Setting up an upholstery shop can be a daunting task, considering that the average startup cost is $17,167. But, this business has its perks, including diverse customers like homeowners, restaurants, offices, and players in the automotive industry.
And as a reward for their work, upholstery shop owners earn reasonable returns, ranging from $531 to $820. Unfortunately, issues like third-party injury lawsuits, equipment damage, theft/ vandalism, and third-party property damage cases often eat away at their profits.
But here's some good news: if you are in this industry, you can use tailored insurance for upholsteries to cover your business against losses related to such complications.Let's discuss what is upholstery business insurance and everything it entails.
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Insurance companies underwrite many types of liability insurance. But liability insurance carriers offer to upholstery businesses are general liability insurance, professional liability insurance, and product liability insurance.
Just like carpenters, drywall installers, or HVAC contractors, upholsterers use materials and tools to do their job. These include staplers, mallets, and hot glue guns. A client with a kid visits your shop and the young one gets his hands on a stapler gun and injures himself. A vendor might also experience property damage or personal injuries while delivering stocks. General liability insurance for upholsteries covers you against such scenarios. This policy protects your business from the following:
| Coverage | Function |
|---|---|
 Third-Party Personal Injuries | General liability insurance will take care of medical expenses if your upholstery’s operations inflicted injuries to vendors, customers, and other third parties |
 Third-Party Property Damage | Third parties might interact with sharp or heavy objects in your upholstery and incur property damage. If your business is demanded to reimburse the value of the damaged property, general liability insurance will kick in and pay on your behalf |
 Legal Expenses | It’s common for third parties to sue your business after it inflicted property damage or personal injuries. The terms of general liability insurance specifically state that the policy will pay for lawyer fees, payment orders, and other legal costs on your behalf |
Insurance companies will recommend you get additional protection from general liability insurance. Though they come at a price, these add-ons make your business resilient against other common business exposures:
| Coverage | Function |
|---|---|
 Advertising Injury Coverage | Consider situations where you unintentionally damage a client’s or another business’s reputation verbally or in writing. Also, another business might accuse your upholstery of copying its trademark, logo, slogan, or advertisement. Advertising injury coverage in general liability insurance will help in such situations. Specifically, these will cover legal expenses when a third party sues your upholstery for slander, libel, and other types of reputational or advertising harm |
 Products and Completed Operations Coverage | Upon completely refurbishing a client’s furniture, there might be defects that aren’t noticeable until much later. This incident is very problematic as the client may come back and file a claim against your business. Products and completed operations coverage will be absolutely useful. If you add this to the terms of general liability insurance, the policy will take care of claims past clients file |
 Rented Premises Liability Coverage | Not all have the money for the construction of a commercial building. And if you’re just renting a space for your upholstery business, rented premises liability coverage will be helpful. Add this to general liability insurance and it will take care of expenses if your landlord demands reimbursements because fire damaged the commercial space you’re renting |
Remember, although you may do all you can to prevent accidents, including keeping dangerous tools out of reach, you can't anticipate everything. A customer may walk into your workshop, slip, fall, and suffer injuries. Not everyone is understanding and forgiving; some may decide to sue you. Without general liability insurance for upholstery businesses, you have to cover the costs out of pocket, and this will cripple your finances.
You or an employee sometimes commit careless mistakes while refurbishing a client’s furniture. If such a mistake damages the piece, the owner will file a claim against your business to recover financial or economic losses. You have to pay the client and to avoid losing money, get professional liability insurance.
Professional liability insurance is a type of liability insurance policy that covers expenses if a client experienced economic or financial loss because of your business operations. Specifically, this provides coverage if a claim is filed for:
Negligence
Violation of confidentiality
Violation of good faith
Violation of fair dealing
Missed deadlines
Other acts considered errors and omissions
You will find product liability insurance if your upholstery sells materials or items to customers. This kind of liability insurance provides coverage if your business causes injuries or property damage to clients with a defective product. For example, if the leather you installed causes damage to the sofa or triggers rashes on anyone who sits on it, product liability insurance will cover associated expenses if the client files a claim
Did you know that around 38% of businesses don't reopen after a major disaster? Unfortunately, your upholstery shop isn't disaster-proof. A fire, tornado, storm, or explosion can strike any minute and dismember all your carefully laid plans and efforts.
If you have commercial property insurance, spending all day fretting over possible disasters becomes unnecessary. This business insurance provides protection against the following perils:
 |  |
|---|---|
| Building Destruction | Building Damage |
| An explosion, fire, or extreme weather will destroy your upholstery’s commercial building. In such an event, commercial property insurance will reimburse your losses up to the building’s replacement cost or actual cash value | Fire, thieves, burglars, extreme weather, and other covered perils will damage the structures of your upholstery’s building. Commercial property insurance will provide a reimbursement equal to the actual cash value or replacement cost of such damaged structures |
Commercial property insurance comes with inclusions - stocks and contents coverage, and equipment and tools coverage. The table below briefly explains how these help:
 |  |
|---|---|
| Stocks and Contents Coverage | Business Equipment and Tools Coverage |
| Stocks and contents coverage is the inclusion in commercial property insurance that will reimburse your losses if fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils destroyed office furniture, important documents, upholstery materials, and other valuable items | Business equipment and tools coverage is the inclusion in commercial property insurance that will cover losses if pliers, electric rotary cutters, gloves, eye-protective equipment, and other tools or equipment become damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils |
Always go opt for a business owner’s policy if you’re planning to insure your upholstery with general liability insurance and commercial property insurance. A business owner’s policy is a combination of general liability insurance and commercial property insurance. Its cost is cheaper than getting commercial property insurance and general liability insurance as stand-alone policies.
Also, depending on where you get it, a business owner’s policy will include additional insurance options such as workers compensation insurance, business interruption insurance, professional liability insurance, equipment breakdown insurance, and more.
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Does your upholstery have one or more employees? If it does, they should be covered by workers' compensation insurance. Most state laws require employers to purchase this policy even if they work with a single employee.
That is important because people working in your upholstery may get injured. The cost of treating them and paying for their losses as they recuperate can cause irreparable financial harm.
Besides compliance, workers' comp is useful because it shoulders the expenses for the following on your behalf:
| Coverage | Function |
|---|---|
 Employee Treatment/Medical Procedure | An employee might fall from a shelf, incur wounds from a tool, experience repetitive motion injuries, etc. Workers' compensation insurance will provide money for the employee’s medical treatment/procedure |
 Hospitalization | When a fire breaks out, an employee might get severely injured and need intensive hospitalization. Workers' compensation insurance is useful in such a situation. Specifically, it will cover hospital bills so that your employee can quickly heal |
 Medication | Workers' compensation insurance also covers expenses if the attending physician requests your employee to buy specific medicines to prevent an injury from becoming severe after surgery or therapy |
 Rehabilitation | Your employee will need rehabilitation if his or her injuries impair specific bodily functions. This needs money too. In line with this, you can use workers' compensation insurance to pay the rehabilitation center |
 Lost Income Compensation | If your employee experiences a severe injury, he or she might need to take a break from work. This will result in lost income which you need to compensate. But there’s no problem if you have workers' compensation insurance. It will provide a weekly allowance to the employee on your behalf. This weekly compensation for lost income is equal to two-thirds or 67% of the average weekly wage |
 Death Benefits | Workers' compensation insurance provides help if your employee dies. It will cover funeral expenses, cash aid to dependents, and other death benefits the law mandates you to provide as the employer |
Consider getting commercial auto insurance if you’re using a vehicle to get stocks or deliver completed pieces to their owners. This is also useful if you’re a mobile upholstery service business. Commercial auto insurance provides the following protections:
| Coverage | Function |
|---|---|
 Auto Liability Coverage | Auto liability coverage in commercial auto insurance is useful if you caused a vehicular accident and injured third parties or damaged properties. It will pay for the medical expenses of persons you injured and will reimburse the owners of the damaged properties. But note one thing though, auto liability coverage won’t take care of expenses if your vehicle caused the accident due to the following reasons: the driver is DUI, the driver is operating with no license, the vehicle is running with no headlights, and other illegal activities |
 Physical Damage Coverage | Nowadays, having a vehicle repaired or maintained in an auto repair shop is very expensive. This is why physical damage coverage is very helpful for your upholstery's auto. This has two forms - collision and comprehensive. Collision physical damage coverage will cover costs if your upholstery’s commercial vehicle incurred damage after colliding with a vehicle or object on the road. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will cover expenses if fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils damaged your business’s vehicle |
 MedPay/Personal Injury Protection | MedPay/personal injury protection covers you, the driver, and the passengers when a vehicular accident happens and injuries are sustained. Both cover your treatment, the passenger’s treatment, and the driver’s treatment. Moreover, coverage applies whether or not the accident is your commercial vehicle’s fault. But note that compared to personal injury protection, MedPay also provides lost income compensation and other benefits. |
Besides third-party injuries, property damages, and legal fees, upholsterers often deal with numerous other problems and expenses. If you want to be safer, get coverage from as many policies as possible, including:
Most insurance policies have specific liability limits, i.e., the maximum stipulated sum your provider will pay for claims. For instance, if you purchase a general liability policy with a $50,000 limit, your insurer can't pay anything beyond $50,000 to any injured customer.
Commercial umbrella insurance covers policyholders like upholsterers against costs that exceed other liability coverage limits. This option may help you cover legal fees, medical bills, third-party property damage, and judgments and settlements.
Simply put, this type of insurance protects the upholstery shop you run from enormous, unexpected events that can annihilate its financial stability and reputation.
Business crimes are more common and detrimental than people think. For instance, according to a recent article, employee theft alone causes 25% of business bankruptcies!
Considering that upholsterers use expensive tools like rotary and demolition hammers, these findings should be worrying.
Running security checks and installing security systems in your upholstery shop may help you prevent crime, but it's not enough. You need to use business crime insurance coverage to protect the business and essential assets from theft, fraud, embezzlement, etc.
Employer’s liability insurance will cover attorney fees, payment orders, and other legal costs if an employee experiences a work-related injury and sues you for negligence. Note that employer’s liability insurance is available as a stand-alone policy or as an inclusion in workers' compensation insurance.
By the way, if you have workers’ compensation insurance, having employer’s liability insurance might be useless. Depending on which state your business is registered in, employees who experienced a work-related injury are prohibited from taking legal action if your business is covered with workers' compensation insurance.
Employment practices liability insurance will cover attorney fees, compensatory payments, and other legal costs if an employee sues your business for wrongful termination, sexual abuse, discrimination, and other related causes.
Business interruption insurance seeks to protect your business from the consequences of having business operations temporarily paused. If you need to close to make way for renovation, relocation, or let an economic crisis pass by, business interruption insurance will pay for employee wages, taxes, mortgages, loans, and other operational costs. It will also reimburse the revenues your business would’ve had.
Upholstery shop insurance costs largely depend on your company's risk level. But most pay $33.33 per month or $400 per year for a $1 million general liability insurance for upholsteries. The actual amount you will spend on your upholstery shop's coverage depends on the following:
Insurance provider
Shop location
Number of workers
Coverage limit
Selected policies
Revenue
In addition, here’s the pricing of the best carriers for tailored insurance for upholstery businesses:
| Cost per Month | Cost per Year | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CoverWallet | $31 | $372 | Upholstery insurance quotes comparison online |
| Thimble | $35 | $420 | Upholsterers seeking flexible, on-demand coverage |
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Many insurance companies are available today. They offer business owners all types of policies and promise to deliver outstanding services. But not all insurers are suitable for upholsterers because many don't offer tailored plans for upholstery shops With that, here are the best options for your business. Read the reviews below to know their pros, cons, and monthly pricing for a $1 million general liability coverage.
Has a platform where you can get and compare the quotes of carriers having tailored upholstery shop insurance
Cancel an insurance policy anytime without any fees
Has live agents that quickly attend to your needs
Doesn’t increase premiums without prior notice
Not an insurance company but an insurance broker
CoverWallet is the best option if you’re planning to take a look at the upholstery insurance quotes of different carriers quickly. It’s an insurance broker with an online quotes comparison platform where you can differentiate the pricing and offers of carriers offering coverage for upholstery businesses. Work with CoverWallet because it allows you to buy any upholstery insurance quotes in an instant. Also, you can pay premiums, manage policies, and get a certificate of insurance via the MyCoverWallet app or CoverWallet’s website.
Best for: Upholstery insurance quotes comparison online
Average cost: $31 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Offers policy options by the month, day, or hour
Excellent customer support
Available in all states
No offline customer support services
No coverage for equipment damage
Thimble is an insurance company that protects businesses against accidents associated with third-party entities. These include property damages and personal, bodily, or advertising injuries. The company offers quick online quotes and allows clients to purchase policies within minutes.
If your upholstery shop needs coverage from a company that caters to any third party, non-employee bodily injuries, third party property damages, defense costs, and errors & omissions, try the Thimble experience.
Best for: Upholsterers seeking flexible, on-demand coverage
Average cost: $35 per month
Our rating: 9/10
Only you have the final say at the end of the day. That’s why it’s important to have an informed buying decision before proceeding to buy tailored upholstery shop insurance from any insurance company. Get quotes, check pricing, and compare the offers of different carriers to get the best coverage for your business. Do this with our online insurance quotes generator. Click the “Get Quotes” button to start.
This place is an absolute joke of a company and should be ashamed of the way they conduct business. I was hurt on the job at the end of July and it took them just shy of 7 weeks to issue out a paycheck to me. Yes the amount was back dated but still. Not many have the luxury of not receiving a paycheck for almost 2 months. To top it all off, the original adjuster marked me down for the wrong state which caused a problem from the get go, I've had 3 different adjusters now since each one can't seem to figure out the simplicity of my claim. All my paperwork which includes, my job, house, and drs visits all are from the same state and city but yet some how I have been filed under a completely different state 1500 miles away. They do not answer your phone calls or emails no matter how many you leave. I've had to escalate my frustrations to the supervisors of each of these individuals in order to even get some kind of response. I've had more communication and information given to me about my claim from the customer service representatives then the actual adjusters.......... please tell me how that works?! A serious overhaul needs to happen here in order to serve your clients the way they deserve to be taken care of. 10/10 do not recommend this company to a single soul on earth
I have never had the displeasure of working with a more incompetent and disrespectful person in my life. I’m an injured worker and the adjuster that was assigned to my case was named Carrie Furgeson. In the past 6 weeks that I’ve been injured and out of work I have only been able to get ahold of her twice, not for lack of trying. I have left countless voicemails, countless emails, and she ignores them all. When I am finally able to get ahold of her I’m greeted with terrible customer service. She is rude, she talks over me and I’m hardly able to get a word in edgewise. She spelled my name wrong on my documents even after I spelled it for her properly countless times, this caused a whole new issue with my bank. I have bill collectors from the hospital calling me demanding payment and Carrie Furgeson won’t do a single thing to help, or to get them paid. All of my documentation is in Colorado, my job is in Colorado, my address is in Colorado, all my Dr offices and appointments have been in Colorado and Carrie still managed to hold my claim because she wasn’t sure what state she needed to file it under. It’s been 6 weeks since my Injury and my company still hasn’t received the wage paperwork to fill out so they can get me my correct wages. When she’s not ignoring me she’s answering my questions with “I don’t know” well I don’t know how she got this job, because apparently she doesn’t know anything about it. She is a disgusting morose individual inside and out and I genuinely wish her the worst in all of her future endeavors. I highly recommend you don’t use this company. Please if you are a business owner and your looking into this company please don’t use them. I’m sure they have the cheapest payment and that’s why companies use them in the first place, but you will be doing your employees a grave disservice by forcing them to venture into this absolute dumpster fire of a company. I would rate 0/5 if possible but 1 was the lowest I was allowed.
Their general liability insurance purchase process is simply the best online experience I've ever had in my life!
As long as they cover your line of business, you're literally covered! best rates, best coverage, best online experience, best professionals, can't be happier that I chose them!
It really can't get any better than this... wow
Not all those who wander are lost.
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