Business coverage
Which coverages your business actually needs, and who decides that
A Florida business usually carries four coverages: general liability for claims from third parties, commercial property for what the business owns or leases, commercial auto for vehicles used for work, and workers' compensation for employee injury. Only workers' compensation is required by state law, and only above certain thresholds. The rest is decided by your contracts.
Nobody buys business insurance because they want to
Most of the time the call starts the same way: a client will not release a purchase order without a certificate, a landlord will not hand over keys, a general contractor will not let the crew on site, or someone got hurt last Tuesday. You are not shopping — you are unblocking something, usually with a date attached. That is worth saying out loud because it changes what matters. The question is rarely "what is the best policy". It is "what exactly does this contract require, what do I already have, and how fast can I prove it".
The four coverages, and what each one pays for
Different risks, different policies. Most businesses end up with some combination of these rather than all four.
General liability
Responds when a third party — a customer, a visitor, a passer-by — claims your business caused bodily injury or damaged their property. It is the coverage almost every contract and commercial lease asks for by name, and the one that appears on the certificate people request.
Commercial property
Covers what the business owns or leases: the space itself if you own it, plus equipment, inventory, furniture and the improvements you made to a rented unit. If you lease, your landlord's policy covers the building, not what you put inside it — that distinction surprises people after a loss.
Commercial auto
Applies to vehicles used for work. This is the boundary people cross without noticing: a personal auto policy is written for personal use, and using the vehicle for business can change how a claim is handled. If employees drive their own cars for work, that is a separate conversation again.
Workers' compensation
Covers medical costs and lost wages when an employee is injured on the job. It is the only one of the four that Florida requires by statute, and only once a business passes a threshold that depends on its industry. Those thresholds are below.
What decides which ones you need
There is no standard package, and any agency that quotes one without asking these questions is guessing.
What the business does
The trade sets the baseline. A contractor climbing ladders, a restaurant with a kitchen, a consultant with a laptop and a client list — same city, very different exposure and very different rules.
How many people work there
Headcount is what turns workers' compensation from optional into mandatory, and the count is not always what you would assume. Owners, officers, subcontractors and seasonal staff can each be treated differently.
What your contracts oblige you to carry
For most small businesses the binding requirement is not the state, it is the paperwork: a lease, a client agreement, a lender, a licensing board. Each can specify coverages and minimum limits, and they do not have to agree with each other. Reading them is the first step, not the last.
Whether you own, lease or work from home
Owning the space, renting it or running the business from your kitchen table produce three different answers. Working from home in particular is where people assume they are covered and usually are not — see your homeowners policy.
What business insurance does not cover
Two things worth knowing before a claim rather than after one.
Your own mistakes in professional work
General liability covers injury and property damage. It does not cover bad advice, a missed deadline or work that did not perform. That is professional liability, a separate policy, and it is what service businesses most often discover they are missing.
Flood, and often wind
A commercial property policy is not a flood policy, and in parts of South Florida wind is written separately too. Same distinction as on the residential side, with the same consequences.
When workers' compensation becomes mandatory in Florida
The threshold is a headcount, and it changes by industry. Construction is treated more strictly than everything else, and agriculture has its own rule. The numbers below come from the definition of "employment" in Florida Statutes section 440.02, verified against flsenate.gov.
- Construction industry
- 1 employeeFla. Stat. 440.02 — verified 2026-08-25
- Non-construction industry
- 4 employeesFla. Stat. 440.02 — verified 2026-08-25
- Agriculture
- 6 regular employeesFla. Stat. 440.02 — verified 2026-08-25
- How owners, LLC members and contractors count
- See noteFla. Stat. 440.02 — verified 2026-08-25
The thresholds above are set by Florida Statutes section 440.02 and were verified against flsenate.gov on 2026-08-25. Two details decide more cases than the headcount itself. Corporate officers and members of a limited liability company who own at least 10 percent may elect an exemption from coverage, and in construction no more than three officers per company or affiliated group may do so. And a non-construction independent contractor has to satisfy at least four of the six tests the statute lists to count as a contractor rather than an employee, with the burden of proof on the contractor. In construction, an independent contractor is generally treated as an employee. Agriculture is written as an exclusion rather than a threshold: a farm is outside the requirement while it employs 5 or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 seasonal workers at one time, so the requirement begins at the sixth regular employee.
Questions from Miami business owners
- When does Florida require me to carry workers' compensation?
- Once your headcount passes the threshold for your industry, which is stricter for construction than for everything else. The exact numbers are in the table above, pending confirmation.
- A client is asking me for a certificate of insurance. What is that?
- A one-page document from your carrier proving you hold the coverages and limits your contract requires. It is not a policy and it does not add coverage — it is evidence of what you already have. If your contract asks for something you do not carry, the certificate is where that becomes visible.
- I use my own car for work. Does my personal policy cover that?
- Not necessarily, and that is the point of the distinction. Personal auto policies are written for personal use; business use can change how a claim is treated. If the vehicle is central to the work, it usually belongs on a commercial policy.
- I run the business from home. Does my homeowners policy cover it?
- Generally not for business exposure. A homeowners policy covers a residence, and business equipment, inventory or visiting clients usually fall outside it. This is one of the most common gaps among small businesses in Miami.
- Do I need coverage before I have employees?
- Workers' compensation is tied to employees, but general liability is not. A business with no staff can still be sued by a customer, and most contracts and leases ask for liability coverage regardless of headcount.
If a contract landed on your desk with an insurance clause you are not sure about, that is the fastest thing to hand over. Romina Saaied works in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
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