Jon Elson wrote:
Ned Simmons wrote:

I design and build special manufacturing machinery, the business is
housed in a separate building on the same property as my home.
Coverage includes fire, theft and liability on the buildings and
contents, insurance on work in progress and customer's property on my
premises or in transit, liability for damage I do onsite at a
customer's facility, loss of income due to various events, and a few
odds and ends like sign coverage that I have no use for, but are part
of the standard policy. About $1200/year.

WOW! That's INCREDIBLE! I tried to just get fire and theft
insurance on my machines and tooling, and they started
out saying it would cost $950, I thought that was high, but
sent them the money. Then, they came back 2 weeks later and
said they needed another $900, and I balked. I've got a
~ $200,000 house here insured for all perils except flood,
but incuding earthquake, for about $1000/year. (Flood is
not likely on the side of a hill 150' above the nearest water,
and 300+' above a nearby river. If we get flooded, the
entire central US is under water.)

Anyway, I can insure the whole $200K property plus all normal
homeowner contents for $1000, but they want $1800 to insure
$45 grand of tools? What the hell is going on? It also took
me months to get my $950 deposit back, which I wasn't too
happy about.

I was specifically NOT going for any liability insurance,
I never do work on customer's property or materials,
and the shop is in the basement of my house, so the structure
is ALREADY covered. So, your policy covers a LOT more
than what I was asking for.

Welcome to the wonderful world of insurance
quotes. One thing that might make a huge
difference is a history of no claims. I
have a decent sized small business selling
a product with liability potential. My insurance
is quite reasonable. I presume part of the
reason for that is 10 years of operation without
any sort of claim.

New small manufacturing businesses seem to
have an almost impossible time getting liability
insurance.