Insurance woes

[sime42]

The moment you have anyone working for you directly, subcontract or just simply a customer doing a menial task then you have a liability and a duty of care.. As soon as anything goes wrong it all gets very stressful as you are a professional and should have acted accordingly. This also applies to two sole traders working together on a job with each having their own insurance.. One party has to become the main contractor and at that point he has to have EL to cover the other contractor.
 
By not having EL you are setting yourself up for a fall if you have anyone helping you.

I did a Business Wales introduction to employing staff day to assist companies to develop and grow their businesses. There were approximately 10 small sole trader businesses looking to take on their first member of staff.. We all started the day hopeful that we would go away in the knowledge that we would soon be expanding the business.. It was quite frightening prospect listening to everything that was said and by mid afternoon everyone was rethinking their future prospects and saying that they were now not going to take anyone on... Glad I did the day as it was very informative and no I didn't take anyone on.

Cheers mate. That's informative but depressing information ..........

[Jamie Jones]

2 minutes ago, sime42 said:

12 minutes ago, Jamie Jones said:

The moment you have anyone working for you directly, subcontract or just simply a customer doing a menial task then you have a liability and a duty of care.. As soon as anything goes wrong it all gets very stressful as you are a professional and should have acted accordingly. This also applies to two sole traders working together on a job with each having their own insurance.. One party has to become the main contractor and at that point he has to have EL to cover the other contractor.
 
By not having EL you are setting yourself up for a fall if you have anyone helping you.

I did a Business Wales introduction to employing staff day to assist companies to develop and grow their businesses. There were approximately 10 small sole trader businesses looking to take on their first member of staff.. We all started the day hopeful that we would go away in the knowledge that we would soon be expanding the business.. It was quite frightening prospect listening to everything that was said and by mid afternoon everyone was rethinking their future prospects and saying that they were now not going to take anyone on... Glad I did the day as it was very informative and no I didn't take anyone on.

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Cheers mate. That's informative but depressing information ..........

TELL ME ABOUT IT... We all went into that seminar buzzing and we all left really depressed.

 

Especially as I had a young lad that wanted work and the welsh government had a scheme that paid 50% of the wage & Employers NI for the 1st six months to get youngster into employment and off the dole... I could also get 70% funding to help get him his tickets. I really thought that this year was going to be the year I would start to push my business in the right direction. It has always been my aim to grown the business and as I get older I would be managing others instead of breaking my balls...

[Rough Hewn]

Just pay it.
It's your responsibility.
Even volunteers are classed as employees.

[Dan Maynard]

Yes, in the same situation doing trees part time I paid the insurance, did more tree work, and pushed my pricing up a little bit on private jobs to help cover it. As others have said, without it you're definitely not properly insured when someone else is helping you even if they are volunteering or have their own insurance.

My conclusion, it's another one of the things which fill the gap between what people think tree surgeons make (because they charge a lot) and what they actually make.