Forgive me if this is posted somewhere, but I did a search and came up with nothing on topic. Anyways, I am starting a home bakery for wedding and special occasion cakes and I was wondering if I needed insurance. Do you have insurance incase anyone claims they got food poisoning from your cake or something. (Obviously I don't think that would happed but in today's society someone will sue you for anything). And if you do, how much is it? I realize prices vary but just give me a ballpark. At this point I get one order a month if I'm lucky, so I can't really afford insurance, but I don't want someone suing me for my house or something either.

Insurance is relatively inexpensive.. my plan costs me just under $300 for the year and you have to pay in full upfront. Are you licensed and all that? That part is the pain in the butt part.. the insurance is easy. Often times the compnay that carries your home owner's insurance can provide you with basic liability coverage and if they can't.. they can point you to someone who can. The Hartford is a popular place. I just called my Allstate agent and she set me up. It's not through Allstate though.. but somewhere local.

Anytime you do anything as a business, yes, you "need" insurance. Talk to your insurance agent about what you need and what they can get for you.

thank you. $300 doesn't sound so bad. Is there anything else that I should worry about besides insurance when starting a cake business?

Just making sure that you are following the law regarding home businesses in your state/county. Some states don't allow any food made in the home to be sold to the public.. others have no issue so long as you get your inspections and get licensed to do so.

Where are you? There is a post in the Business forum that lists out all of the states and if they do or do not allow for residential bakeries.

I'm actually getting my inspection done on Tuesday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for your help!

I would check with your insurance agent...I have insurance incase someone falls down while picking up a cake and things like that. I have it as part of my home owners insurance..it was pretty cheap as well.

I carry liability insurance. In this age of suing, you need to be covered.
Mine runs $120 for the year. VERY reasonable!

Wow MnSnow...who do you use for your insurance? My liability is $500 a year, for $1mil liability. My homeowners would not cover me.

I use American Family. We have them for our cars and homeowners.

On my catering business (cakes are my hobby) we have $1 mil liability for roughly $350 a year.

Pennies compared to the value if you are ever accused of something in today's sue-happy world!

gateauxdamour what company do you use?

Incidently I just called my agent (travelers) to rasie the liability form $1mil to $2 mil (because store i am going to sell to requires it) and the ins co said...I was getting $1 mil but the fee for that was below the $500 premium limit so when I rasied it to $2 my premium did not change. Huh!? So technically I was paying $500 for half of the coverage I could have gotten. Nice of them to leave that little tidbit out, huh?

Farmer's is that one, I believe (we have different businesses in the family and of course none are covered by the same company, it seems).

Since i have my garage converted for my business, i have to have business property insurance, which will cover my business supplies, loss of income etc if something happens to our home and i cant work out of my kitchen, i also have to have GL, general liabiltiy, incase someone sues me for triping over on my property when collecting a cake, getting sick, etc. Then my city requires me to have a permit to do business, so all in all that runs $880/year.