How Much Should My Tree Care Business Insurance Cost?

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

As we all know, running a tree care business comes with unique risks; utilizing heavy equipment, working at height, and unpredictable weather conditions all make proper insurance coverage an essential part of doing business. Therefore, I want to address one of the most common questions we get asked by tree care business owners.

How much should I be spending on my business insurance?

A Good Rule of Thumb: 3–5% of Gross Revenue

As a general guideline, tree care companies should expect to spend between 3–5% of their total gross revenue on comprehensive business insurance. This includes essential coverages such as:

• General Liability – Covers third-party injuries and property damage.
• Commercial Property – Protects buildings, office contents, and other physical assets.
• Inland Marine – Insures equipment and tools while in transit or on job sites.
• Business Auto – Covers company vehicles, from pickups to bucket trucks.
• Umbrella Liability – Provides additional liability coverage above primary policies.
• Workers’ Compensation – Covers medical expenses, lost wages, and rehabilitation costs for employees injured on the job, and is typically required by law.

What Impacts Your Premium?

Insurers evaluate many aspects of your business to determine premium rates. Understanding these variables can help you actively manage costs and secure better coverage.

1. Claims History

A clean loss history demonstrates that your company operates safely and responsibly, often resulting in lower premiums. Frequent or severe claims—especially Workers’ Comp or liability claims—can lead to substantial rate increases.

2. Years in Business & Experience

Insurers look favorably on businesses with a track record of safe operations. The more experience your team has, the more confident underwriters feel in providing lower rates for your business.

3. TCIA Accreditation

Accreditation from the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) signals a commitment to industry best business and safety practices, which can positively impact your rates across multiple policy lines.

4. Credentials and Designations

If your staff includes Certified Arborists, CTSPs (Certified Treecare Safety Professionals), or other credentialed professionals, it demonstrates a culture of professionalism and safety.

5. Safety Programs

Documented safety protocols, regular crew training, daily job briefings, and participation in formal safety programs can significantly reduce Workers’ Comp and general liability exposures.

6. Vehicles and Equipment

The type, value, and usage of your fleet and machinery affect premiums. Specialty trucks, like grapple crane trucks, chippers, and aerial lifts require tailored coverage and often carry higher insurance costs.

7. Location

Where you operate also has a direct effect on your rates. High-traffic urban areas often come with higher auto and liability premiums. In addition, the legal climate—how likely lawsuits are in your state or city—can significantly influence liability and Workers’ Comp pricing.

8. State Regulations and Local Risk Factors

Insurance companies will also consider weather patterns, terrain, regulatory enforcement, and state-mandated Workers’ Comp rates when evaluating your risk.

Making Insurance Work for You

You’ve probably heard me say that insurance is NOT risk management, but only part of it. Smart tree care business owners understand this and treat insurance as a proactive part of their risk management strategy, not just a line item. Here are a few tips to keep costs in check:

• Work with an agent or broker who specializes in the tree care or green industry.
• Invest in safety training and certifications to improve your risk profile and reduce claims.
• Maintain detailed documentation for inspections, safety meetings, and incident reporting.
• Review your coverage annually as your operations, crew size, or revenue change.

While 3–5% of gross revenue is a solid benchmark for insurance costs in the tree care industry, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. By understanding what drives your premiums—and taking steps to manage risk and improve safety—you can protect your business, take care of your team, and position yourself for sustainable growth.

If you are struggling with developing a risk management program for your company, please reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive New Heights Risk Management Package today!

Buyer Beware! CG2144 or CG2136?

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Understanding the nuances of your insurance policies may not be your top priority, but the fine print deep inside the language of your policy can make all the difference when it comes to a claim. 

Since we have been insuring tree care companies and analyzing their insurance coverage for over 20 years now, we’ve seen a lot of different policy forms and endorsements over the years. However, the two most common and dangerous endorsements we see on General Liability policies that tree care company owners are not aware of are…

CG2144 – Limitation of Coverage to Designated Premises or Project

CG2136 – Exclusion – Designated Work

Let’s dig into each of them below…

CG2144 – Limitation of Coverage to Designated Premises or Project

This endorsement changes your General Liability policy to ONLY cover certain locations and or operations that your company performs. If you have this endorsement on your policy, you will see a box showing what premises or projects (operations) that the General Liability will be providing coverage for. If your company offers any other services that are not listed here, there will not be General Liability coverage when you need it. 

We often see tree care companies that do some landscaping or snow/ice removal who do not have coverage for those services because they do not have those services listed on this limitation of coverage. 

CG2136 – Exclusion – Designated Work

This endorsement changes your General Liability policy to EXCLUDE coverage for certain operations/services that you may provide. Like the CG2144, if you have this endorsement on your policy, you will find a box with a number of services or operations included inside. These are operations that the insurance company will not cover you for.

The most common and perhaps problematic of the services that are listed in this endorsement would be for crane operations. Unfortunately, we see crane operations excluded from policies all of the time using this endorsement. So whether you own a crane or rent one or subcontract a company with a crane to assist in a large removal, please, please, please, make sure you do not have this on your policy!

Of course with most insurance coverages, if you find that you have either or both of these forms on your policy talk with your insurance agent to have them edited or removed all together. 

If your current agent has never discussed either of these policy forms with you, click here to request an Insurance Coverage Review from an ArboRisk team member.

Effective Sales Meetings

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Raise your hand if you love sales meetings.

I bet not many readers of this article actually raised their hand and I don’t blame them for that. Most sales meetings are not an effective use of the sales person’s time. Sales people do not want to be stuck in a meeting, they want to be out seeing their customers and prospects and their frustration with meetings compounds when they don’t feel that they get any value out of the meeting itself. 

What is the objective of a Sales Meeting? 

It is simply to help your sales team sell more.That’s it. Don’t overcomplicate this during your meetings. 

So how do you make sure you are having effective sales meetings? Here are my six tips to getting the most out of your sales meetings:

1. Define purpose to all involved – The “Why” – Make sure everyone knows why you are holding sales meetings; to help them sell more! This sounds elementary, but this simple purpose must be stated fairly regularly to keep sales people engaged before, during and after the meeting. When they feel that they have your support, salespeople perform better and are more likely to help offer suggestions for improvement. 
2. Set an agenda and stick to it – Without an agenda, sales meetings meander around hoping to help someone in the meeting while undoubtedly wasting most people’s time. No one wants to sit in a meeting and not know what is going to be talked about next or worse yet, not know how long the meeting will last. An agenda that is sent out in advance of the meeting also allows the participants a chance to prepare beforehand to be more effective during the time spent together. For a few sample meeting agenda types, check out this article. 
3. Start AND end on time – This also is pretty basic, but when you ask a sales person to take time out of their day to spend in a meeting versus with their customers/prospects, you need to start the meeting on time and end on time. Respecting your sales people’s time should be a foundational part of any organization. Most tree companies are good at starting on time, but need to work at ending on time. To properly end a meeting on time, your agenda must keep you focused and have a built-in option to table certain items until the next meeting.
4. Celebrate wins – Everyone likes to feel victorious and sharing success stories with your sales team are a great way to do this. Not only does the individual salesperson get recognition for a job well done, the others may learn a thing or two on what went into closing that sale and be able to apply that the next time they have a similar situation. 
5. Ensure collaborative environment – It is easy for a sales meeting to turn into a competitive bragging session between your sales people, especially when you are celebrating individual wins. Ensure that you create a collaborative environment by focusing on team goals throughout the meeting and building in time for everyone to contribute something that they’ve learned/experienced. It’s amazing to hear the sales ideas you get from your team when you foster a team environment in your sales meetings.  
6. Keep meeting minutes – This last tip is probably the hardest for every sales manager, but it is so critical to keep your meetings as effective as possible. Before the meeting starts, someone should be assigned to take the meeting minutes. They do not have to be an entire log of everything that was said, but they should reflect; who was in attendance, summary of each agenda item, goal updates and most importantly who will do what by when. The last part is the crucial accountability part that is often missed with sales meetings. Remember, the purpose of the sales meeting is to help your salespeople sell more, so build this into your meeting structure so there is more accountability for everyone involved.

If you are struggling creating a sales meeting format that works for your team or need help developing a better sales process, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today to get started in our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package.

Sales Meeting Types and Agendas

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Ah, the dreaded sales meeting. Every tree care company that has a sales team holds these meetings, yet, not many companies know how to best utilize the time spent together. The largest improvement a tree care company can make to their sales meetings is to create and stick to a set agenda. 

But when creating an agenda, many sales managers realize there are a lot of topics they wish to cover and not enough time to do it. Because of this, I recommend getting your sales team on a regular schedule of three types of sales meetings to be held weekly, monthly and quarterly. 

At ArboRisk, we recently moved to this structure and it has helped our sales team keep their focus during these meetings and has allowed us to be more effective with the time we spend together. 

**Pro Tip** Select a set day of the week and at the same time to hold these meetings every week so everyone becomes comfortable in the cadence of the meetings. 

Weekly Prospecting Meeting – Just Sales Team – 30 mins

This meeting should be brief and focused on the tasks that are needed to be performed to achieve results. These meetings keep your team aligned and on track. 

Agenda

• Introduction (5 minutes)
  1. Icebreaker
  2. Outline goals for the meeting
• Team Brief (5 minutes)
  1. Go over new company updates or policies
  2. Review questions or concerns from the previous meeting
• Prospect Pipeline Updates (5 minutes)
  1. Discuss open Opportunities in the pipeline
  2. Identify challenges or bottlenecks
• Review Goals and Metrics (5 minutes)
  1. Evaluate progress
  2. Review key performance metrics
  3. Discuss trajectory
• Celebrate Wins & Share Ideas (5 minutes)
  1. Recognize individual and team achievements
  2. Highlight specific successes
  3. Exchange ideas
• The Wrap Up (5 minutes)
  1. Action items to be completed before next meeting
  2. Confirm next meeting time and agenda

Monthly Sales Meeting – Just Sales Team – 1 hour

This meeting is a little more strategic than the weekly meetings. While you still focus on tasks that need to be done, reviewing the past month and setting the course for the coming month are important here. 

Agenda

• Introduction (5 minutes)
1. Icebreaker
2. Outline the goals for the meeting
• Performance Review (5 minutes)
1. Analyze overall team sales performance for the month
2. Review key metrics for team and individuals
3. Discuss areas of success
4. Discuss areas of improvement
• Goal Progress (10 minutes)
1. Assess progress toward our quarterly sales goals
2. Discuss any challenges and bottlenecks identified during weekly meeting
• Strategy Evaluation (10 minutes)
1. Reflect on the effectiveness of sales strategies and tactics
2. Identify opportunities for refinement or new approaches
• Training and Development (25 minutes)
1. Sales Training Topic 
2. Brainstorm for next monthly sales training topic
• The Wrap Up (5 minutes)
1. Action items to be completed before next meeting
2. Confirm next meeting time and agenda

Quarterly Sales & Marketing Meeting – Sales & Marketing Teams – 1 hour 

Quarterly Sales Meetings need to focus on more strategy items and incorporate your marketing team. This is when Sales & Marketing come together to make adjustments and ensure the marketing messaging is being utilized by the sales team. 

Agenda

1. Introduction (5 minutes)
• Icebreaker
• Outline the goals for the meeting
2. Review the Last Quarter (15 minutes)
• Evaluate the team’s performance
• Identify successes, challenges, and areas for improvements
• Discuss lessons learned
3. Plan for the Next 90 Days (15 minutes)
• Set new goals and objectives
• Define specific action plans and targets
• Establish clear expectations
4. The Health of the Pipeline and Strategies (10 minutes)
• Assess the status of ongoing deals in the sales pipeline
• Identify any bottlenecks or opportunities
• Review the effectiveness of current plans and tactics
• Discuss new marketing approaches or initiatives
5. Review the Annual and Long-term Plan (10 minutes)
• Revisit the annual and 3-5 year goals
• Evaluate progress towards these goals
6. The Wrap Up (5 minutes)
• Action items to be completed before next meeting
• Confirm next meeting time and agenda

Lastly, it’s important to note that the Monthly and Quarterly meetings will take place instead of the Weekly meetings, so as not to overburden everyone with extra meetings. For example, let’s say you make Tuesday morning your meeting time, here is this basic cadence for the first quarter in 2024. 

Jan. 2nd, 2024 – Quarter 1 – Sales & Marketing Meeting

Jan. 9th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Jan. 16th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Jan. 23rd – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Jan. 30th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Feb. 6th – Monthly Sales Meeting

Feb. 13th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Feb. 20th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Feb. 27th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Mar. 5th – Monthly Sales Meeting

Mar. 12th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Mar. 19th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

Mar. 26th – Weekly Prospecting Meeting

April 2nd – Quarter 2 – Sales & Marketing Meeting, and so on…

If you are struggling creating a sales meeting format that works for your team or need help developing a better sales process, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today to get started in our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package.

We are all in sales

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Everyone in your organization is in sales. There I said it. Don’t agree with me? Keep reading and let’s see if I can change your mind.

To start, I want you to reflect on a recent experience that you’ve personally had where you purchased a product or service from someone; not a nameless, faceless online purchase, but from interacting with a real person. Think about how many people you interacted with during that process. Was there just one person involved? Probably not. 

After an initial consultation/call with a typical “sales” person, you probably were handed off to a “customer support” team member who helped finish your product order or schedule the service. There may even have been a different person(s) who delivered the product/service. 

No matter how many people were involved, they all contributed to your customer experience with that company. They all had a chance to help or hurt your experience which will determine whether or not you will buy from them again or refer them to your friends. 

We recently hired a contractor to install an egress window in our basement. After getting quotes from multiple places and learning about how they would install the window, we made our decision and picked a contractor that was in the middle of the price point, but seemed to have a good process in place. They made getting the initial estimate easy and told us exactly what to expect with scheduling and when the crew came out to do the work. In all, we spoke to four different people during the entire process; the initial owner (salesperson), the customer service representative who scheduled our work and let us know exactly when the crew was going to be coming, the job foreman and a crew member (who I happened to talk to when they first arrived before the foreman got out of his truck). 

It was clear that everyone within that company understood they were all responsible for selling a great experience to us, even the crew member. It was such a wonderful interaction that we are already thinking about hiring them again for a second window in our basement, something we hadn’t originally planned on doing. 

And that’s the beauty of this organizational mindset! We are most likely going to buy from them again, because of the experience we had. They all did their part in ‘selling’ us why they are the best option for egress windows. 

Now think about my story and relate it to your tree care company. How many of your team members communicate with the customer? How many opportunities does your team have to impress or turn off customers and/or potential customers? 

From the initial sales conversation to the completed work, everyone within your company has a part in making that experience a wonderful one. That even includes the person in the office who is only crunching numbers as well as your shop mechanic who doesn’t have any interactions except with your machines. These team members provide the customer facing employees with valuable services or expertise that allow them to shine even brighter when working with the customers.

Afterall, isn’t that the point of a sale? You want to get a customer to select your company so you can provide them with the unmatched customer experience that you believe only your company provides, right? 

So how do you begin to create this mindset so everyone sees themselves as a vital role in the sales process? 

The first step is that everyone must understand how your company helps your customers. That doesn’t mean your in-office bean counter needs to know how to properly rig a branch over a fence during a removal, but it does mean they need to know that your company has the skills, equipment and expertise to perform that job safely and efficiently for your customer. They need to know the basics of what ancillary services you provide that help the customer’s trees and properties even further. When each team member truly understands how your company can help your customers, they all have the opportunity to add value throughout the customer journey, which leads us to the second step, cross-selling.

Cross-selling additional services usually are reserved for the prototypical sales people because most people do not want to pressure people into buying more from them. However, if you have nurtured a sales culture within your company, everyone who interacts with a customer may be able to suggest additional services to the customer or at a minimum be able to identify a cross-selling opportunity. To properly instill this throughout your company, you need to consciously discuss the work that you do for your customers with everyone. There needs to be consistent success story messages that are delivered organization-wide so people learn and remember how your team has helped your customers. With repeated internal communication regarding how you’ve helped customers, your team will naturally start to think about it and see opportunities to gain more revenue from your existing customers. 

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, you need to debunk the negative connotation that often comes with sales. Clearly everyone in your company knows that you don’t have a business if there are no customers and for that to happen, someone has to sell your service. But you need to cultivate a team sales culture so that everyone understands that no matter what their role is, they play a part in it. If you need to build in incentives for your employees who don’t have sales in their job title start to understand the concept, do so. Have an after work cookout/happy hour if the office team can cross-sell ‘x’ number of jobs or if the in-field crew upsells plant health care services to 10% of the jobs that they are on. Whatever the incentive is, give those employees a chance to see how they can benefit personally from additional sales to the company. 

So, do you now agree with me that everyone in your company is in sales? If you’re struggling with your sales team or want to learn how to improve the sales process within your company, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or register for our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package today.

How costly is a poor business culture?

Written by Kevin Martlage

In past weekly tips, we have spent quite a bit of time talking about the importance of having a supportive business culture. Additionally, we have written numerous articles about how to assess, develop and sustain that supportive culture to help further your company and retain your employees. One thing we have not specifically covered is what is the impact financially on your company when not having a supportive culture starts to get in the way of your ability to advance.

A key to building a supportive business culture is not only developing trust through effective and intentional communication and conflict resolution, but it also includes your ability as a leader to keep your employees engaged, motivated, and focused. Employee engagement can be defined in numerous ways, but fundamentally it is your team’s emotional commitment to their work, the company goals, and their daily impact. Employee engagement is a key indicator of a leader’s ability to lead and motivate members of their team towards their personal and company goals. This engagement must be deeply rooted in trust, communication, and mutually serving intentions to ensure that engagement is in alignment with the needs of the employee and the goals of the company.

There are numerous articles that have been written about the importance of employee engagement as a driver of organizational success, however there are three critical areas you must focus on to drive impactful employee engagement. Those areas include communication, execution, and trust, and specifically the alignment of expectations around those three areas. To find out more on how to focus on and develop those three areas, I encourage you to check out the article I wrote entitled, “What If Everything You Knew About Business Culture Was Wrong?” That article dives into the importance of looking at your business culture critically around those key areas.

As you continue to build a supportive business culture, it is critical to also think about how you will ensure a high level of employee engagement within that culture. Employee engagement is the number one driver when it comes to the fiscal impact a poor business culture may have on your company. When you think about employee engagement, there are typically five key indicators that are considered. Those key indicators include Performance, Productivity, Absenteeism, Retention and Customer Satisfaction. Those five areas are critical when it comes to building the employer / employee relationship which is the cornerstone of your company’s ability to deliver for your customers.

In a 2023 University of Pittsburg article, “Employee Relations: A Critical Area of HR Management” the author outlines specifically the benefits of focusing on employee relations. Those benefits include:

• Improved employee morale and engagement
• Increased productivity
• Improved retention
• Decrease absenteeism
• Decreased costs (due to eliminating high turnover)
• Positive company culture

The article also points out, “When employees feel valued, supported, and heard they are more likely to be engaged and motivated to perform at their best. Improved employee engagement will lead to better outcomes for the company, including increased revenue and a positive reputation.”

So, as leaders, if you can focus on building the employee relationship, while ensuring that you are aligned around properly supporting them and their values, you will continue to impact the key indicators of employee engagement critical to the overall success of your company. That focus will positively impact the financial performance of your company while also helping to build a sustainable and effective culture your employees enjoy working in.

If you look at the five areas of employee engagement mentioned earlier, it is easy to then understand how focused attention can positively impact the financial performance of your company. However, if you are not focused on employee engagement you can begin to impact your company financially as follows:

• Performance – A disengaged employee can begin to cause problems which impact overall employee morale while creating a potentially toxic work environment. This then creates a higher level of turnover and absenteeism while impacting performance.
• Productivity – A recent Gallup report said unengaged employees are 18% less productive than their engaged co-workers. Those that are unengaged cause the overall productivity of the company to drag while other must “step up” to help cover the loss in productivity.
• Absenteeism – The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the loss of productivity associated with absenteeism cost US Companies $225.8 billion annually. This includes approximately $3,600 for each hourly employee in unscheduled absenteeism annually.
• Retention – When employees are not engaged in their work, they become unhappy and eventually leave. This results in higher turnover which equates to a significant fiscal impact to the company for sourcing, hiring, training, and on-boarding. There are a lot of statistics out there, but on average it costs 6-8 months of an employee’s salary to replace them once they leave!
• Customer Satisfaction – Non engaged employees, who are not happy and feel unsupported, will provide poorer customer service, which will result in a loss of revenue and a low customer retention rate.

 Employee engagement and its level of importance in the supportive business culture you develop and sustain is critical to the overall financial success of your company. The five critical areas listed above are just the beginning when it comes to the fiscal impact a poor business culture can have. Outside of employee engagement, you must also think about the lost time that is created when conflict is not resolved properly, communication is not intentional, and trust begins to be broken. As a leader, my number one encouragement to you is to remain focused on the support and engagement of your employees. Of course, the financial success of your company is important, but without an engaged team and an aligned and supportive business culture your sustainable success may be in jeopardy.

If you would like to learn more about developing and advancing your business culture, please check out one of our numerous Thrive packages or contact a Thrive Consultant today.