Working as a sole propietor

Matt J Leppek

Matt J Leppek

New member
Location
Adrian
I'm working to get insured as a sole proprietor, and I am curious to what I should expect to pay annually for doing 70% trimming and 30% removals. Not eligible for workmans comp, no commercial work, no bucket truck/stump grinder/chipper, no power line work.

Basically a bare minimum general liability package that covers my hiney hairs if a tree gets intimate with the homeowners home. I was given a quote of about $1150, but I think I can find a better deal.

Also, as a sole proprietor, how do I go about running a name? Say I wanted to go with something like Monkey Beaver Tree Care (idea courtesy of August Hunicke) or some variant along those lines if the name is copy righted?

Thanks in advance all,
Matt
 
I am in the same position as you, just a truck and trailer. I opted out of workmans comp because I don't have any employees, and got a $500,000 liability insurance plan. My annual premium has always been around $850.
 
At least you have a truck and trailer! I'm a poor college kid with a coupe trying to play with the big boys! I have my fun though, that's what counts...

What state are you working out of? I'm in Michigan, so I'm not sure if that ranks high or low on premiums, but I'm guessing low.
 
I am in Utah. I called my truck insurance agent and asked if he knew anyone who could get me liability insurance. He gave me the number of the a business insurance agent who got me my plan.
 
Yeah, a little less than 100/month isn't bad at all. I'm just a scrooge with everything I buy... other than ropes, saddles, blocks, slings...
 
Matt J Leppek said:
I'm working to get insured as a sole proprietor, and I am curious to what I should expect to pay annually for doing 70% trimming and 30% removals. Not eligible for workmans comp, no commercial work, no bucket truck/stump grinder/chipper, no power line work.

Basically a bare minimum general liability package that covers my hiney hairs if a tree gets intimate with the homeowners home. I was given a quote of about $1150, but I think I can find a better deal.

Also, as a sole proprietor, how do I go about running a name? Say I wanted to go with something like Monkey Beaver Tree Care (idea courtesy of August Hunicke) or some variant along those lines if the name is copy righted?

Thanks in advance all,
Matt
Click to expand...
Around a $1000 is right and I recommend creating a LLC. Limited liability company. Easy to do and will protect you past your insurance. Go on the secretary of state website they should have all the info you need.
 
I imagine by creating an LLC that will prevent the homeowner from going after me as an individual if shit ever hit the fan? They could only go after my business?
 
I am in the process of doing this myself right now. Mostly to protect myself while doing extra work on short days and weekends on my own. I still haven't talked to any insurance companies. Does the cost of General Liability insurance increase or decrease depending on the amount of income you expect to see in a year?
 
It increases, but the ratio is to your favor. Example-

Year 1 in business you make....70,000 for the whole year. Nice. Insurance is gonna cost you 1,400.

Year two: you got a couple chainsaws and chipper. You double your gross revenue. $140,000 for the year. Super nice. Your liability insurance costs...$1,600.

Even though gross revenue doubles, your gen liability premium does not double


love
nick
 
NickfromWI said:
S Corp FTW!!!
Click to expand...
Could you expand on that a bit, vis a vie LLC? I am currently leaning towards S corp or even C corp for a number of reasons, some not really germane to this discussion, but I'd love to hear from those who are already using those structures.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
 
S Corp allowed us to not have to pay self employment tax anymore. Saved us like $6,000 this year. There are other benefits, but that was the big one. It cost us about $600 extra to file our taxes, but we saved 6 thou


love
nick
 
Matt J Leppek said:
Also, as a sole proprietor, how do I go about running a name? Say I wanted to go with something like Monkey Beaver Tree Care (idea courtesy of August Hunicke) or some variant along those lines if the name is copy righted?

Thanks in advance all,
Matt
Click to expand...

Hey, Matt. I think the Monkey Beaver Tree name may be too much like the Superbowl "Puppy Monkey Baby" and might be a little hard to convince customers that you're serious :LOL:

For when you get to a website for hanging your virtual shingle, a name that conveys where you are located may be really beneficial for getting a higher rank in search. Or I see that Adrian MI is known as "Maple City" so "Maple City Tree Service" might seem dull but think if you come up on other searches for that nickname. Haven't seen anyone else with that name. Might seem deadly dull, but a good strategic move possibly.

Copyright and trademark is really mostly an issue with long time, distinct brands. You do want to set yourself apart from the crowd and not end up with a cease-and-desist order. The thing about Maple City Tree Service is that none of the words are specific enough to allow someone to trademark them--they're in everyday usage.
 
Thanks for the response Carol. I like the simplicity of Maple City Tree Service, however I do not plan on living in Adrian for long. I will probably leave shortly after graduating. For this reason I think a DBA suits me best. I understand simplicity and transparency is good in this business, however I am confident my personality will sell. I mostly do work by word of mouth, as I am not trying to take business away from the companies that do this for a day job. Because I'm not competing for searches in yellow pages, I think the name itself is not as important to me as it is to someone who is running an LLC.

I still have lots of time to decide on whether to get a LLC or DBA, and what to name it. I start working for Treestuff late May, so I will not need to be insured for working over the summer. However I landed a contract with the Adrian Habitat for Humanity that starts in August when I return from Indianapolis, so I will need to have my ducks in a row by then. Really excited for both of these opportunities, especially getting to meet and work with the folks at Treestuff.
 
Currently my parents are claiming me on their taxes, which has made things easier and cheaper thus far. I planned on doing this until I graduated college. This is the only thing preventing me from going the LLC route.

I understand the client cannot go after me as an individual so long as I am an LLC, but as a sole proprietor, doesn't the insurance cover me in the instance of a mishap? I imagine the insurance company could look for a loophole so it does not have to cover me, and in that case the LLC is definitely beneficial. (Or if I get sued for more than what the policy covers).

I also do a lot of Videography, and would like to have both under an S corp, or LLC. To my knowledge it is much harder to change the name of an LLC than it is to change the name of an S Corp (if I decided to stop doing tree work and only do videography, or vice versa).
 
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