5 Tips to Determine the Right Insurance Needed for Your Lawn Care Business

As a lawn care business owner, you need comprehensive insurance coverage. The question is, what kind of insurance is needed for your lawn care business? From policy types to coverage limits, insurance providers, and premiums, several factors go into determining the right insurance plan for you.

However, getting cost-effective insurance that provides adequate coverage can be time-consuming and confusing. That’s why we have put together these five tips. They will simplify the process of understanding your insurance needs and help you find a policy that’s tailored to your needs.

1. Identify Your Risks

The first step to determining what insurance is needed for your lawn care business is assessing what needs coverage. As you decide what needs coverage, consider your services and associated risks. Where are you most likely to suffer financial damages?

Areas of high risk for lawn care businesses include worker injury, equipment, and company vehicles. Pesticides can also pose a risk if that’s a service you offer. For example, if you lay pesticides that unintentionally run off into a water supply, you could be held liable.

2. Look at Your Coverage Limits

Your identified risks should give a general idea of how high your coverage limit needs to be. To get a more precise idea, combine your annual gross revenue with the value of the properties you’re servicing.

If you’re unsure the number you come up with based on your identified risk and calculations is enough coverage, sit down with a licensed insurance advisor. They can help you make an appropriate coverage decision.

It’s vital to determine an appropriate coverage limit accurately. If you underestimate how much coverage you need, you’ll be financially responsible for paying out of pocket once claims filed against you exceed your limit. 

Tip: Review and update your insurance coverage regularly! You may have started with a small amount of coverage when you first launched your business, but if you grow, the properties you are now servicing might be underinsured.

3. Implement Risk Management Practices

Solid risk management practices can make you less of an insurance risk and lower your premiums or keep them from increasing. Some examples of effective risk management practices for lawn care businesses include:

• Mandatory safety training for all employees.
• Investing in high-quality equipment and maintaining it regularly.
• Only allowing employees with clean driving records to drive company vehicles.
• Having a “bad-weather” plan so employees can make downtime productive and avoid working in dangerous conditions.
• Putting an end-of-day protocol in place that involves employees checking a job site for any equipment before leaving. This can help mitigate the risk of third-party injury and equipment loss.

All lawn care businesses face risks from worker injury, third-party injury and dissatisfaction, equipment ownership, and the inherent risks of running a business. If you can plan ahead by taking measures to mitigate your risk, you’re setting yourself up for success.

4. Decide What Insurance is Needed For Your Lawn Care Business

Now that you’ve considered your risks, your necessary coverage limit, and taken measures to mitigate risks that could drive premiums up, let’s take a look at what insurance is needed for a lawn care business. Here are six common types of insurance lawn care business owners invest in.

• General Liability. A general liability policy covers bodily injury and property damage caused to a third party due to business operations, advertising injury (libel and slander) and copyright infringement, and damage done to a space your business is renting. It may also cover harm done to a third party by a product you sold, manufactured, or distributed. General liability insurance can cover legal bills, replace property, and cover medical expenses.
• Commercial Auto. Commercial auto insurance covers vehicles used for business purposes. It covers injury and property damage done to other people in the case of an accident and can cover legal and medical bills.

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• Workers’ Compensation. Workers’ compensation insurance covers employee injuries on the job and lost pay due to injuries at work. This insurance type can pay your injured employees’ salary and cover any potential legal fees. Each state sets its workers' compensation laws, but almost every state requires workers' compensation insurance.
• Pollution Liability. Also known as environmental insurance, pollution liability can help cover unexpected damages from the accidental release of chemicals into the environment during business operations. 
• Inland Marine. Inland marine insurance covers your business property while it’s stored in a third-party location or in transit on land. 
• Umbrella Insurance. An umbrella policy adds an extra layer of protection for certain policies. For example, if filed claims reach or exceed the limits of your general liability insurance policy in a given year, an umbrella insurance policy can add extra liability on top of that specific policy. It can be combined with general liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, hired auto insurance, and employment practices liability insurance.

An insurance expert familiar with your business operations can help you decide which policy or combination of insurance policies is needed for your lawn care business. 

“A major concern in the market is a great number of insureds mistakenly believe they are covered for pollution releases under general liability and property policies. However, these policies either restrict or exclude such coverage, leaving their policyholders exposed to potentially costly risks.”

- Center For Insurance Policy and Research

5. Ask Questions and Consider Your Options

As you start to shop around for insurance policies, it’s important to get several quotes so you have a general idea of what you can expect to pay for the coverage you need. If you don’t have time to call many providers, you can work with an insurance partner that doesn’t charge broker fees. This will allow you to consider multiple options in one place. 

Remember to ask any questions you have, especially if something doesn’t seem right. If you’re not getting the answers you need, don’t hesitate to reach out to a licensed insurance expert like our team at CoverHound. 

Make the Right Insurance Choice for Your Lawn Care Business

Finding a cost-effective insurance policy that covers your business’s needs can be daunting. CoverHound is an online platform that streamlines your search process, making it easy to compare insurance costs between providers and receive personalized, scalable solutions. 

‍Learn more about how CoverHound can help you find the right insurance for your lawn care business!