Landscaper Work Comp Insurance – Pay As You Go, Saves The Cash Flow

Landscaping insurance plans should all include a workers compensation policy for landscapers unless of course you work alone and have no employees. And work comp policies can tear a whole in your cash flow if not handled correctly. For more information on this, read my blog on the audit trap. In addition, many landscapers suffer a slow season in the winter as there is less work to be done. This slower season creates a cash flow bottom. What if you could time your workers compensation policy to match the slower cash flow in this down season?

In fact you can. With a little understood tool called pay as you go. Now understand that not every company the writes workers compensation policies for landscapers can or will offer this feature, but if you can find one that does and their price is right, this can be a nice benefit for landscape contracting companies.

So how does it work? Well, plans vary but the very best of them will send you an email or a mail reminder each month. You then log on to their web site and enter the payroll totals for the past month. The web site will then calculate your premium for that month and you can pay your bill on line right then and there with a credit card. What this means for you is that now your workers compensation expense tracks your payroll with only a 30 day delay. And this short delay means that your workers compensation expenses will more nearly track your revenue and mean less wild swings in your monthly cash flow.

Now, there are a few things to watch out for here. First of all, there are some payroll service companies out there offering pay as you go workers compensation to go with their payroll service. On the surface this sounds great but there is a problem with this approach. One huge factor in your workers compensation insurance costs is your experience modification factor. And you need to work proactively to protect that mod to keep future costs lower. Companies that specialize in payroll services and sell work comp as a sideline are rarely as good at keeping claims costs low as companies whose prime mission is workers compensation insurance. These companies will often have nurses and case managers on staff to help reduce your overall claims costs. And keeping your claims costs low will keep your rates low over time. To learn more about this read my blog on protecting your experience mod.

One last thing to mention here is that the pay as you go feature offered by some companies is often only available to landscapers whose premium exceeds a certain level, often as high as $5000. There are a few companies out there who can offer this feature at a much lower premium level, but you will need to find an agent who specializes in landscapers insurance to find them.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we are the landscaper insurance specialists. We have companies that can write pay as you go workers compensation policies for landscapers with annual premiums as low as $1000. If we can help you with any of your landscaper insurance policy questions, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on line at our landscapers’ insurance program policy page.

Some of the source material for this article was drawn from other blog articles which can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Landscaper’s Insurance – Don’t Forget The Workers Compensation Policy

Landscaping insurance can be found in many different forms. One coverage that every landscaper with employees should have is workers compensation. In North Carolina, the law states that if you have fewer than 3 employees you don’t have to purchase workers compensation insurance. But what this rule doesn’t tell you is that not buying a policy could put your business assets at risk.

In NC, the workers compensation law does give you an out if you have less than 3 employees. In fact, there are no real teeth in the law that will catch and find employers who have 3 or more employees who also don’t purchase a workers compensation insurance policy. So, yeah, you could go years without purchasing a workers compensation policy for your landscaping business. But that would be a very dangerous choice. Here’s why:

Although the law may not require that you actually purchase a workers compensation insurance policy, it will require that you pay all of the claims yourself just as if you were the insurance company. Workers compensation benefits in North Carolina are statutory. That means that exactly how much gets paid for each type of illness or injury has already been determined by state law. This means if you are paying out of your own pocket for a claim, you will not have the opportunity to determine how much you are going to pay.

So, using the loophole in the law to avoid buying a workers compensation policy only gets you out of paying the policy premium. It does not get you out of paying the costs of any and all claims. And these claim costs can be enormous. Imagine coming up with $100,000 to pay for injuries that resulted in permanent disability, then paying disability payments for years after that for one of your employees. Pretty scary huh? So even if work comp insurance seems expensive, you should realize that purchasing it is a no brainer because going bare means you are pretending to have the assets of an insurance company. For most landscapers, that just isn’t the case.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping landscapers with their insurance needs. If you have any questions about your general liability insurance, your workers compensation insurance, your business auto insurance or any other insurance policies, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit our landscaper insurance web page.

The source data for this blog can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

NC Landscapers Insurance – The Bond Is Coming, Now Is The Time To Get Your Ducks In A Row

North Carolina landscaping companies dodged a bullet this year when the general assembly put off the requirement for a surety bond to go with the upcoming landscaper contractors license requirements. But that bullet is going back into the gun for next year and now is the time to take a few simple steps to make sure that you don’t get run out of business in early 2011 because of a regulatory hurdle.

North Carolina Landscaping companies have plenty to worry about in terms of their landscaping insurance needs. They need landscape liability insurance, landscape workers compensation insurance as well as coverage on their trucks and their equipment. But the thing that could bring down the house and close their doors is really the cheapest and least expensive. A landscapers surety bond. And it looks like every NC landscaper will have to have one by January 2011 if current expectations play out. This bond will not be expensive, in fact it should cost no more than $100 per year. But if you are not eligible to get the bond, then you might find yourself unable to operate as a business.

I watched this process play out in NC in 2009 with the newly required irrigation contractors license bond. This bond is required for any firm wishing to use the word irrigation in their name or wishing to perform irrigation installation, repairs or maintenance. In the beginning this bond was relatively easy to obtain, but over time became more and more difficult. In fact, some firms are being put out of business right now because of their inability to obtain this bond. So what lessons can we learn from that process to protect and prepare landscapers for the next bond requirement.

There are several lessons here. The first lesson is to act fast. As soon as you know that the bond is required, get on board and apply for your bond. With the irrigation license bond, we were able to issue about 30 of them in the first month before the bonding companies decided that they needed to order a credit report on the irrigation companies. If you are a landscaping company with marginal credit, you should act quickly when the bond requirement is announced and perhaps you can get your bond issued before the bonding companies realize how many they will be issuing and start asking for credit reports.

Secondly, understand that poor credit will give you trouble with your bond, so work now to clear up any credit problems that you have. Pay off those debts and if you can avoid it, don’t file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy made getting the irrigation bond impossible for some and now has shut down their company. Don’t let that happen to you.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we specialize in helping landscapers all over NC with their insurance policies. If we can help you, or if you have any insurance questions on which you would like a second opinion, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit our landscaper’s web page.

The source information for this article can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.