The Huddle - Episode 94 - Starting from Ground Zero

The team dives into the foundational steps of launching a business from scratch with special guest Jake Lutz from Federated Insurance (https://www.federatedinsurance.com). Embarking on an entrepreneurial journey with nothing but a vision requires not just passion, but also meticulous planning. We cover the essentials—from securing the appropriate insurance to the importance of forming an LLC, ensuring your venture is protected and poised for success. We emphasize the significance of separating personal and business finances through a dedicated business bank account and lay out strategies for building your business's credit from day one. This episode is a must-listen for anyone ready to turn their dream into reality, providing the tools and knowledge to start on solid ground.

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GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com

hey guys what's up welcome to the Huddle uh Paul usually gives his little uh intro but he's not here today he's uh

doing other things uh we're just here to talk about uh you know flooring and what

we do uh today we got special guest on this is uh Jake from not from State Farm from

Federated insurance so Jake uh why don't you give us a little bit about yourself and and

what you do and who you do it for yeah definitely so I'm a Michigan guy my whole life a michigander I'm from like

St Joe area right on the west coast went to Western Michigan now I've been with

federat for a little bit over a year now we do business insurance for small businesses so work comp general

liability property um we big on risk management you know we want to keep your guys getting to the site every day we

don't want them hurt at home so we help you know prevent injuries a lot with driving and stuff like that so really

just you know here to help out people it's awesome get to hang out with Daniel and Jose here and talk a little bit more

about how we can help other people yeah that's awesome thanks for being with us today um I know H was

having some some issues can we hear you now can you hear us oh we can't hear you

now we could hear you before and then now you can't now we

can't so he he has technical difficulties like every single week oh wait it says that oh it just

said that you were muted but you probably tried unmuting yourself I'm going to remove you again you can try and add yourself again get rid of them

for a minute so today we're just going to be talking about starting from Ground Zero um not only are we having technical

difficulties on his end but Facebook has been horrible to work with lately and

that is uh not just like this platform but even when I'm trying to stream

videos of baseball and stuff like that Facebook and pages are just not getting

along lately and I I don't understand it that's

crazy but let me see if I can try and turn this

one see if any of these ones are going to

work yeah Ash said that Instagram is live so I got that one

at least we're somewhere heck yeah so just talking about starting from Ground Zero what people can do to uh to start a

business I was just contacted um well they they posted in a group asking some

questions right so it's tax

time all right I think we're we got hoser back

but I was just really loud so we're going to have to mute them

anyways yeah I don't think he's going to be on today no he's looks a little busy right

now so with with tax time you know people that that have just started came

and and were asking questions about just that tax time what can they do and and stuff like that and it's uh

do you got to pay quarterly don't you have to pay quarterly and I think with with it being that time of year I I'm

pretty sure and we always say you know talk to an accountant right because that

that's not what we do but you know my accountant told me that once you start

paying quarterly you always have to pay quarterly so if you if you start you got to keep on going but if you don't then

then you're all right just paying one lump sum at the end of the year you guys you guys don't deal with

any of that though right no but that sounds that sounds I'm pretty much right from what I've heard from other business

owners is you know once you start on the quarterly then you have to stay on it and it's over a certain amount as when you start have to start really the

government requires you to pay quarterly but right we don't that's not much on the taxes part and then I mean the

penalties if you don't aren't super huge or anything so if if it's not in the

cards for you just pay at the end of the year but it it is really sad to see that

huge chunk of change go out of your account every year definitely

so how long have you been with uh Federated so I've been with Federated um

in out in the field talking to customers for about a year now and then I was in home office for a year learning and we

do a lot of training looking through policies and stuff like that okay and so so Jake you're actually our agent so we

appreciate you I mean he he's came in here a few times and hung out talked got

us all set up and I think that you know Federated does a great job on um the

visits and getting in here and making sure that everything is set up correctly better than you know the the previous

people that we've used and I I appreciate you guys for that um what do you get what do you recommend you know

for someone that's just starting out or someone that's looking for insurance what should they be looking for yeah know that's a that's a great

question I feel like it's kind of crazy like I said I haven't been doing this 40 years or anything like that but um we've

just been noticing that I've been seeing every day of people that have no idea what's in their policy um which is you know pretty scary

because if something were to happen we had a couple fires this week that were million dollar fires in the midwest um

you know took out the whole building and they were left with you know the video says not even a pencil not even a piece of paper left no records kept you know

all their equipment burned down to the ground and they pretty much just preached in the whole video of like hey

make sure you have a plan in place make sure you have everything covered everything kind of listed and down so I would say just really when you start you

know you don't have a ton of stuff to deal with obviously you do but not not as crazy it'll be once you're know 10 years into it so really just kind of

focus and make sure that everything you do is really just thought through and um so you're not GNA have to do it twice

but when looking for insurance just make sure you really have a good agent and ask a lot of questions um I love when

people ask questions it makes you know lets me know that hey they're trying to figure out what's going on because it's it's confusing that's why I went up

there for nine months to learn it um you know I understand you guys are doing kind of a whole different operation a whole different you know flooring is way

different than insurance but you know just make sure you ask those questions cuz if I had someone come floor my house I would have no idea what I'm doing I'd

have to ask a whole bunch of question I know and that's what we say all the time right like a lot of people on the groups um the flooring groups that that were a

part of they always preached like if you don't know how to do it you shouldn't be

doing it you know get get a professional you know basically saying I'm a professional so I should be in there not you and I think that's what we have to

start looking at at a lot of aspects of the business is hiring a professional because we don't know everything so I'm

not going to try and do the whole Insurance room that's what that's what we have you for and I

mean you you're handling claims for us right now I mean not you personally but

you're the guy that I'm like hey this is what's happening what's going on and you you point me in the direction where I

need to go and it sucks because I mean I've been without my truck now for like

two months can you guys hear me now we can hear you

now yeah I and I think I finally have at least one feet on Facebook going

so go Gotta so welcome back we were just

talking about sorry about that BR no and he's gone just as fast as he

got here that's how I feel like I am when I'm driving too oh it

happens hop in hop out um I know a lot of people you know are

worried about liability insurance and and getting themselves covered that way right

um but one one thing that that always pops up in the groups too is workers comp do people need it don't they need

it what what's what's your take on on everything yeah so work comp is I mean

if they're at a Onan Twan shop and it's the business owners right say it's just you and Jose you guys are just starting

up and it's just you to you guys wouldn't need work comp because the point of work comp is you it's for your

employees so as soon as you know I came on there and outside party as that employee right and I go and work for you

as soon as I get hurt you're going to have to pay you know legally for my medical bills for any kind of injuries I

get on the job during a jerk job related task my loss wages so if I'm out for three weeks you have to pay for you know

some of those lost wages up to a certain percent um but the real thing is is as a business business owner it doesn't

really benefit you tooo much because to actually get the benefits of the work comp you have to work zero hours a week

so very hard for the boss but as an employee that's heck yeah zero hours a week and I'm going to get a patient

portion of my pay that's a home run for them right but for business owners that's not really possible and second if

you have a broken leg and you file it on your work comp as a business owner that's going to count against you for three years so 10 grand 10 grand 10

grand so that one broken leg is going to cost you $30,000 on losses on your business yes

the insurance company's going to pay it out but they're going to be expecting to try to recoup that over the next couple years so it's just not really you know

your best bet as the business owner but if you have an employee there's no other choice but to put it on the business so

as an owner you don't you want to be on more of a Disability Policy because it can cover you 365 anywhere in the world

247 and it covers your full paycheck where work comp is only going to cover about 80% of your paycheck so now as far

as disability is there just one type of disability that you recommend or is there multiple types yeah so there's

really depends on kind of your budget and how much really your health also right that's the harder one to qualify

for but there's a one in four chance of becoming disabled which is kind of frightening um so it's definitely harder

to qualify for it and then there's a two-year benefit you can do up to a fiveyear benefit or to age 67 so if you

were to get hurt they're willing to pay your whatever salary you you know protect with the Disability Policy let's

say 50 Grand they're willing to pay you that 50 Grand after taxes so maybe it's like 35 36 they're willing to pay that

for five years and that allows you to not have to pull from the business you're not have to go and get a second

job not have to have the spouse work because you're still getting that same income while you're down now with with

the disability does that cover even if you're doing office work and stuff like that to keep the business running or do

you have to stop working altogether how does that work do you know yeah so you can still work um there's obviously an

hour they don't want you to be you know working full-time 50 hours a week and collecting the disability but I've had a

you know business owner for example in town that he was a contractor he would come in in the morning and he would just

kind of get his crew out there get his Fleet out there and then he would go home around you know 10 or 11 o'clock

which they had no problem with but you know that he wasn't out there running the same he he couldn't he had you know cancer he wasn't able to do it if he

wanted to so it's those kind of situations know broken legs arms we know you're going to be in there there's not

really a problem with that it's more of the ones that are going to take you down The Strokes that can't answers um You'

be able to still go and work for a couple hours okay and since we're on the the top of of insurance we have one of

our partners is actually floor cloud and there's no better Insurance than to to get them on your job sites and and make

sure that everything is going right so we're going to have a video here of floor

Cloud enables realtime monitoring of your job site conditions via desktop or

mobile device no more manual checking for temperature humidity or even dupoint

no need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power sources simply scan the

QR code on the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative sight monitoring

system in the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate related installation issues

floor Cloud now you know now you know cuz you had no idea

about floor Cloud until right now and there ain't no better Insurance than keeping everything you know on your job

site monitored so that way if there's anything happening you're on top of

things seems like it' be awesome it is awesome uh if my brother was over on his

his his side he has a Flor Cloud box hanging up cuz we we just uh got some of

their units and can't wait to put them on some job sites no definitely that'll be cool so I know with us um we have

disability insurance and we have um life

insurance disability and life yeah so I know you there there's multiple

different life insurances as well but I think that's probably its own full podcast on that subject isn't it yeah

there's just that's definitely a full onion but a lot of good stuff you know just kind of I would say see what you

can qualify for and start somewhere you know it have to be enough to you know build a tajma hall but you know it's

always nice to have something in place and you can always move it later um but yeah that's a it's definitely a necessity for sure like I'm not an older

guy and I have it you know anyone should have it but I would say as a business owner definitely you need to have your

liability and at least probably some coverage for your tools I mean that might not be really depends on what you

can all float if everything starts going how you want it you obviously add on more coverages you know because you're going to have more exposures but

definitely to start you need to have general liability and I would say commercial umbrella right cuz I mean we started

with just the the liability um we did have workers comp like from the Geto CU

well probably about a year in as soon as we started hiring people we we got it you know right away and then it wasn't

until later on where we started um working with the contractors where they require the umbrella is when we got the

umbrella and now we're actually working through right now I just got an email from you I think earlier today was

talking about a 3 million umbrella policy which I mean that's a little excessive because everyone around here

doesn't require that but we're working with a contractor out of New York and they're like they want to see that $3

million policy and it's just like man it's not in the Cs for these small projects 100% that's you've said it

multiple times it all depends on kind of what stage you're at and if it makes sense you know that's a big part of it right you can start adding things on as

you go like I don't need an umbrella policy but if I'm going to work with this person I'm 100% going to need it so

until you start working with that person until it's required right it's not it's not really worth getting but um

insurance is one of those those huge topics where people think that it's just not necessary until

something happens then it's like why didn't I have it I mean one of our employees before um our ride on floor

demo machine I mean it's like I don't even know what they are brand new now I think we paid like 30 $35,000 for it and

he he uh was bringing it down a ramp and the ramp wasn't secured or something

ended up falling off the side and it's just stuff like that I

mean I don't know what that bill was but I know all we had to pay was the deductible on it I don't I don't even

want to see what a bill like that was I'm pretty sure they had to rebuild it from everything

W that scary no it's that you said it right it's the craziest part is we talk to people all the time that have done it

for 40 years and have never had a loss and they have the worst policy because they've never tested the safety net you

know and then the people that have had a fire or they've had a bad accident their policies are beefed all the way up

because they they've lived that moment they don't want to feel that you know that worst moment again of dang for two more Grand I wouldn't be feeling like

this right now right for two more for two more Grand it could have saved me 120 or something like that yeah or you

could still be in business you know it's like the hard stuff and the the guy that you know dumped that that machine

thankfully you know he didn't get hurt but if he did that workers's comp policy that's where that would have kicked in

and it would have you know had had us covered but you know I'm glad that he didn't get hurt you never want to see

anyone hurt regardless of what insurance you have you insurance is one of those things that you you want it there but

you don't ever want to use it yep 100% which is that's the hard part of like

you know trying to find new clients is you're trying to sell them something that they hopefully they'll never use it's like no I hope you don't have a

fire but in case you do you know but right I think

um speaking about fires I mean when our landlord's insurance guy came in here he

was inspecting all of our fire extinguishers and everything and he's like hey this one's got to be trash and

stuff like that and it's like that's that's why it's in that pile and not hanging up on the wall but they don't

even want to see it in the building basically yeah fires are bad right now we read I

heard a stat today and it's one in four businesses don't come back after a fire I mean just I mean you're not too

you live in Grand Rapids now I live in Wyoming yeah okay so Grand Rapids Brewing Company they had a fire in their

kitchen kitchen and they just decided yeah we're not even going to reopen after this dang yeah it's it's it's

happening we had like I said $3 million ones in this area and it's the crazy part is everyone says it's not going to

be me I'm good I have a brick building and then you know something happens a lot of times it's oily Rags that's our

number one right now or bad electrical circuits overloading things that you know you have an old building now

they've put more power on the transmitters that go to all the different buildings and it zaps your building it fries everything um which is

just scary because you can't really do much besides rewire it for 25 grand um

depending on you know the size of the project but it's definitely something just to have a good plan like you said having fire extinguishers having a plan

in place of what happens what do we do and um as a Federated client you will get like a walk through and a fire

safety checklist and all that kind of stuff to make sure because you know we don't want you having a fire either if you go out of business we can't Ure you

so you know that's just in our best interest to keep it going too so we don't want anything like that happening yeah we got to make money so that way we

can pay you guys money right exactly um we were talking about workers

comp right and then hiring employees and when you're when you're starting from Ground Zero that is 100% hard to hard to

do especially when you don't know about it and um I think it was a couple weeks

ago we had a podcast that was was about that right you know hiring employees and

putting them on payroll and how kind of easy it is once you get your head wrapped around

it and then once you once you do get employees their your worker workers comp

policy does have tools in place in order to not only protect them you know from

working but I mean you guys have the the toolbox talks the seven minute safety trainer we have um GPS units in our vans

keeping track of the guys and and stuff like that can you kind of give us a rundown on what you guys offer there so

that way people can know that you know you guys aren't just just that insurance policy you guys actually offer more

benefits than just something written down on paper saying that the company you're working for is protected no yeah

that's that's huge right now because you've been seeing a lot of agencies kind of getting bought out and they're saying hey if your premium is under a

certain amount we're just going to send everything in the mail um which is scary because that means you're getting no service at all like they're getting 20%

30% increases and with no explanation we're kind of doing the opposite we see our clients four times a year if they

allow us you know we obviously understand you guys got busy schedules but um we see and I just did a meeting

the other day with a hvat guy in town and sat down as 15 employees we went through a driving safety so watching

speeding harsh breaking um turning and just making sure like hey they get to

the job site you know safe and they were all really receptive to it they took a little quiz at the end so kind of read

through it all they take a quiz they sign on it so then it all goes into a database system online where now it's

tracked where it says Hey Jake took this quiz so next time I'm going 50 miles over the speed limit doing harsh turns

that's going to say hey we told Jake not to do that and he signed right here so it's really a nice cya also um and then

the little trackers that he was talking about um they just monitor this they don't monitor the location but they

monitor like I said the harsh breaking the speeding the turning and then it gives them a score at the end so say

Jose right now is on his phone and driving it would dock him for that and give him like you know an 80 when he got

home and and that would that would go on like

a a listing of all the different kinds of people that are driving at the organization right so the 10 employees

and then we usually say hey do a a monthly or every two month prize so hey this is the best driver and not to focus

on the five bottom drivers but focus on the top five and say Hey you know you should get better like Jerry or hey you

know you want everyone fighting to be the top drivers not hey we're the worst five that's cool um so we've just that's our biggest second biggest claim is auto

so it's been huge to help clients just kind of slow down their team because a lot of them been driving for years but

it's just those kind of constant reminders of hey let's all get there safe let's all get home safe um which is

nice and really unique to Federated yeah and since you know we started with that

the guys have like you know when we first were talking about it it kind of becomes a competition it's like my score

was better than yours this week and when when someone's isn't better he's like yeah but I have this many more miles

than you it's because you know and it is it's getting to that that point where it's

a a talking point in the in the Monday meetings for us definitely and they all want to be the best they don't want to

you know be at the bottom of the chart and all that does is keep lower Auto claims you know keeps your premium down

and gets them there safe so it's only a win-win win it's just getting them over that First Leap of doing it in the first

place which you know is my job which is the fun part and that's one thing that that people need to realize right it's

insurance is also there in these programs to protect you as a business not only are you you

know teaching the employees you know the right ways to do things but that is a

safety net for you to say hey we've already gone through this he signed off

on it and it and it protects you as a business definitely because put yourself

in the courtroom of if you didn't sign off on it and you didn't do that training and they're saying hey Daniel you know what was the last training you

told them about driving oh we had a Monday talk okay where's it on paper oh it's not on

what do you guys talk about oh it's you know in a filing cabinet this is you can go in there with the paper sign that he

got a eight out of n you know nine out of 10 on his quiz and he passed it and he signed it on this date and it's all

kept online so you don't even have to keep paper track um and it's just a really nice way to defend yourself in

there so as that business owner you know you can get walk out of there and not have the you know finger pointed at you

because as soon as they know you're the owner they think oh he's got the most money we're going for it all and then that's that's when they

right that that misconception that business owners have all the money when

we we pay all the money all the money just passes through our hands yeah you're the ones providing

money for everyone else so it's but we definitely heard of that of like hey they got zillion dollars in their pocket but you know you're just out here

working too I miss so much of it guys I'm just like the dude in the background right

now like the hype person just ha yeah yeah

no we we we covered quite a bit now um I did have someone asking a question on

Instagram but I don't know if they're they're still live or not so if they chime back in I'll let you

know okay but I mean the these programs are

great man like I didn't I didn't realize how much was included until Federated

because the other agents that we used didn't go too in depth on everything

that was included and sometimes I mean um you get agents that they're just they're pulling from every wit Ray right

like this is a better rate so this is who you're going to get so they may not know and I think that's one of the the

reasons why we went with Federated is because you guys were just so involved in everything like no we may not run

this program but I can tell you about it and I can point you to the person that can give you the the entire rundown so

we appreciate that for sure definitely no it's kind of the first program that we've come across that that felt like it

was actually customized for our industry right and I don't know if you said that yet or not Daniel but I I I I do

remember those conversations and and not knowing that that that was available for us uh through our

affiliations um with FCI um a shame on us for not doing our

research but I I do remember I do remember having those conversations like oh wait yeah that's

exactly what we need yeah that makes it so much easier that that's that is and

not to knock the other agents that we worked with because I've been with and I'm still currently with them I've been with them since I was 18 years old uh

for the auto at least and um it just they weren't able to customize they just

shot the dark they were a what do they call it um a broker a broker yeah they were an

insurance broker right so they just kind of shopped around for what the the best

price was for what we needed as long as it was within the param that we requested um

but what is the gentleman that we signed up with was his name Jordan right we

we're ready to work for you yeah he was persistent he was he was he was in here

man but it does it does take it but I feel like hopefully you guys are seeing the benefits of of that decision now you

know we're definitely set up different we're a direct writer so we were directly for Federated I don't go in

shop markets I don't have 10 choices I have one choice so I know that choice you know inside and out and you know I'm

able to offer everything you know in that package like you're saying built right for you so it really allow us to

be fully transparent I'm not saying hey I found a better one over here you know it's cheaper um because that's usually

what happens it's cheaper but this isn't included they don't they don't really tell you that either yeah they usually

miss that part yeah all inclusive is is way better

and cheaper isn't always the the best way to go there's going to be something missing in some point

can't send a change order into your insurance guy and it and it worked out that you know you were able to come on here

because not only are we with Federated but Paul he's missing today but his

companies are also with Federated so that's awesome is he around yeah

what's that that's is he from the area no he's from uh Kansas wiat

Kansas so you guys are

everywhere now as far as um you've never like ran

your own business or anything though right so I actually ran my own painting company I was a contractor for two from

the ground up so I know exactly what you guys are talking about all I had was work comp and you know three guys in a truck so I definitely get it get the

grind the hustle um that's what I'm saying start off with just a million dollar general liability and work comp

once you get some guys and that'll just go based off your payroll so you were W in there in in the

in the beginning stages too but I'll let him ask his question so I have a question um is there a different

approach to gentlemen or or or companies or individuals that are P primarily

residential versus commercial um you know like do you do you uh gauge what your your needs

are based off of the clientele you have commercial residential high-end uh

multif family like how how how does that that get approached from your standpoint and how do you direct uh

clients yeah so for like we did mostly residential um so that would be just a lot of door knocking which is always fun

um and then commercial ones it was a little bit harder just because we were so new and they were like bigger buildings and we really have all the

equipment and you know all the kind of cash flow to go buy all this equipment to or all the materials to start so I

would say we mostly did like residential and stuff like the painting um oh no I'm sorry I was I was referring more to

Leading your clients um coverage wise based off of uh based off of their their

their Niche what what uh industry of the flooring or what part of the flooring industry are they end that that's where

I was going residential versus commercial um I I I don't think there's a difference in whether you're

residential commercial it's just difference once you start getting into like tile setting and stuff like that I

think there's different coverages or something yeah there's for insurance there's not going to be much different

um pretty much is all going to fall under the flooring but there might be specific exposures that you have like hey we bring a lot of fuel on the site

because we use heavy equipment for our flooring or it's really going to depend on kind of all the different variables of what they have which just comes down

to like asking the questions um you know residential people are probably going to have less property because they're going

to probably keep it at their house not have as big of an operation where commercial they're going to have to have a lot of equipment so maybe have a

little B more property coverage maybe more employees because they're doing bigger buildings um so yeah it's really

going to probably depend on but I would say it's it's definitely harder to find Residential contractors for insurance

because they're out of their house most of the time um where commercial is going to be out of like bigger buildings but

just the only way is just to keep going and try to find them it's like hunting or fishing gotcha and I will say to

everybody one thing that we learned is as you if you're a commercial outfit or even residential and as you growing

document everything that you have document your purchase price yeah that's that's one of the questions on on

Facebook I just had to check on my phone because the the feed's not coming through because Facebook is being janky

lately but uh they they said tools let's talk tools so yeah can you give us a

rundown on what what should people be keeping track of from day one right like

I bought this is it covered is it not how can we keep track of it to make sure that that way if anything

happens I I don't have to go and purchase all these tools again yeah so

what I've seen um I kind of talk on both sides of the coin from other policies right deal with a lot of landscapers

kind know flooring anything under 10 grand most companies make you schedule

so I've seen it all the way up to like 150 bucks 200 bucks so that's your drill that's your saw right that's um some

pretty light tools um and then anything over 10,000 they obviously scheduled too

so pretty much every inch of it we're Federated we our main book is contractors so we know you guys have a

lot of stuff under 10 grand and it's really not worth putting every little piece of inch on it like I've seen four

or five pages of tools before and I'm like does this get annoying every year every time you get a new drill like this is know it's a lot of work here um and

what the big part is with Federated we only schedule things over 10 grand and then we put a limit on anything under it

so the nice part about that is you don't really have to we want you to keep a track of it so it's easier to go remember what you bought but you don't

have to show a receipt for every inch of it which for a fire example or a big trailer you know example stolen on a job

site it's really nice to not know oh I got to go find all my receipts oh I hope I remember where I put that one because

most companies with insurance you know not a huge fan of the industry like Federated but they they don't want to pay out right that's kind of the

insurance scheme is or SCH where it's like hey Insurance isn't good they don't want want ret trct that terminology

there brother yeah but um but cool part about

Federated is we want to pay you out so we say hey anything under 10 grand we got you covered we'll put it all under a blanket limit and then anything over 10

grand so your skid loaders your heavy equipment you know maybe some tools we'll schedule up and actually put it on

the policy so it'll say hey these are your 10 vehicles or these are your 10 pieces of

equipment but if you does that does that apply to like say we have

a trailer full of tools and collectively they value more than than 20 grand on a trailer at one time because they're

they're part of a system right like individually purchased it's one price but together because they're part of a

system that we have to implement and they're used in conjunction with one another does that change the perception

of that that's a good question I feel like it would yeah it' be scheduled as one then just to make it easier but are

you talking like a scaffolding or something like that no I'm saying like if if we if we were polishing concrete

and I would have my grinder my vacuum um and then the the heads generator the

generator like this is all I need all of this to do this one task um oh that

would all fall underneath the $10,000 limit under the blanket limit okay okay

and then and then there there is a difference between tools that travel versus tools that stay um that are

stationary yep yes you'll have a transportation floater which is anytime it's transporting to job site or you

know to back to the shop and then you'll actually have a a quck like a a job a job limit so you'll have how much you

could lose on one job if you had all the materials all the labor at it so there's multiple buckets I don't

want to confuse anyone that doesn't know a ton about insurance but there's multiple buckets of where it all kind of Falls that's what we're here to do

brother we're here to confuse people so they ask questions right so that way that way they can hopefully get answers

so we can hopefully get answers I mean I it's all I think that's one of the things though is people have to not be

scared to ask those questions right because I mean when you were in here I mean the first time you came in you were

probably here for a few hours and it's like what what do we need to to let you know what information can we get from

you so that way we can keep track better and stuff like that and I mean we walked the warehouse what is this what is that

um it it it it was great

because I learned more about insurance when when you guys were here than in the

I mean we've been with you guys for what two years now three years three years almost then the 11 years to you guys so

yeah which I 100% believe because the question from Instagram

was how can they improve their insurance which kind of gets back to what you and Jose were talking about like trying to

figure out what actually what do you actually need and

do you have anything that is too much right I don't know if

there's a such thing as as that I mean unless you're paying a ridiculous amount of

money yeah don't want you insurance right so is he spending too much or not

enough and then the the other question to that was like the the buckets how do

how do I know if my grinder and Shop back is covered I think that's that

$10,000 limit right so if it's a tool that you purchase that's under 10,000 it's covered up to a certain amount is

that what you were saying yep and that would be with feder though and I've seen like I was before that I said

there was a bunch of policies every other policy I've seen from the competitors they have them individually scheduled out but a tool that small my

guess is it's going to fall under a blanket limit like your contents um yeah but they're going to probably want I've

never seen anyone file a claim for it because again you don't really want to file claims kind of to answer your whole question there's like nuanes claims

which are like small claims wind Shields right someone you lose your shop back um and then there's the top there's C

catastrophic so that means hey the building burns down hey we hit someone driving home hey one of my guys takes

the truck home and wrecks it right those are the claims that can put you all the way out of business right harassment or

like hey this gas station had bad gas and now my truck won't start that's more

of a setback though because you're still going right but if it like your truck blew up there that'd be that'd be catastrophic right well my truck isn't

working right now so but no we'll get that figured out

poor Tru that's a brand new truck wow everything new everything 70,000

miles on it yeah that's new um I I do I have a more of a scenario right like uh

you know you were just talking about the the equipment and the vacuums what um is there a change in responsibility if you

are on a job site and you are storing your tools on a job site and then something happens within that job site

or are is that something that is covered for us as well um if if I leave or I

just use the grinder in the vacuum if I leave my equipment inside of a a a project a job site where it's supposed

to be um locked up uh and secure and then something happens it gets stolen um

is that something that is covered by by our insurance or is that covered by the property insurance or should it be

covered by the property insurance I should say no that's a great question I actually ran into it yesterday um with a

hvc contractor that's working downtown Grand Rapids someone came in and cleaned out all the everyone besides their

trades because they had it in a big lock trailer took all their equipment and the contractors were really mad and so they

tried to get from from from the project right and the people that had the project that paid him to do the work

pulled out the contract and said hey anything that kind of like when you go to the gym if you lose your headphones it's on you it was the same thing it was

hey if anything happens here it's on you so good news is You' have insurance for that under your policy but the bad news

is you have take that loss and pay the deductible um they're kind of just washing their hands with and they're

saying hey we told you you signed here and that's in the huge document that you know they give you yeah the master

contract cover say we gonna pay and this is all

stuff like um you know I just read through some of those lines the other day on one of the contracts and um it is

is is and people are always deferring responsibility back onto you as an

individual or you as a company and I think that's where just knowing that information um

knowing that that's what you're going to be put up against uh can hopefully let some individual prepare themselves

better for the real world the real world nobody wants to take responsibility for lost stolen or broken items um so just

make sure that you're covered or understand that there are some things that you will just take a loss on um

that's the hard Truth for sure well yeah that's that's I guess something

that is always on someone's mind what should I claim and what shouldn't I

claim right you were talking about like a nuisance claim when it's just like man this is a $200 vacuum just go buy

another one right yep as as opposed to if it's a grinder combo vac which you

know a grinder can cost you know $18 to $30,000 plus the vacuum can cost you

know5 to $220,000 we're talking about is it is it and it sucks right because we're

talking about starting from ground zero so some of these newer companies if they lose that you know 23,000 worth of

equipment that could set them back far enough to where hey I can't even do anything anymore but is it at that point

is it still worth it to make a claim or is it like not worth it yeah no so we'll

kind of work that one backwards definitely um that's what insurance is for it's for when you you have no other

options you can't pay it right that's when you put it on your insurance um so if they had that big you know big

grinder and Shop back stolen um that was definitely a and if it was going to put them out of business that's that's what

you use your insurance for um obviously it's going to hurt you in a year or two with the losses but it'll keep you in

business but for the smaller stuff you know like say your truck kind of work it backwards that that hurts that sucks you

know it's nothing small but it's hey we're going to survive we can always get another truck and if you take it down even smaller right to a nuisance it's

like hey I got a windshield I'm just going to pay it so I would say pay it anytime you can and if you can't pay it

or if you do pay it and it's going to really really hurt the business then use the insurance um but as an insurance PE

agent we don't like seeing the windshields the small stuff just because we know it they see that and our our

Underwriters see that who pick all the prices and they just they don't like it because they want you to take on a little bit of the risk too um and if you

do you know that you get favorable pricing for sure because they understand that hey you know how to you want to

obviously reduce claims because you know you're going to cover some of them where instead of you filing little claims they like dang even a even a wind you know

windshield they're going to file on us um but obviously Mor of the stories if you can

pay it pay it if it's too big to pay it and it's going to really hurt your business then use your insurance that's

and 100% ask your insurance agent right because if I texted you was like Hey man we got a windshield is it better if I

just do this or oh who clicked on that my brother probably

me or or should I just you know pay it out of pocket and you'll be truthful and be like it's just going to cost this

much man just pay it out of pocket and that's happened before with one of when we were on a a different insurance and

it was like man and it was when we were fairly new and it was you know a sprinter windshield so we were like man

this is going to cost so much and it was I think it end up been like $4 $480 and it's like at the end of the

day that's not that bad right could have been worse and since we my bad just

before you say anything if it's like a work comp claim on someone's hurt definitely take them to the hospital we're not talking about that stuff we're talking about you know obviously the

windshield and stuff like that that's what I was going to say I think it I think

um uh having insurance for from a young age right like being responsible for myself you kind of start picking and

choosing what is worth the claim and what isn't worth the claim like because

the more it's like anybody else you nickel and dime your insurance company your RS are going to go up right they

have to they have to make up for for that that increase and liability that that you're providing or that that you

are costing them not providing them but costing them so I guess uh long story short something you come out of pocket

come out of pocket protect yourself long-term Wise from from priceing potential price increases on your

insurance use it right because even with my truck right I was just taking it to the mechanic like I need to get this

fixed and then it wasn't until they were like you should probably contact your insurance when I was like oh my be

something that needs to be you know more investigated that I I don't have time for it but you guys have a team

dedicated to that kind of stuff and you know they they were asking me questions about it like hey where'd you get it what time were you there and all that

stuff so it's like I'll give them the information and they'll do whatever they have to do with it

and I know it wasn't anything that I did definitely and if big gas you didn't

pump the fuel you pumped the fuel bro

saying sorry that it I just wanted to butt in with

that so when you started your painting business did you start as a sole

proprietor how did you start that out yeah so it was actually uh it was in college it was kind of like a LLC

internship deal where we all had to file our own and then um they pretty much taught me the ropes they've been doing

it for like 25 years it's called College Works painting um but they teach you all how to hire how to do the interviews

you're actually sitting in you know I went from knocking on the doors to sitting in their kitchen table you know with both spouses at the table trying to

close the deal to you know getting I did $125,000 in Revenue my first year and

had four employees who were actually had to be on the site every day with you know to-do list and everything ready to go before they got there give them their

tools give them their 10 things they got to get done in 10 hours and then you know manage it the whole time and I

usually help too just to get some of the labor down um to obviously make some more profit but um

I know where that question was going to but yeah it was uh it was um LLC now I'm more interested in the program that you

just said right that that's why I was asking because a lot of a lot of guys you know they'll start out as like a so

prop or something like that and then think that the the whole LLC thing is just too intimidating because one you're

starting off a lot of people in the trades are starting off at with no money in their pocket so you're trying to keep

the cost down as much as you can but if you do file an LLC you can do it yourself you don't have to hire someone

to do it and it's just I mean what do the state charge like $25 or something to to fact something in y so it's it's

just a matter of you know getting in your paperwork and and St and stuff like that that way you know once you get your

your LLC get your federal identification number that way you can go open a bank

account and I think that's one of the biggest things that people do do wrong is trying to run a business out of their

personal bank account oh yeah that yeah don't don't do that guys please don't do that protect

yourself don't do that so it's kind of like get all this

stuff set up get with a a a great Insurance you know agent so that way you

can get get yourself protected and it it does suck

because business costs money there there's no way around it but once you're

you're all set up the same thing like we talked about with with payroll a few

weeks ago it's once you get everything set up it pretty much just runs on autopilot and all you got to do is keep

on maintaining right and that's where your agent comes in um ask them

questions see see what you can do but it's just getting that that LLC set

up at least so that way you're protected and then you know us as a business we are an LLC but we're taxed as an escorp

which is a whole another thing um definitely get get an accountant there's

plenty of accountants out there that don't they don't charge much like we're

we're fortunate enough to have an accountant where I can a I ask him questions and stuff and he hasn't been charging me for asking him all the

questions but that could change at any moment but he's the one that that that set us in the the path of the ESC Corp

we're employees of our business now you know we're owner operators we're paid on a W2 just like our

employees and then man once you get set up start making money before you start

thinking about benefits or anything because it's uh it's tough out there and

I I don't even know if Federated does offer any benefits

packages yes we do actually and they're super popular right now um just with not like a group health but we have what's

called like a keyman program which puts um life insurance on one of your key employees and you can do disability so

if they were to get hurt you're going to be covering their life insurance and their disability to keep them you know you have a really good guy he's running

the crew you know he's the third man or third woman and you know if she were to not come to work it would really be a

problem for the business you can have life insurance on her say 100 Grand and 50 Grand will go to her you can you

obviously pick the allocation you guys come up to an agreement but 50 Grand goes to her 50 Grand goes to you so her

family now can you know have a little bit more be a little more easier time you know now that their spouse has

passed away and then you guys have that 50 Grand either hire somebody new or while you know you're trying to find somebody new to kind of fill that Gap

that she left um and then with disability it's hey how long are you do you want to pay this person if they're

out you know if they're out a year or two are you going to feel bad if you don't pay them you obviously want to have them come back so that kind of

allow to pay out of that policy pay through the insurance instead of paying out of your guys's pocket um so those

are two big benefits that as a Federate employee I have on myself you know Federate puts that on us to keep us here so they're doing it to us i' been huge

with our contractors huge with our machine shops because you know saw someone today yesterday um was trying to

go in there to find the boss you know like just like when I come into your guys's place and they said oh he's on the job site you know we had two people

quit yesterday they got poached from somewhere else so it's happening it's real and they probably got poached for like two bucks which would just suck um

to have you know one of your best people leave for a couple bucks a year hour when yeah and you know

that's that that's a whole another podcast too is talking about you know people

leaving for pennies on the dollar and then re you don't realize until later

like yeah probably had it pretty good over there buty The Grass Is Always Greener somewhere else right it is but that's

life man you live and you learn um so yeah I didn't even I I don't know if we even talked about those policies before

but I think we we may have but I my my my thing is is that if you are looking

into disability and stuff do it when you are younger and you're not going to have

like issues because once you start getting older and then it just takes one thing when they're like oh yeah you had

this so it's not going to happen right now like I myself had um bariatric

surgery right so that's when one reason why the disability and the life weren't

going to cover us because they I think they said that we have to be like three or four years out of bariatric surgery

to get out of that all right you're not going to end up kicking the bucket from this surgery so we'll cover you now yep

but all it takes is you know something like that for them to to not qualify and that's why it's insurance right

you're you're paying for it now so that way later on when you're like me you don't have to worry about about it 100%

yeah actually one of my teammates texted me today he was on his way home and saw a gas station saw one of his old clients

cars pulled in was talking to him and the person just kind of started the conversation with hey um you know I'm

sorry we didn't move forward with the option last year you know we didn't didn't think we needed it at the time and now his wife has leukemia and now

they can't they said no to it and now they have no money coming in here and it's it's a bad time for him and it's just one of the situations where he just

texted out to the group like hey make sure you push on it you know this does change people's lives because you never

want to be you but it's one in four chance of being you which is scary and then life insurance is one in seven so

it's not the best odds hey that's why we're on here

talking you know just letting people know you know get these things set up early you know maybe not right when you

start but as soon as you you find a little bit of cushion start implementing these things one at a time so that way

when something is needed it's there definitely they're so customizable too

that's the coolest part is start with 50 bucks 100 bucks a month and you know whatever you spend on the weekends and

you'll have something in place which is really cool you don't have to spend a bunch of money to get the starting one

no should do is you guys should start implementing like trade specific insurance like you know how M MLB the

pitchers can have insurance on the arm I should be able to to ensure my knes we

can do that through another company actually we can it's a thing it is a

thing man you guys got to get on that these young guys man cuz I we always say

you only got so many miles on your knees and then you're done yeah when you guys are you got the pads on all day and you

know down there and then you know one of one of the other things you know before we wrap

this up we're about at the end right here is don't be scared to reach out man communication is key and we talk about

communication a lot and just ask questions whether it's you know to to us you know you can always reach out to us

at the Huddle I'm sure we we'll get to your information Jake I'm sure they can reach out to you and you can point them

in the direction of you know maybe their local agent or something but that's what the network is for man it's you know ask

questions if I don't know it I'll point you to someone that that can help you and don't be scared to ask questions

because there's too many people out there that will die on their you know what what they

need to do because it's like I'm not asking asking anyone for help and we're we're a community we're here for for

everyone and we appreciate everyone that listens so if you are listening you know don't don't forget to to like subscribe

you know follow us and tell us that you you do like us or that you don't that's that's fine too you know constructive

criticism or just criticism in general man we we we want to hear it all we want to hear what people like and what people

don't like so we're going to wrap this up Jake I appreciate you for being on here um my

brother you know was on here for a little but you know that's what that's what the hudle is man we're we're here as a

community to help everyone out so just you know go let them know again where you're from and how they can get a hold

of you or um or just your company in general if if you don't want them pointed in your direction yeah no I

appreciate the opportunity to come on here say this is awesome definitely the highlight of the week um I'm from Federated insurance I'm live in Grand

Rapids here you can if you search Federated Insurance you'll be able to get all my information from that um

there's definitely a local agent in your hometown but if you you want to just look through your policy want to figure

out hey am I is there something in here that's not right you know your premium should be going up a little bit every year if they're going down there's

something going on um but just yeah Federated I'm still I'm still trying to

convince you to have ours go down I think that's a conversation every time we talk but you're doing great with the

drive safe you got a bunch of implementations right you want to do more safety training those are ways that we can get your premium down compared to

to just saying like oh if you know screw that I'll be fine myself then it's really hard to fight for it you know

every time think the last um cuz you guys do the the seven minute which is a

different thing than the videos because you guys actually will have videos and stuff too so I I'll kind of implement

both of them at the same time and the last one we did was back safety and the guys were like man we kind of really

needed this refresher and you don't realize it because you're just you know

going doing the same thing every day but it's like yeah I'm GNA start taking better care of my back 100% yeah you

only got one back right gotta take care of it well thanks Jake and uh I

appreciate it and I'm sure you'll you'll be in here soon I think our our renewals in a in a few months so

yeah we'll be in there soon definitely see you soon yeah thanks guys again and uh we'll see you next week