Insurance Ideas For Small Catering Business

[Pedro7]

Those who do their own catering on the side, what do you do for insurance? We're getting our side hustle on and want to make sure we're covered.

I'm in NJ.

 

[308fan]

https://www.fliprogram.com/

 

[poorolddan]

First stop should be your local personal insurance agent. He/She should know your state insurance laws. Your are looking for different parts of coverage. General liability with products liability (to defend any one claiming they got sick or injured at an event), vehicle liability- some states require commercial liability whi;e using a vehicle or trailer for pay. Next would be inland marine coverage for your equipment and supplies on and off premises. You can have a lot tied up in value and none would be considered covered under your homeowners policy. And finally worker compensation. If you have even a part-time employee and they get injured or sick resulting from your employment you will be liable for all their expenses including future income.

If your personal agent can't or won't work with/for you time to find one that will.

 

[Pedro7]

First stop should be your local personal insurance agent. He/She should know your state insurance laws. Your are looking for different parts of coverage. General liability with products liability (to defend any one claiming they got sick or injured at an event), vehicle liability- some states require commercial liability whi;e using a vehicle or trailer for pay. Next would be inland marine coverage for your equipment and supplies on and off premises. You can have a lot tied up in value and none would be considered covered under your homeowners policy. And finally worker compensation. If you have even a part-time employee and they get injured or sick resulting from your employment you will be liable for all their expenses including future income.

If your personal agent can't or won't work with/for you time to find one that will.

Thank you! We're a small operation for now, so just my brother and I. No employees, so no need to worry about worker's comp. I will check into the commercial vehicle liability, but we are just using our personal vehicles to tow the Meadow Creek around so not sure we still have to register them as commercial vehicles. I doubt we'll make more than $50k in revenue, at least for this year.

I have heard some folks adding an umbrella policy to their homeowners for it, but I'd almost rather keep it separate as I feel like, as you said, there could be a lot of gray area. I have NJM insurance here in NJ (for homeowners and auto) and looks like the only thing I could add to my coverage is just the commercial vehicle.

Looks like Fliprogram looks good for what we need. They offered General Liability, Trailer Liability, and Inland Marine for $450 for the year.

 

[mcyork28]

Most personal umbrella policies will not cover commercial endeavors. I would be very through in investigating this before placing your faith in it.

I have heard some folks adding an umbrella policy to their homeowners for it, but I'd almost rather keep it separate as I feel like, as you said, there could be a lot of gray area. I have NJM insurance here in NJ (for homeowners and auto) and looks like the only thing I could add to my coverage is just the commercial vehicle.

Looks like Fliprogram looks good for what we need. They offered General Liability, Trailer Liability, and Inland Marine for $450 for the year.[/QUOTE]

 

[Pedro7]

Most personal umbrella policies will not cover commercial endeavors. I would be very through in investigating this before placing your faith in it.

Yea I'm not going that route, but that idea was honestly the reason i started this thread. It just didn't seem right. If that guy wants to do it, so be it. But, I'm not going to. I'm going with Fliprogram.

 

[ynotfehc]

Are you licensed also? If you don't get a commercial auto policy, make sure your personal policy will still cover when you're working. Some companies will not, like progressive.

 

[medic92]

We started with inland Marine insurance but it didn't give us the coverage we really needed. Country Companies put together a policy for us that covers our business, out garage and all the content. It costs us $953 a year. It includes liability as well.

 

[HBMTN]

We started out 9 years ago with a general liability policy that had $1,000,000/$2,000,000 coverage with coverage also on my truck which was about $650 back then to start. I also elected to go with a workers comp policy which at the time cost $500 annually. Back then the only help I hired was my sister in law but if she happened to step off our trailer and roll her ankle of something simple like that which cause a break you could easily have $15k in medical bills and she could have missed several weeks or months of work from her real job and I would have felt responsible so for $500 a year I knew I was covered if something happened.

 

[IamMadMan]

Keep in mind that while insurance is important you should also meet these suggestions.



First: Are you incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation?
Without being incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that you are taking a huge personal financial risk without limits. You could lose your home, your investments, bank accounts, ect. The corporate charter will keep the business assets as a separate entity.

Second: Will you be operating within State, Local, and Health Department regulations?
Do you have a business license, a food handlers permit, and will you prepare the food in a health department approved and inspected commercial kitchen?

Third: Do you have the proper liability insurance to cover you and the patrons?
Discussion here.

Fourth and lastly... are you Serve-Safe Certified?


Be aware that without these qualifications and being fully covered with insurance, you are taking a huge huge risk both personally and financially.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

I work on a military base doing lunch service, so I had to have a ton of coverage to meet their minimums. I went with FLIP and they were fantastic in getting everything taken care of and ensuring that I was indeed meeting the appropriate minimum amounts for coverage.

Overall good service, very functional website, and it's a solid peace of mind for a good price. Again, since working on a military base, I had to get commercial coverage for my truck and trailer. I went through Progressive for that and they did me a pretty solid deal. All in I'm at about $1600 a year for insurance, but I'm covered very well.

 

[Pedro7]

Keep in mind that while insurance is important you should also meet these suggestions.



First: Are you incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation?
Without being incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that you are taking a huge personal financial risk without limits. You could lose your home, your investments, bank accounts, ect. The corporate charter will keep the business assets as a separate entity.

Second: Will you be operating within State, Local, and Health Department regulations?
Do you have a business license, a food handlers permit, and will you prepare the food in a health department approved and inspected commercial kitchen?

Third: Do you have the proper liability insurance to cover you and the patrons?
Discussion here.

Fourth and lastly... are you Serve-Safe Certified?


Be aware that without these qualifications and being fully covered with insurance, you are taking a huge huge risk both personally and financially.

1. Yes, we are an LLC.
2. Yes, we have gotten the proper permits from the health and fire inspector. With the event we have next weekend, we are preparing everything on site, so the health inspector gave us the go to not have a commercial kitchen. However, as we pick up more events we will be certainly lining up a kitchen.
3. Yes, I got Fliprogram last week
4. Yes, My brother and I both just got our servesafe food handling certs two weeks ago at the request of the health inspector.

Only thing we may consider is the commercial vehicle. Right now I'm just using my Jeep and my brother is using his personal pickup truck. With this being new, we haven't felt the need for commercial car insurance yet. Next year, we are hoping to get another pickup and start branding with it. That one will most likely be commercially licensed.

 

[Cook]

1. Yes, we are an LLC.
2. Yes, we have gotten the proper permits from the health and fire inspector. With the event we have next weekend, we are preparing everything on site, so the health inspector gave us the go to not have a commercial kitchen. However, as we pick up more events we will be certainly lining up a kitchen.
3. Yes, I got Fliprogram last week
4. Yes, My brother and I both just got our servesafe food handling certs two weeks ago at the request of the health inspector.

Only thing we may consider is the commercial vehicle. Right now I'm just using my Jeep and my brother is using his personal pickup truck. With this being new, we haven't felt the need for commercial car insurance yet. Next year, we are hoping to get another pickup and start branding with it. That one will most likely be commercially licensed.

I find #2 very interesting. Thank your lucky stars that they approved you. Did they even ask where you would dump your waste/grey water?

 

[Cook]

And congratulations! It's refreshing to see someone actually do things the right way. Y'all are on your way...keep it up!

 

[Pedro7]

I find #2 very interesting. Thank your lucky stars that they approved you. Did they even ask where you would dump your waste/grey water?

Yes. There are places at the location we are able to dump. We have a fridge on our trailer as well powered by a generator to keep everything cold. All the sides are going to prepackaged as well with the exception of one we will make onsite. Meat is all prepared onsite obviously too. We really have no need for a commercial kitchen unless we were storing the meat for a time. But, we are buying everything and going right to the site the night before to get going.

 

[cynfulsmokersbbq]

I find #2 very interesting. Thank your lucky stars that they approved you. Did they even ask where you would dump your waste/grey water?

Why do you say that? AS long as he either has a licensed trailer or has a temporary permit, he is totally legal to prep, cook and serve on site... We've done it that way now for 10 years.... It tougher to do than having a kitchen, but it is totally doable.