When it comes to landscaping insurance, playing the long game is the most effective way to get the best bang for your buck. If you’re consistently focused on pricing, you’ll be jumping between policies year after year. Don’t misunderstand; price is paramount. However, you need to weigh price alongside the benefits you get from your policy. If you only pay attention to the price, you may one day find your landscaping business severely underinsured and up a creek without a paddle.
By building a robust landscaping insurance plan now, you’ll help yourself better prepare for the future and improve your long-term success.
What kind of insurance do I need for my landscaping company?
Your ideal landscaping insurance policy will probably resemble a standard business insurance policy. Coverages you should consider include:
Commercial Liability
As a landscaping company owner, you are potentially liable for every product, service, and operation related to your business. Even though you stress sound procedures throughout your business, the fact remains that no person or machine is perfect. Despite your best efforts, you and your company may face litigation if your business causes any property or physical damage to a third party. Commercial liability insurance protects business owners and assets from various exposures.
Property Insurance
In a worst-case scenario, imagine a fire breaks out and you lose your entire inventory. Or your business is burglarized, causing physical damage and possibly lost assets. Your ability to recover from these incidents depends on your commercial property insurance. Any of your business’ assets—like a storage space for equipment, lawnmowers, shears, hedge trimmers, etc.—can be protected with a property insurance policy.
Business Auto
Imagine you were involved in an accident in your personal vehicle while engaged in company business. Did you know your personal insurance may not cover you? What if you have employees on the road making service calls to customers? Commercial auto insurance provides valuable protection for your company-owned vehicles, leased or rented vehicles, and your employees’ vehicles used for business purposes.
Workers Compensation
If you employ any number of workers who are not considered business owners, you are legally required to maintain a workers compensation policy. You do your best to maintain a safe work environment, but if any of your employees are injured or become ill on the job, you are legally responsible. A workers compensation policy can cover the payment of your employee’s medical expenses, lost wages, and rehabilitation costs.
Excess/Umbrella
Without an excess or umbrella policy, a catastrophic claim could deplete your future income and business assets. Every business is vulnerable to devastating losses and lawsuits that could exceed your primary insurance coverage. This is a critical coverage—especially for small to mid-sized businesses.
Inland Marine
Do you have business equipment, materials, or supplies in transit? Do you store business property in an off-site location? Do you have lawn care equipment or heavy machinery staying at a job site overnight? If your equipment or materials are damaged in any of these situations, your standard property insurance policy won’t cover them. Protect your most valuable business property or equipment, wherever it may be, with inland marine coverage.
While landscaping insurance is incredibly vital, creating the policy can be frustrating. There’s not an easy, one-size-fits-all solution—instead, making sure you have the right coverage often means stitching together different pieces to create a whole.
What should I look for when buying a landscaping insurance policy?
Obviously, it’s crucial to have the right coverages in your landscaping insurance policy. Beyond looking at coverage, it’s equally important to ensure the “back-end” details are correct for you. Here are some vital back-end details to look for:
- Can the landscaping insurance policy grow with you?
- Will your policy meet contract requirements made by your clients?
- Do your limits accurately reflect your needs, or are they based on insufficient state requirements?
There are so many easy-to-miss little details you need to keep track of when you’re tailoring a policy. These little details are often why many landscaping companies choose to work with an insurance broker. An insurance broker can analyze your company’s risks, help you organize the little details, find the insurance “pieces” that will work best for you, and put them together to create a tailored insurance policy.
I help landscaping companies all the time, and I have experience helping them get the best bang for their buck. As an example, I once sat down with a landscaping company and reviewed their policies and certificates with them. Well, come to find out, the company was severely underinsured on not one, but several coverages. They were so underinsured they decided to move their policies to a different insurer mid-term.
We took care of their workers compensation first since it’s one of the most important coverages any business can have. The company saved $5,000 in workers comp premium even after increasing their limits and choosing a policy with no deductible. They were able to choose a top-rated insurance carrier and now have access to Leavitt Group’s entire claims team, risk management resources, and more.
From there, we turned our attention to their other policies: commercial auto, general liability, etc. We increased all their limits to meet industry standards and added inland marine coverage for their tools. The best part? Their landscaping insurance pricing remained the same as what they paid for their old policies.
Who needs landscaping insurance?
There are many types of specialists whose work qualifies as lawn care or landscaping. Some examples of specialties that can benefit from landscaping insurance include:
- Tree removal and pruning
- Excavation
- Land grading
- Irrigation installation and maintenance
- General lawn care
- Pesticide application
- Hardscape design
- Snow plowing
- Water feature design and installation
- Retaining walls
- Pavers
How much does landscape insurance cost?
Just like there’s no one-size-fits-all policy, there’s no single estimate for how much landscaping insurance will cost. So many factors go into calculating premium cost that it’s impossible to give even a representative range. However, I can share the factors that affect your business’s premium:
- Size of your business
- Business location
- Services and operations your company offers
- Number of employees
- Revenue receipts
- Value of business property
- Types of vehicles and equipment used
Still feeling stumped about landscaping insurance?
If you’re still unsure how to maximize your landscaping insurance benefits, that’s okay. There’s a lot to it, and it’s often a long-term process. It can get overwhelming.
I’m here for you. I have years of experience helping landscaping companies get the best bang for their buck when it comes to landscaping insurance. I’m familiar with the hurdles you’re facing and can help you map out your insurance needs, wants, and goals.
If you have questions, let’s chat!
