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Though summer is known by many as the season for taking things slow, it is also the time when certain businesses kick it into gear. As your business takes advantage of the long days, short nights, and heavy foot traffic of the summer crowd, you need adequate seasonal business insurance to protect you from various risks and unforeseen accidents.
In this guide, we cover: what seasonal business insurance is, who needs it, and the different summer risks that seasonal business insurance addresses.
Let’s get started!
What Qualifies as a Summer-Only Business?
Strictly speaking, summer-only businesses are those that only operate during the summer.
A few examples of these businesses include the following:
- Pop-up stands, stores, and cafes
- Food trucks
- Pool services
- Lawn care services
- Boat cleaning services
- Summer camps
- Summer-only events and festivals
- Summer-only venues
- Summer-only theme parks
- Summer equipment rentals (e.g. boats, jet skis)
- Drive-in movie theatres
This guide on season business insurance does not merely speak to summer-only businesses in the strictest sense. Other businesses that only operate during select seasons would also need seasonal business insurance.
What Is Seasonal Business Insurance?
Though most commercial insurance plans cover the business for an entire year, seasonal business insurance is designed to give coverage for the seasons or periods when a business is active. Here are some of the key details about seasonal business insurance:
1. Seasonal Business Insurance Can Cover Any Season
While this article focuses primarily on businesses that are active during the summer season, seasonal business insurance can also cover businesses that are active during another season or a set of seasons.
2. Seasonal Business Insurance Can Be Set Up for Small Businesses and Larger Enterprises
Whether you own a small business like a food truck or a large business like a seasonal theme park, seasonal business insurance has you covered. With the help of an experienced commercial insurance broker, you will get the coverage that addresses your business’s unique risk profile for a premium that’s truly worth it.
3. You Can Have a Mix of Year-Round Insurance and Seasonal Business Insurance
Though a business may close completely during some seasons, it doesn’t mean that all risks are gone too. This is why you can have a mixture of year-round and seasonal insurance, depending on your needs and preferences.
Consider this example:
You run a food truck business during the summer season. During summer, you haveseasonal general liability insurance to protect you from a wide range of third-party liabilities while your business is active.
However, as you park your food truck for the winter, the risk of vehicular theft and damage is still present. You may also need to drive your food truck out during winter to get some maintenance work done on it while your business is at rest. For this reason, you have year-round commercial auto insurance for your food truck.
Having a versatile setup for seasonal and year-round commercial insurance is yours for the taking. All you need is an experienced insurance brokerage firm committed to providing the best insurance solutions for your business.
Why Do Summer-Only Businesses Need Seasonal Business Insurance?
Even if summer-only businesses only operate for a shorter time within the year, seasonal business insurance is still vital because of the various potential risks. The following risks are common to many summer-only businesses:
1. Spoiled Inventory
As the pleasantly warm days of summer roll by, the power grid can get overloaded. This can lead to power outages of varying lengths. Businesses that rely on electricity to keep inventory fresh may experience spoilage during extended power outages. To protect your business during these types of incidents, you can count on seasonal commercial property insurance.
2. Fire
Fires are a seasonal summer threat. This could result from grilling accidents, failed pyrotechnics, mechanical breakdowns, wildfires, etc. In any case, whether the fire starts from your establishment or not, the hot dry weather will increase its chances of spreading. If your commercial space (and its contents) are damaged by fire, seasonal commercial property insurance will have you covered.
3. Slips and Trips
Slips and trips (and consequent lawsuits) don’t choose a season. But with large summer crowds and busy staff during the summer, slips and trips are at a heightened risk. If these accidents result in third-party injuries, it could be a big problem for your summer-only business. Such cases can be covered by seasonal commercial general liability insurance.
4. Injuries within Premises or Because of Business Operations
Aside from slips and trips, there are other risks of third-party injuries that your seasonal business can be liable for. This is likely to happen in larger spaces with bigger and more active crowds. As a general rule, the risk of injuries always increases the more foot traffic your business gets.
So for seasonal theme parks, summer events, summer camps, summer-only venues, jet ski rentals, cabin rentals, and so on, seasonal general liability insurance is a must-have.
5. Product Liability and Food Poisoning
Summer is a lovely time for bonding with loved ones and eating out. Numerous summer-only businesses capitalize on this. If your business falls under this category, note that food poisoning incidents are heightened during the hot summer months. This is because bacteria can multiply faster in warmer conditions. For this reason, your summer-only food business needs seasonal general liability insurance.
Get the Protection You Need With Our Customized Seasonal Business Insurance
Whether you’re looking for a seasonal business insurance bundle or a mix of seasonal and year-round insurance policies, you can always count on KASE Insurance. We are a leading and award-winning insurance brokerage firm based in Ontario.
Our experts specialize in customized commercial insurance for a wide variety of industries. Get started on protecting your summer-only business.
(416) 588 5273 
