Case study 02 · Overhead
Two percent of gross, before you dig
General liability is not a bill that turns up at year end. It is priced off your sales, billed over ten months, and then audited against what you told the tax man.
The rate and the billing shape on this page are Jay’s own, from a recorded interview on 15 September 2026. The worked figures further down are round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic. They are not Checkered Flag’s sales.
The situation
Priced off your sales, not off your jobs.
Most owner-operators think of general liability as a fixed annual cost, like a phone bill. It is not. It is a percentage of what you sell, which means it grows with every job you win, whether or not you ever price it into one.
“So you got to have general liability no matter what, and it’s based, it’s based on gross sales, and typically your premium is is two percent of your gross sales.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 19:16
He says the same thing a second way elsewhere in the recording: he does not price it per job at all, he runs it as a yearly operating number off gross sales. The more you make, the more you pay.
- The rate
- 2%Of gross sales. His stated rule of thumb for general liability.
- Billed over
- 10Months of premium, then renewal
- Each payment
- 0.2%Of your annual gross sales. Our arithmetic on his two figures.
- Carriers used
- 6 to 7Over his career. Federated now; Allied and Associated before.
The arithmetic
What his rate looks like as a monthly cheque.
Two percent of the year, divided into ten payments. That is the whole calculation, and it is the one number most bids leave out entirely.
The sales figures below are round numbers chosen to show the shape of the arithmetic. They are not Checkered Flag’s sales, which are not published anywhere and do not appear on this site.
| Your gross sales for the year | General liability at 2% | Each of ten payments |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $1,000 | $100 |
| $250,000 | $5,000 | $500 |
| $500,000 | $10,000 | $1,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $20,000 | $2,000 |
“It’s something that you just don’t really pay attention to except for when the check comes out of your account every month. It hurts every month whenever you’re paying it.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 24:52
The part that catches people
The tenth payment is not the last one.
The premium you pay all year is a forecast. It is set off last year’s books and your own estimate of this year. At the end of it, somebody comes and checks.
“It’s based off your last year and what you estimate this year to do. … So and so you’re paying, you’re paying 10 months of premium, um. It’s always 10 months of premium and then renewal, and they break down your your yearly price over to over 10 months.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 25:25 and 25:53
If you sold more than you forecast, the difference is yours to pay, in one piece, at the worst possible moment in a cash cycle.
“At the end of your of your 10 month of premium — what, when your audit comes through — they’re going to ask you to pay the difference. And if you can’t pay the difference you put yourself in a hell of a position, because it could be, you know, several thousand dollars. You know it might cost you an extra ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand, thirty thousand.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 26:44
And the obvious dodge does not work. Whatever you report on your taxes is what they price against.
“You have to be honest, there’s no getting out of it. You know they’ve been in the, in this game a long time, you’re not you’re not gonna outsmart them on it.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 27:39
Who you buy it from
Six or seven carriers, and a rule about all of them.
He is on his current carrier after a career of moving. The moving is the point: he shops it, and he will not buy commercial cover from a residential company.
Carriers, career to date
6 to 7
His own count, from the recording.
Carrier now
Federated
Named by him on the recording, September 2026.
Carriers before
Allied, Associated
Named by him on the recording as previous carriers.
His habit
Shop it
“We try to shop it around, make sure that that we’re keeping our guy honest.” Recorded 15 September 2026, 33:39.
“You don’t want to try to buy your insurance for a business through like State Farm or through Farmers or some sort of residential type of company that might have a brokerage company that that they’re friends with that they say can help you out. You want to deal with a company that that is their specialty, and they’re always going to get you the best rates and the best service.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 33:11
What it means for your bid
Five lines to add before you price anything.
Two cents of every dollar you sell is already spoken for.
Before overhead recovery, before profit, before the machine leaves the yard. Put it in the bid as a line you can see, not as something the year absorbs.
The cheque is monthly. The price is annual.
Ten payments, then renewal. A slow month does not make the payment smaller, which is precisely when it lands hardest.
Your estimate to the carrier is a forecast that gets audited.
They read what you filed. Guess low and the true-up arrives as one bill, in his words possibly ten, twenty or thirty thousand dollars, at a moment you did not choose.
Money back is not a win.
A refund at audit means you sold less than you planned to. His line on it: “if you’re getting money back from them you’ve screwed up somehow, you’ve done something wrong.”
Buy it from a company whose specialty this is.
Not from the agent who wrote your house. And shop it, on a schedule, whether or not you intend to move.
Next · 03
Why he will not run corrugated pipe
Slick pipe only, schedule 35 minimum, and a slope you can run a riding mower across sideways.
Back · 01
The $40,000 claim that cost $80,000
One pulled bicep, one claim in a career, and three years at 130% of premium afterwards.
Source: recorded interview with Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026, timestamps as shown. His rate and his carriers, unverified against policy documents. Last reviewed 21 September 2026.
Overhead recovery is Module 06.
The office, the truck, the insurance and the unbillable people. What has to ride on every single bid before you have made a dollar.