on payroll, and charge sales tax if required by law in your state. There's enough rules where legally running a business is tricky to do part-time, unfortunately. It can be done, but it is time consuming to run a business. You're probably looking at 1-3 grand per year in general liability insurance and since worker's comp is based in large part on total payroll, figure on roughly 7-40% of payroll on any worker's comp policy you get.

 

[telecasterfool]

My experience: Part time tree service, just weekends. I created an LLC corporation. This protects me. I cannot be personally sued, and lose my personal assets. I have liability insurance only to cover any damages to the customer's property, or injury to anyone besides myself. The prices for this coverage have exponentially expanded, past where a weekend business is viable. I would be interested to hear more about the gentleman who pays less than $100 per month. Last year mine was over $2000 for the year. To the OP: the insurance agent will ask for all the details of your business. I've found that it is hard to get insurance if you say you will be working above 30'

 

[ClimberBusinessman]

My experience: Part time tree service, just weekends. I created an LLC corporation. This protects me. I cannot be personally sued, and lose my personal assets. I have liability insurance only to cover any damages to the customer's property, or injury to anyone besides myself. The prices for this coverage have exponentially expanded, past where a weekend business is viable. I would be interested to hear more about the gentleman who pays less than $100 per month. Last year mine was over $2000 for the year. To the OP: the insurance agent will ask for all the details of your business. I've found that it is hard to get insurance if you say you will be working above 30'

It is tough. Mine is a landscaper policy (we do landscaping as well) but I let them know that I do tree work, and it's one of the few admitted insurance carriers left in my state that doesn't put a height limitation on tree work. But you need to be honest or it's insurance fraud with potential criminal penalties if you say that you don't work above 30' and you do, and you might not actually have insurance coverage should anything go wrong if you lied, since fraud is an exemption to coverage. If you are having a tough time finding coverage, have an insurance broker (not one of those agents that only handles one insurance company like State Farm), look into the non-admitted carriers (Excess and Surplus Lines) like Markel, as they can cover riskier businesses like tree work.