I want to buy commercial insurance for my business. Any tips?

You would need to give us more detail to give you give a good response. However, I can give you an example of a couple of types of businesses:

For a restaurant in a mall you will need a Commercial Package Policy to provide you coverage for your business personal property, loss of business income and for your liability. In addition to this if you serve alcoholic beverages you will need to make sure that they include coverage for Liquor Liability (protects you if someone leaves your premises in an intoxicated state and subsequently has an accident causing damage to himself and a 3rd party, i.e. pays for the patron's damage and the 3rd party if you are found liable) as this is the biggest exposure that you have. If the company will not include Liquor Liability under your Commercial Package Policy, you will need to obtain a stand alone Liquor Liability Policy.

In addition to these policies you will need a Workers Compensation Policy to cover your employees. You should also consider purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance to protect you from claims made by your employees alleging sexual harassment, discrimination due to age, sex, unfair termination, etc.

Normally a mall requires fairly large liability limits which means you will also need an Umbrella or Excess Liability Policy and they also will require to be named as Additional Insured. In terms of a payments, most insurance companies will allow you to spread the payments for the insurance over 9 to 10 months and some of them will allow 12 monthly payments--even if you are a new business but be prepared for a deposit of 30 to 40%. No one here can give you an accurate quote because we would need to have a lot more information such as location, limits required by the mall, an estimate of your gross sales, your square footage, how much business personal property you have, etc. The best that I can do is give you an average range for a small restaurant of between $1,000 to $5,000 and up.

For a computer repair business run from your home, you will need a Commercial Package Policy that should include Commercial General Liability with a limit of at least $1,000,000. The policy should also include Business Personal Property Coverage in an amount sufficient to cover your inventory of parts, your tools, equipment, etc. and Property of Others--for the computers left in your care--in an amount sufficient to cover more than whatever your average is, i.e. if on any given day you have 3 computers worth $6,000, I would probably get coverage for $15,000 or $20,000.

If your business is an LLC or Corporation and you use your personal vehicle to run incidental errands, you should make sure that the Commercial Package Policy includes hired and non-owned auto coverage. If your business is a sole proprietorship, then you should consider purchasing a Commercial Automobile Policy if you regularly use the auto in your business.

If you have employees, you will need Workers Compensation Insurance. And if you develop software or do any type of consulting, you will need Professional Liability or Errors & Omissions Coverage.

In the states where I write insurance, I usually place this with Travelers Insurance Company which has a Commercial Package Policy geared to this type of business with a minimum premium of $500.

You should obtain the services of a local independent agent who specializes in Commercial Insurance so that he or she can do a full review of your business and make recommendations for policies and obtain the necessary quotes for you. You will need to have the following information available to obtain the quotes: type of organization, i.e. sole proprietor, partnership, corporation or llc, nature of your business (i.e. if retail what do you sell, if construction do you do drywall, carpentry, etc.), projected gross annual receipts or sales, projected annual payroll, square footage & type of building where your business will be located, how much you have spent or plan to spend to build out the space, amount of business personal property, number of years of experience (since your business is new this is very important), etc.

I hope this helps. Good Luck with your business.

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There's no typical. Costs can run from $500 a year, to $500,000 depending on the type of business.

For a brand new business, you're not going to have as many insurers willing to write you, with no loss history.

Allow plenty of time (like at least 30 days), in case the agent(s) need to shop you out.

If you want to take bids, ask agents which insurers they would use. If you have an unusual risk, say, lead paint abatement company, and there are only two companies in your state that write that, the first agent to get in with the applications, gets the quote. So you might want to "assign" carriers to various agents.

There's not as much hardball as a buyer as you might like - there isn't much premium negotiation, until your premiums get over $25,000.

A good agent will make coverage recommendations, as well, so listen to your agent.

Congrats on making the plunge into owning a business! What I'd say is to target a certain neighborhood first instead of having to drive all over the city between jobs. (When you expand, you can afford to hire help.) You have probably figured out that you'll need a truck and/or trailer, mower, edger, hedge trimmers, pruners, whatever you need to offer services. You might want to read up on plant care in case people want advice on "What weed is that?" or "Should I have you prune my roses right now?" The gardeners we use are super intelligent about what they're taking care of and are very meticulous about cleaning up debris. They get $44 every time they come out which is every two weeks. Stay very organized in terms of scheduling and billing. You might want to check with the city to see if you need a license to do this, at least in CA people have to put their license number in their ads to show they're legit. Get business cards and hand them out to everyone you interact with, even the cashier at a store. Newspaper ads are expensive, I agree with doing flyers and dropping them off at houses. I swear we get 3-4 business cards or flyers every week on the doorstep for a service. We found our gardeners through our neighbor. That word of mouth is great since they only have to park once and can do 3 lawns since I recommended them to another neighbor. If you really want to be serious about this, get a tax ID number with your business name (free) and a business checking account to keep personal and business money separate, it makes tax time so much easier. So I say go for it and best wishes for success. Owning you own business is the best feeling ever.