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what insurance does one need

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smiling_with_hope

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I plan on opening my own pizzeria by next fall in NV and have no idea of what kids of insurance will be required and approx. how much it will cost per year. I was raised in the NJ/NYC pizza scene. Ordering products, pricing, making, I know but have no knowledge on the insurance side. The shop will be modeled after the ones I grew up - my wife and I will work with 1-2 part time employees and eventually adding 1 more full time employee if things pick up enough to get near our max pie production. We will only serve pizza, calzones, and bottled soft drinks/water. The shop will be 500 - 700 sqft with a stack of Blodgett 1000 0vens. We hope to start with 40 pies a day and cap it at 100, and be open 5 days a week. We are near retirement age, have pensions, and are not looking to make much money. It will be a labor of love that will continue my work with people with developmental disabilities. I am not sure if this info helps any but I figured I would post it. Thanks. Walter
 
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Aside from your question… I would certainly suggest that you add salads to your menu plan.

Probable insurance costs in round numbers:

General business liability: $2000 should cover the requirements including what your landlord will require in your lease.

Workman’s Comp: 4% of your wages (just a working estimate, will be high for inside and low for drivers if you have them)

Delivery: $4000 You don’t mention whether you will be delivering. If you do, hired and non-owned will cost you about this much.
 
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bodegahwy: Thanks for your response! Your tag name makes me think of the 15 years my wife and I spent in Sonoma County, Ca, and one of our residences on Bodega Hwy in Sebastopol. Are you from there? Thanks for the suggestion of salads but I want to stick to pizza. I will be doing all the prep and pizza making and the thought of salads is too much work. My wife is a Berkley Ca native and my NJ iceberg/wedge of tomato/slice of cucumber is way different than her organic/multi ingredient affairs 🙂 To start I will most likely be doing much of the cleanup too. Our goal is to hire a couple part time developmentally delayed adults to do the dishes, clean up, and ideally some prep work. We will be moving to a new state with no connections so it will be low key and most likely slow till the word gets out on our pies and we will be able to hire the 2 part timers. Currently I am a special education teacher running a licensed bakery/pizzeria that teaches high school students entry level job skills. We have anywhere from 10-15 different baked goods, breads, artisan breads, pizzas, bagels, going everyday. This is a very difficult thing to manage with developmentally delayed kids and I am really excited to go back to my roots of a small shop selling just pizzas with a few tables. Our pies are as good as the top gas deck pies in the NYC metro area and our hopes are people will appreciate that and come for just the pies and some artisan sodas/bottled Italian sodas/waters. Eventually I might like to add some homemade meatball/sausage subs and some semolina & italian breads. My mother’s family came from Italy to NJ and I was taught the breads as a kid as well as the meats and pizzas. I use my grandfathers sausage recipe he brought from Italy for our pies. We are not considering delivery. We want to keep it very simple with high quality and delivery to me sounds like a potential management hassle. I have managed 15 kids with troubles for the past 22 years and am ready for a very small set up that I can control tightly. The 2k and 4% will be no big deal. I had no idea what those numbers would be. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Walter
 
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Yup… got my first AOL handle about 20 years ago and could not get any variation of “steve”. Handles were limited to 9 letters or numbers and we lived on Bodega Highway in Sebastopol… hence “bodegahwy” became an internet handle I have used ever since for things like forums. Lived there from 1994 to 1998.

Salads are super easy. Simplest way to go to make a salad your wife will approve of is to use ready-to-serve spring mix. Zero prep, zero clean-up. Add pizza toppings like onions, green peppers, olives, artichoke hearts, even some mozz or a couple of slices of pepperoni. Making a salad consists of grabbing a container, putting hand-full of ready to use spring mix in it and throwing a few toppings on it. Dressings can be had in single serving size so no prep or clean-up there either. Seriously, it is very worth doing and it is all add-on sales and it attracts some customers you will not get otherwise.
 
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bodegahwy: Small world! We lived on Bodega Hwy just before Watertrough Rd from 79-82 and then in Santa Rosa from 96-2006. Thanks for the salad tip. I forgot about the ready made salad mixes of today. I like the idea of 1 salad choice with only a simple Italian dressing. That would keep things very simple. I will keep that in mind. Thanks! Walter
 
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We were a few miles west of there a couple of hundred yards past Furlong road. I used to really enjoy driving Bodega Hwy/Furlong/Occidental into work in Santa Rosa. I was working for the outdoor brand Marmot back then, first as VP sales then later as Senior VP. Sounds like we overlapped for 96-98.

BTW, based on some posts in another thread, it sounds like your work comp could be higher. We pay less than 4% on “inside” (managers and cooks) and more on drivers. Depending on where you are located it can vary. Sounds like California is higher, you might want to ask around. I am sure your commercial insurance broker would be able to give you a good read.
 
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Steve: Thanks for that update. I played music around the world for 20 years and based my band out of Sonoma County 2 different times with the latter in Santa Rosa. I have since been a sideline musician and school teacher. I taught 11 years at Santa Rosa Middle School and helped the guy set up the NY pizzeria across the street from the school. We will be relocating to Reno, Nevada. I think that will be cheaper than CA. We will start with just my wife and I and add a few people with disabilities once things catch on. No delivery drivers for us. Thanks for all the insight. I am green on this end of things. Walter

here is a link to about 6,000 of my songs and my approach to music. If you remember the Pulsators, Doug the guitarist has played with me on and off for 35 years but for the past 10 years or so I have been a real instrument/all played at once/1 man band.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
 
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Steve: Nice finger picking! I spent most of years my years living, playing, touring with many of the blues/rock greats as a sideman and with them in my band. I posted the wrong link(pizza peel instead of my music site). Here it is. I had a great run with music and now record about a cd a day in the Tunnel of Dreams recording studio we built on our property a few years ago. My longtime drummer now lives in Reno. She is 70 and the best I ever played with. I will do a night a month in the pizzeria with no food just us doing a show. That sounds like a dream come true- no mental club owner to deal with but myself ;). Walter

link to music, bio
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137

video from news story


 
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Of all the coverage, I think the one overlooked or minimized is business interruption…In my insurance adjusters days, I recall that folks trying to save money on premiums skimped or did without this coverage…
 
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