Full Guide to Choosing the Best Window Cleaning Insurance

Professional window cleaners need window cleaning insurance to protect yourself, your employees, and your business.

Not sure what type of insurance you need or how much it costs? Here’s our full guide to choosing your company’s best window cleaner insurance.

What Is Window Cleaning Insurance?

Technically, there’s no such thing as ‘window cleaning business insurance.’What does exist is business liability insurance, and that’s one of the most important types of insurance policies to own. But for a window cleaning business, that’s not the only type of insurance you need. There are a variety of insurance policies you’ll need to protect your business and your workers adequately.

Here are the different types of insurance policies you need:

• Business insurance/general liability insurance
• Worker’s compensation insurance (if you have employees)
• Disability insurance

Whether you work as a solo independent contractor or have a team of employees, you need insurance coverage to protect against property damage, injuries, and lost income. Without insurance protection, you and your business are at risk.

What Types of Business Insurance Do Window Cleaning Companies Need?

A business insurance policy also called a business owner’s policy or BOP, provides coverage from liability. But they can cover several other elements of your business:

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance is the standard insurance policy that all business owners need. Also referred to as professional liability insurance, a general liability policy covers your business against any claims of personal injury or property damage resulting from the work you do or the service you provide.

For example, if you’re washing windows ten stories up and dropping a tool on the hood of someone’s car on the street below, your liability coverage will pay for the damage. It does not provide equipment coverage for your equipment or property — it only covers damages caused by you and suffered by a different party.

Business Income Insurance

Business income insurance protects your future earnings. If a fire, extreme weather, or an event forces you to close your business for a time, business income insurance will replace the income lost during that period. Business income insurance is sometimes called business interruption coverage, as it only pays benefits when your business is disrupted by something beyond your control. This coverage can cover your payroll expenses, utilities, company car payments, mortgage or rent payments, and lost profits.

Commercial Property Insurance

Commercial property insurance protects your equipment and the physical space in your business. Whether you run your business from a storefront, office space, or home, commercial property insurance protects against theft, vandalism, and fire and water damage. Should a fire sweep through your property, this coverage can help pay for replacing computers, office furniture, and any other physical objects.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Commercial auto insurance protects any vehicle you use while conducting business and any people or property damaged by that vehicle. These types of policies provide collision, property damage liability, and bodily injury coverage for your vehicles, employees, and yourself. If you have work trucks or vans that you use specifically for your business, having commercial auto insurance is just as important as having personal auto insurance.

Workers Compensation Insurance for Window Cleaning Companies

If you have employees, you are required by law to offer them the protection of worker’s compensation insurance. Each state has different workers’ comp laws, so depending on where you work and operate your business, you’ll need to secure the proper amount of “workers comp” coverage as mandated by your state. If an employee gets injured on the job site and you don’t have workers’ comp insurance, you could lose your business license and be prohibited from conducting business in your state. Not to mention having to pay exorbitant legal fees. Don’t have employees?

If you work alone but occasionally hire uninsured independent contractors to work for you, you don’t need a traditional workers’ compensation policy. However, you may need a workers’ compensation ghost policy. A ghost policy isn’t so much insurance coverage as it is a way to show proof of insurance. Some clients require their window cleaners and other contractors to provide a certificate of insurance. A ghost policy does precisely that. Ghost policies cost far less than traditional workers’ comp policies, but they are only available to single-person businesses that have no employees on their staff.

Window Cleaning Companies Should Provide Disability Insurance

Because the job site of a window worker can be high in the sky, having a disability insurance policy is crucial. While workers’ comp insurance covers medical expenses for on-the-job injuries, a disability insurance policy provides income protection if you lose income when you’re out of work due to an injury or illness. It doesn’t matter whether the injury is suffered on the job. For window washers, this type of coverage is especially important.

Here’s why:

• A slight back problem could prevent you or an employee from wearing a safety harness.
• A hand injury could make using the equipment needed to clean oversized windows impossible.
• A leg or foot injury could prevent you from safely climbing a ladder.

Doing physical work requires physical capability. When that capability is lost, your income will be lost with it — unless you have disability insurance. Disability insurance is important for the business owner, independent contractor, and any employees you may have. That’s because this type of insurance guarantees you’ll be able to collect at least a portion of your pay while recovering from your injury.

Disability Insurance Is an Employee Perk

Disability insurance is an excellent perk to add to an employee benefits package. This added coverage can help you attract and retain top talent, essential in a competitive business like yours. Many assume that if they become disabled and cannot work, they can rely on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) to cover their lost income. For most people, this is false.

The average SSDI benefit in 2022 is $1,358, less than $350 per week. This isn’t nearly enough to cover the monthly expenses of most households. One should never rely on SSDI benefits as their sole form of income, especially small business owners with the unlimited potential to earn significantly more.

How Much Does Best Window Cleaning Insurance Cost?

Not sure if you can afford to cover your window washing business with all the necessary insurance? Here are some of the key factors that go into determining how much your window cleaning service can expect to pay for different insurance policies.

Business Insurance

According to the online insurance comparison site Insureon, window cleaning businesses pay a median of $650 per year for general liability insurance. However, this price can vary considerably based upon a number of different factors.

• Your location is a factor, as coverage in some states is more expensive than in others. The coverage you need is also a major factor — the more protection you want, the more it will cost you.
• Additional coverage, like commercial property, auto, or business income insurance, will also increase your rates.

Workers’ Comp Insurance

Your number of employees will directly affect how much you’ll pay for workers’ compensation insurance. The more workers you have, the more it will cost you.

• State, location, and the job’s risk level also determine monthly premiums.
• The national average for workers’ comp insurance is $78 per monthly employee. That totals out to $936 per employee per year.

Window cleaning involves physical risk.  More so than less physical jobs such as marketing or sales. Therefore, most window cleaning businesses should expect to pay higher than the national average. The state in which you operate is also a big factor, as there is a huge disparity in workers’ comp rates by state. For example, the average workers’ comp cost per employee in New Jersey is $1,415 per year, while businesses in North Dakota pay an average of $376 per year per worker.

Disability Insurance

Here are some factors that affect the cost of disability insurance:

• Amount of coverage needed
• Where you work
• Age
• Gender
• Pre-existing health conditions

When you offer disability insurance to your employees, you can do so with a group policy. These cost much less than individual policies, but individual policies provide much greater flexibility. When you buy disability insurance, you’ll have many options and ways to customize a policy that works for you. Disability insurance policies have benefit periods and elimination periods, and both factor into the cost of your premium.

What Are Benefit Periods?

The benefit period is the time you want to collect benefits. This could be two years, five years, ten years, or longer. The longer the benefit period, the higher the premium.

What Are Elimination Periods?

The elimination period is a waiting period between the date of your injury and the date you can start collecting payouts. These range from 30 days up to 720 days, and the shorter the period, the higher your premiums will be.

Riders

Disability policies also allow you to add a variety of riders (additional benefits) to make your plan more comprehensive. The more riders you add, the more you’ll pay.

Overall, most individuals spend between one and four percent of their annual income on disability insurance premiums.

Where Can You Get Window Cleaning Insurance?

You can find all sorts of insurance comparison sites with a quick Google search. Some provide free quotes from different insurance companies. This is a helpful option for small business owners looking for a quick glimpse at insurance prices, but it’s not the only way to obtain a business insurance quote.

Do you have an insurance agent that you already work with?

Tell them you need small business insurance and request a business insurance quote. You can sometimes save money by having multiple policies with the same provider. You can also contact insurance companies directly. Well-known national insurance providers like Progressive are easy to work with. Their agents can help customize the insurance policies you need for your specific business.

No matter where or how you receive your insurance quotes, always gather a few to compare prices and terms.

In some cases, selecting a more expensive policy can be beneficial if it offers far greater benefits than the slightly more affordable one.

As a window cleaning business, you can choose from all sorts of insurance plans and policies.

These are the three most important ones:

• Business liability insurance
• Workers’ compensation insurance
• Disability insurance

With these policies covering you, you can protect yourself, your employees, and your business.

Note: If you’re an independent contractor, you should also add health insurance to your list of insurance requirements. Selfgood provides supplemental health benefits for freelancers, so check out our plans.