Did you know there are insurance policies geared toward caterers? Whether you are just starting as an independent caterer or you have been in the catering business for a while, you need appropriate insurance. Here we will discuss the following topics regarding insurance for your catering business.
- 4 best one-day catering insurance companies
- Why do I need one-day catering insurance?
- What does catering business insurance cover?
- How much does one-day catering insurance cost?
- What factors affect one-day catering insurance cost?
- One-time catering insurance
- Catering insurance for one event
4 best one-day catering insurance companies
In the course of creating this guide, we did some research regarding the best catering insurance companies. These are the two that stood out the most.
- InsurePro: Best for finding the cheapest pay-per-day coverage
- CoverWallet: Best for comparing several quotes
- Simply Business: Best for finding low-cost coverage
- NEXT: Best for the best digital experience
InsurePro: Best for finding the cheapest pay-per-day coverage
InsurePro is a broker specializing in small business insurance. However, InsurePro isn’t a regular insurance broker. They focus on finding short-term coverage for small businesses. They work with several insurance companies to find the short-term coverage for small businesses at the lowest cost available. For each quote request, InsurePro will provide you with a daily rate, monthly rate, and an annual rate that you can choose from.
When you get quotes on their website, InsurePro asks you immediately if you need coverage for one event or for your business in general. Since we were looking at one-day catering insurance, we chose that option to create the quote you see below. As you can see, InsurePro provided a daily rate, a monthly rate, and an annual rate with this quote.
- Daily rate: $22.26
- Monthly rate: $44.52
- Annual rate: $20.07 per month
It is clear that if you only need the coverage for one-day event, you should just buy the policy for one day and it costs you $22.26. That’s all! Pretty cheap, isn’t it?
However, if you need the regular coverage, the monthly payment amount for the annual rate is pretty reasonable, just $20.07 per month.
Once the quote was returned we were given the option to purchase policies immediately online. The entire process with InsurePro took less than ten minutes, and only required very general information.
If you are looking for one-day catering insurance coverage, you should definitely start with InsurePro. They probably offer the lowest quote that we could find online.
CoverWallet: Best for comparing several quotes
CoverWallet is an online insurance broker that does the legwork for you when you are searching for insurance quotes. The company will return up to three quotes based on their easy-to-answer questionnaire. Completing the questionnaire only takes about ten minutes, if that.
In our case, we attempted to obtain a quote for a one-time catering event. The company returned two quotes. One is for general liability to help protect your catering business routinely, even on days when you aren’t working. The other quote they returned was a quote for a one-time event called event insurance.
As you see below, the general liability insurance quote for regular coverage is quite reasonable, only at $33 per month, cheaper than the monthly-rate quote we received from InsurePro. However, this is not to conclude that CoverWallet always has a cheaper monthly rate for catering insurance. They may have cheaper quote in this case, but they may be more expensive for your company. Be sure to shop around with all 4 companies that we recommend here.
Simply Business: Best for finding low-cost coverage
Simply Business is another digital broker specializing in small business insurance. Similar to CoverWallet, Simply Business also helps you compare several quotes online. When you send your quote request on their website, they will return 3 quotes from their partners for your comparing and selecting the cheapest one.
The main difference between Simply Business and CoverWallet is that Simply Business built their platform and technology focusing on finding the lowest cost available among their partners, some of whom might not be as well-known despite their solid financial strength ratings, while still providing the right coverage for your business.
If your number one priority is to find the lowest cost, you may want to get a quote from Simply Business to compare with others.
NEXT: Best for the best digital experience
NEXT is a newer small business insurance company, or also called insuretech. The company offers several insurance coverages for small businesses, including catering insurance.
NEXT has built one of the best digital experiences that we have found for buying and managing small business insurance. You can purchase coverage from NEXT online, in their app, or over the phone in mere minutes. Their website and app offer all the belts and whistles that you can think of.
NEXT allows you to choose how you want to pay, and then you can upgrade or change as you need to for your company. You can do so instantly if you need to modify coverage, pause coverage, or cancel your coverage. NEXT is flexible to meet you where you are as a small business owner.
We obtained a quote from NEXT for a one-time catering event. After answering a few questions, the company returned the quote. The entire process took less than five minutes, and we were given the option to purchase coverage immediately online.
It is good to keep in mind that quotes vary by customer and by company. Different insurance companies assess risks differently. The only way to know is to get quotes from them for your own company.
Why do I need catering insurance?
Caterers work with a broad range of clients, from wedding planners to conference directors to individuals. Any of those people could decide they are unhappy with your services (or you personally) and decide to make claims against you and your business. Your clients will expect you to deliver based on their expectations—great tasting food, prompt arrival and service, and no injuries or property damage.
Accidents can happen anywhere, but an accident, while you’re catering an event could spell disaster for your catering business. You can be held personally liable for costs associated with any accidents. If that happens, the future of your business is on the line.
Why do I need one-day catering insurance?
You may be a part-time caterer. When you have a job for a big event, the event organizer requires you to have insurance to cater to his event. In such a case, you need to get one-day catering insurance.
In other cases, you may be a full-time caterer, but you just started out and couldn’t afford regular catering insurance. You just land one event and they require insurance to sign the contract. In such a case, you will need to get a one-day catering insurance policy.
These may be just temporary. Eventually, to maintain and protect your catering business, you may need to buy a regular catering insurance policy. The good news is that once you buy a one-day catering policy, it is easy and convenient to switch over to regular coverage with the same company.
Monthly catering insurance
When you just started out with your catering business, you may just need one-day catering insurance. However, after a few successful gigs, you may want to switch to a monthly catering insurance policy. As you see above, if you foresee that you will need insurance coverage for 2 one-day events in a month, it may make sense for you to switch over to a monthly catering insurance policy since the cost of a monthly catering insurance policy from InsurePro is the same as 2 policies of one-day catering insurance coverage:
- One-day catering insurance policy: $22.26
- One-month catering insurance policy: $44.52
Having a monthly catering insurance policy will give you peace of mind so that you can focus on running your catering business. Even when you attend an event that doesn’t require you to have insurance coverage, having it will help you feel more confident and if the event organizer knows that you have insurance coverage even when they don’t require it, they will rate your professionalism higher and may invite you back for more businesses.
What does catering business insurance cover?
Catering companies have unique risks involved in running the business, from spilled food and beverages to slips and falls. You can expect a catering business to have any risks a stand-alone restaurant has.
Typically, good catering insurance policies offer two kinds of liability coverage: general liability insurance and professional liability insurance. General liability protects you from the costs related to third-party bodily injury or property damage that is caused by you doing your work. Professional liability coverage protects you when someone claims professional negligence or that you’ve made an error of some kind professionally.
For example, let’s say you’ve got a big wedding to cater to, but you don’t have enough full-time staff to work the event. In that case, you want to add additional staff for this one event. As the event draws near, you hire some temporary workers, but then you are accused of not training them well enough for them to do the job safely and professionally. This is where professional liability coverage comes in.
Basic coverages that many caterers want include general liability insurance and commercial auto. Some carriers offer a Business Owners’ Policy that combines general liability insurance with other insurance products to create a one-size-fits-most group of coverages. Workers’ compensation is another insurance product that may interest you, particularly if you have multiple people working for you (it’s required in most states).
Learn more at the best catering insurance companies
How much does one-day catering insurance cost?
The average one-day catering insurance costs $20. And that’s for a general liability insurance policy, which protects you from claims related to bodily injuries and property damages caused to any third party by your catering business operations.
If you add more coverages, the cost will increase accordingly. As you see above, the cost can go up to $150 per day. Keep in mind that this is just the average. Be sure to shop around with these 4 companies we recommend and get quotes from all of them: InsurePro, CoverWallet, Simply Business, and Thimble. That’s the only way you know for sure that you are not leaving money on the table.
Learn more at how much catering insurance costs
What factors affect one-day catering insurance costs?
The cost of a one-day catering insurance policy varies depending on a few factors. The main factors are your zip code, coverage limit, size of your catering team, your insurance and claim history, if you serve alcohol or not, etc. you need factors into determining the risk that is assessed when insuring your catering business.
The company you choose to work with will also help to determine the rates. Each insurance company determines its own criteria for writing insurance policies. Each company also offers slightly different coverages.
One-time catering insurance
One-time catering insurance is a type of liability insurance that is offered for those who specifically need catering insurance for one event. Perhaps, you don’t typically offer catering services, but you are offering to cater your best friend’s birthday party. You are offering your services on a one-time-only basis.
Catering insurance for one event
The flip side of the coverage for one event is for businesses that routinely cater to others but are still small enough that they don’t yet have an everyday business, so they choose to purchase their insurance by the event instead of spending large amounts on a policy.
A single event can last for two hours or last for two days. With catering insurance for one event, you would be covered for the duration of the event itself.
Learn more at best one day event insurance companies
Catering liability insurance
Catering liability insurance is insurance that covers businesses that offer catering services. This type of insurance protects the business in the event that someone gets injured while they are at the catered event. It can also help protect the catering business if something goes wrong with the food that is served. This type of insurance is important for businesses that offer catering services because it can help protect them from costly lawsuits.
The following are examples of catering liability insurance that would cover a caterer in the event that something goes wrong:
- A caterer is providing food for a wedding. One of the guests gets sick after eating the food and sues the caterer. Catering liability insurance would cover the costs of the lawsuit. This is similar to the coverage you would have from a product liability insurance policy.
- A caterer is providing food for a company picnic. A guest at the picnic slips on some equipment of the caterer falls, and hits their head on a rock, fracturing their skull. Catering liability insurance would cover the costs of the medical bills related to the injury. A general liability insurance policy would usually cover this.
When you buy a one-day catering insurance policy, the policy should cover both cases listed above. However, in some cases, a catering insurance policy only covers the second case, which means that it is similar to a general liability insurance policy. You need to make sure the one-day catering insurance you purchase should cover both cases illustrated above.
Catering insurance quotes
If you are looking to buy catering insurance for your catering business, you need to obtain several quotes. You can obtain quotes by contacting insurance agents, and insurance brokerage firms or you can get quotes online.
If you prefer getting catering insurance quotes online, the 4 companies we recommend above all offer online quotes. It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to get quotes from them.
NEXT is a digital carrier which offers reasonable rates. InsurePro offers one-day quotes online. Simply Business is the best if you want to find low-cost coverage. If you prefer getting quotes and buying policies from top-rated carriers, you may want to work with CoverWallet. They are a brokerage firm that partners with several top-rated carriers and allows you to compare several quotes online.
Mobile catering insurance
Mobile catering insurance is insurance that covers businesses that provide food services from a mobile unit. This type of insurance can cover the business owner in the event that someone becomes ill after eating the food or injured as a result of the business operation, as well as damage to the mobile unit itself.
Some accident examples that can happen at an event with a mobile catering van include:
- Someone slipping on a wet floor
- Someone tripping over a cord
- Someone getting hit by a door of the van as it is opened or closed
- The van is involved in an accident
As such, a good mobile catering insurance policy should include coverage provided by a product liability insurance policy, a general liability insurance policy, and a commercial auto insurance policy.
Insurance for catering vans
Similar to mobile catering insurance, a good insurance policy for catering vans should include coverages provided by product liability, general liability, and commercial truck insurance since a catering van is exposed to a wide range of risks covered by these policies. A catering van can cause and is responsible for accidents very similar to those that may be caused by a mobile catering unit listed above.
The takeaway
Whether you’re new to the catering field or you’re a seasoned pro, you need to have appropriate insurance coverage. There is a range of coverages available to you, and you should choose the products that best provide the coverage you need for your unique situation. You can even get coverage for a specific event, so you aren’t paying premiums when you aren’t working. Taking the time to find the right insurance coverage is worth the time and effort.
