Protect Your Business From Your Brother-in-Law!

I started a moving company. So what did I learn when my brother-in-law worked in my business?

Starting a business isn’t as easy as you might think. Firstly, I found out that starting my own moving company had little to do with knowing how to load and move furniture. It’s a lot of paperwork. If I wanted to do paperwork I would have started an accounting agency! So I made my wife the office manager and she put herself and her brother on the payroll.

We Started Moving Quickly

She took care of getting an EIN number and registering our business. She also set up the bank accounts and started using a nice little small business accounting software program. That program helped her set up payroll checks, tax withholding and workers compensation insurance. Soon she had everything running smoothly, even the advertising, accounts payable and receivable. 

Do What You Love

I get to do what I know best, which is people and moving furniture. With two other guys on the payroll, along with my brother-in-law, the four of us could handle anything. We’re all in great physical shape which is important when starting a moving company unless you’re going to hire the muscle.

Still, moving furniture makes the body hurt. One wrong move and you can hurt your body. Losing help to injury was always a concern but I knew we had workers compensation insurance to cover medical costs and lost wages if one of the guys got hurt. Then I found out that my wife had not included her brother in the workers’ compensation coverage. Turns out, the law says if the employee is a relative, I don’t have to cover him. 

Move It Right Or Else …

The next day my moving company was moving some really nice furniture from this big house. There was a lot of heavy stuff including these big commercial refrigerators and freezers.  I watched my brother-in-law bend to guide the fridge onto the dolly, lose his footing and do a painful back twist to reposition himself. I asked him if he was alright or needed a doctor. No doctor he said; not with my $5000 deductible.

That’s No Way To Treat Family

So, he was okay but what if? Without workers compensation, my brother-in-law could get hurt on the job and end up having to pay huge medical bills. Plus, he wouldn’t have any income for weeks; months even. That’s no way to treat family; so we fixed it. Workers compensation protects my guys if they get hurt on my jobs. That protects my financial assets.

Protect your family if you want to protect your business. Protect your business assets from your brother-in-law by including him on your workers compensation insurance policy along with your other employees. How? Ask Small Business Liability.

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