New to the business world. Had a question, many people have said to become insured for 2 reasons, to get higher end jobs and for the obvious reason, so you won’t have to pay in full if something goes wrong. My question is, if I’m just looking to do this part time while in college, say I buy 400$ in equipment and set up an LLC for a hundred or couple hundred $, why would I need to be insured? Seems like I would be paying more for insurance than my business would be worth. Say something went wrong and I ended up $2k in debt from a mistake on the job… wouldn’t they only be able to only go for my company that I had a little bit of money invested into? I would only be liable to pay as much as my business would be worth right? As you get bigger as a company I can totally understand why you would get insured but as a semi broke college kid it seems kind of useless to get insured. I’m sure there’s an obvious answer to this that I overlooked. Sorry if it was confusing lol, hard for me to word it as simple as possible.
A few things to consider as you move toward a decision:
If you are student and doing it part time you might consider no LLC but just operate as a Sole Proprietor with a small policy. As a student, do you have really have substantial assets that you are protecting ? If not purchase a small liability policy
( $ 300 K ) for a few hundred bucks.
I have a 2 million dollar policy ( Cost is $594.00 Annually ). This is based on a couple factors that including not only my desire to protect my exposure / risk but others. Anything could happen and I feel like we need to be responsible to protect those who could be innocently affected by a potential accident.
The 2 million reflects that threshold it took for me to be able to do work for certain large national companies.
Make sure your Insurer provides you with a " Care - Custody - Control " extension to your policy. Mine is $5,000.00. I learned this the very hard way !! I might post a new topic and elaborate on this.
And lastly, make sure you consult with an insurer that you can trust and will not over insure you. I use a friend ( agent ) who can shop for different companies to get me the best deal. He has had me with Western Reserve for many years. Make sure you ultimately consult with a specialist to decide and not just this forum.
You wouldn’t ask your insurance guy to advice you on the best window cleaning techniques…LOL !
Good Luck !!
Buying insurance isn’t just for you… its also for the protection and piece of mind of your customer
I’m actually quite surprised you’re still hung up on this question. If you think having insurance is useless just don’t buy it. Simple as that. Make the decision and move on.
The price should slide on what you/your business makes. Run away from an agent that starts talking mandatory minimums. Mine is $43 a month through American family. (No lie)
I use Joseph D Walters. They are/have been partners with WCRA for sometime. First learned about them at one of the HUGE conventions in Nashville. They are a great help.
Wow, thanks you so much for all the info! I’ll take that into account. Sole prop. Would be so much easier and cheaper to form lol. Thanks again!
Haha, you recognize me huh? Yeah I’m across the country for a month right now so I haven’t actually started my business, just preparing. I thought of this question so decided to ask.
I was curious about how much JD Walters is charging you. I got a quote from them. $1095 Annually for 1,000,000 in coverage with a Custody and Care ridder.
It’s like 74.00 a month for my guys. It’s a really good company since they specialize in window cleaning and powerwashing. No other insurance company that I know of knows our kind of business. Janitorial insurance is a generic insurance. Make sure you get the best, friend.
Thanks JM…im new to the business! Im really just starting my venture. Thanks for the reply!
you can offset the cost of it if you make a big deal of it in your company blurb. pretty sure that iv landed jobs purely cos im one of the few in my area with proper insurances
when mine comes up for renewal i intend asking for other insurances,long as reasonable cost i intend getting these fringe insurances then later add em in my blurb / maximize my “good n careful” image
