CONTRACTORS · IDAHO FALLS & SOUTH JORDAN · LICENSED IN IDAHO AND UTAH
Skip the call center. Text the guy who insures contractors.
Pay a sub without their certificate and their payroll lands on your audit. The trades are half my clientele, and I've been insuring small business owners since 2010. Need help making sense of what you've got? Send it over — even when the policy isn't mine. Hablo español. If you build in Idaho or Utah, we should probably talk.
Ben Page
Principal · Idaho Falls & South Jordan
WHY PEOPLE TEXT ME
You didn't get into your trade to wait on hold.
I wrote down the whole order of operations — the bookkeeper, the entity, Idaho registration vs Utah licensing, W-2 vs 1099, sub certificates, and your first audit. Free, no email required. Starting a contracting business →
THE NUMBER
Up to 40% is a real number.
I carry contractor programs most agents can't offer — real, A-rated companies; the programs are just hard to get into. Getting you in is my job, and that's exactly why the number is real. Contractors with a decent record who moved their work comp to me have saved up to 40% — and on the contractors package (property and liability) too. Not everyone saves that much; it depends on your record and your operation. It starts with one text.
A certificate can't fix coverage you don't have.
NEED A CERTIFICATE?
Text me. That's the whole process.
If you're my client, one text and I take it from there. You never have to know the steps — just the next one, and I'll tell you what that is. If what they're asking for needs coverage you don't have yet, I'll say so right then, instead of you finding out at the gate.
Not my client yet? Text me anyway. I'll tell you what I'd need to get a policy in place.
DOPL raised the minimum general liability for licensed contractors to $1 million per occurrence, effective March 30, 2026, and it bites at renewal. If your policy still carries the old limits, DOPL won't renew your license. Idaho's floor is still $300,000 — but nearly every GC contract asks for a million anyway. Send me your dec page and I'll tell you whether your limits clear it. What else is different in Utah →
STEAL THIS EMAIL
Collecting certificates from your own subs.
Copy it, change the names, send it to every sub before their first check.
Subject: Certificate of insurance before your first check
[Name] — before we can pay you, I need a current certificate of insurance from your agent showing your general liability, with [your company] listed as additional insured, and your work comp — or your owner-exemption paperwork if you're exempt. Have your agent email it to me; it takes them a few minutes. No certificate, no check — the auditor counts unpapered subs as my payroll.
While we're on the words: a certificate holder just gets a copy of the proof. An additional insured gets pieces of the policy's protection extended to them — which is why the company hiring you usually asks to be both, and why the exact wording in the contract matters. If someone sends you wording you don't recognize, that's a photo-and-text situation, not a guessing situation.
THE SKINNY ON AUDITS
Audits aren't optional — and they follow you.
Every work comp policy ends in an audit. Skip it and the company estimates your payroll for you — high — and bills accordingly. Closing the company doesn't get you out of it either: your claims history sets a multiplier on your price (the industry calls it a mod), it follows the ownership rather than the business name, and every company can see it in the same shared database. It moves over years, not months — how fast claims get reported, whether hurt guys come back on light duty, whether old claims actually get closed out. If your rate went up and nobody explained why, send me the worksheet and I'll walk you through what's driving it.
The contractor insurance mistakes I keep seeing → Ten work comp facts nobody tells you →
THE PART MOST OWNERS SKIP
A bookkeeper solves most of this.
Almost every expensive surprise I see on a contractor's account comes down to records. Three things fix it, and a good bookkeeper does all three:
- Get a certificate from every sub before you pay them. No certificate, no check. A sub you can't paper gets counted as your payroll when the audit comes.
- Keep payroll broken out by class of work. Sorted the way the audit reads it, there's nothing left for the auditor to argue with.
- Hire somebody to do both. A bookkeeper costs less than one bad audit, and it's the cheapest money you'll spend on this page.
If your records are messy, the auditor makes the assumptions for you, and they don't go your way. Send me your last audit worksheet and I'll tell you what yours is going to say.
Brand new to contracting? Start with the whole order of operations →
THE COVERAGES, IN PLAIN ENGLISH
What each policy actually does.
- General liabilityThe one every GC and landlord asks about — injuries and damage your work causes to other people and their property.
- Work compYour crew, when they get hurt. Priced off payroll, trued up at the audit.
- Commercial autoThe trucks, the trailers, employees driving — personal auto policies back away from work use.
- Tools & equipmentAn installation floater covers tools and materials on the jobsite and in transit — most owners don't know they're missing it.
- UmbrellaSits on top of your other liability limits and picks up where they stop.
- Home & auto tooI write the owner's personal side as well, so it's one person for all of it. Why that matters more for owners →
- BondsOften required on public and GC work — a bond backs your obligation to someone else. A different animal from insurance; happy to explain the difference.
- What none of them coverPoor workmanship. Redoing your own bad work is on you — coverage answers accidents, not quality. The most common surprise there is.
Plain English on any of these is one text away. ¿Prefieres español? Escríbeme.
BEN'S TAKE
A job applicant I never hired sued my first business — I'd bought every coverage my agent offered, and the one I needed wasn't in the stack. That's why I do this.
How I think about coverage
Cover the big stuff first. Raise the deductible on what you can absorb, and put the difference toward the claim that could actually sink the business.
A note from a longtime client.
Ben is always ready to help me with whatever I need. All my business goes to Ben — he's reliable and honest.
Greg Howe · Owner, Howe Deep LLC
TRADES I WRITE
If you run one of these, I write it.
- Drywall, tape & texture
- General contractors & homebuilders
- Roofing
- Masonry & concrete
- Painting
- Stucco & plaster
- Plumbing, HVAC & mechanical
- Electrical
- Flooring, tile & custom cabinets
- Excavation, septic & asphalt
- Specialty trades
Drywall crews especially — more of my clientele hangs rock, tapes, and textures than any other trade, and I can tell you what a drywall audit usually asks for.
Rather not text? Type it here instead — you can attach a photo of your dec page or audit bill.
A sentence is plenty. It goes to me.
START HERE
Text me what you've got.
A photo of your audit worksheet, your dec page, or the contract page a GC sent you is enough to start. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If I'm not your guy, I'll tell you — and point you to someone who is.