By profession
The coverage your trade needs — and who actually pays
Every trade has a different risk profile, but the insurers selling to it are the same eight names. Each guide covers the realistic claim scenarios, the standard coverage set, and which claims-record traits matter most for your kind of work.
Salons
A busy salon carries more liability than most owners expect: chemical reactions, slip-and-falls on wet floors, burns from styling tools, and the constant churn of clients through a small space. Here's the coverage a salon typically carries — and, more importantly, how the insurers selling it actually behave when a claim lands.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Estheticians
Skin treatments mean skin reactions — and when a client's face is involved, claims escalate quickly. Estheticians typically carry liability cover whether they rent a booth, work mobile, or run a studio. Here's the standard coverage set and the claims behavior of the insurers competing for this market.
3 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Lawn care businesses
Mowers throw rocks, trailers get backed into parked cars, and crews work on other people's property all day — lawn care is a liability-dense trade with thin margins. The coverage set is standard; the difference between insurers shows up when a thrown-rock claim meets a claims department.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Daycares
Nothing concentrates liability like other people's children. Daycares — home-based or center-based — face injury claims, abuse allegations, and strict state licensing requirements that usually mandate minimum coverage. The insurer's claims behavior here isn't just financial: a mishandled claim can end a license.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Food vendors
Food trucks, market stalls and festival vendors live on event organizers' insurance requirements — no certificate of insurance, no pitch. The coverage is often bought in a hurry the week before an event, which is exactly when claims-record research gets skipped. Here's what to know before the rush.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Teachers & tutors
Employed teachers often assume their school's policy covers them personally — it usually protects the school first. Private tutors, coaches and instructors have no umbrella at all. Personal professional liability for educators is inexpensive, and the market splits between union/association coverage and individual policies.
3 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
HVAC contractors
HVAC work combines everything insurers price for: other people's property, gas and electrical work, heavy equipment, vehicles, and employees on ladders. Most states also require license bonds. The premium is meaningful — which makes the insurer's claims behavior worth researching before you commit.
5 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Caterers
Catering stacks food risk on top of off-premises work: you cook, transport, and serve at venues you don't control, under contracts that demand proof of insurance. Venue requirements usually drive the purchase; the claims record should drive the choice.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Painting businesses
Painters work inside other people's homes and businesses, on ladders, with materials that stain everything they touch. It's a high-frequency, moderate-severity liability profile — exactly the kind where an insurer's small-claims behavior (the $3,000 carpet, the oversprayed car) defines the experience.
4 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios
Pressure washing businesses
A pressure washer is a tool that destroys surfaces by design — pointed at the wrong one, it strips paint, etches concrete, breaks windows and drives water behind siding. For a trade many start as a side hustle, the gap between insured and uninsured is one bad afternoon. The good news: it's one of the most accessible trades to insure.
3 core coverages · 4 claim scenarios