The insurance tradies skip (and shouldn't)

Forty grand of tools behind one door lock, and not a cent coming in if you break your wrist. Most tradies sort public liability because the site demands it, then stop. These are the covers that quietly matter more.

Tool insurance

Tool theft isn't bad luck, it's a business model. Utes get done over outside homes at night, at job sites in broad daylight, and outside the servo while you're grabbing a pie. Add up what's in your ute right now - the big power tools, the batteries, the hand tools you've collected over ten years - and it's usually a scarier number than you thought.

Tool cover pays to replace stolen or damaged gear. Two things to check before you sign: where it covers (in a locked vehicle overnight? on site? at home?), and whether your expensive items need listing individually. Then make the claim easy on future-you:

• Photograph your gear, with serial numbers where they exist
• Keep receipts for the big-ticket tools
• Update the list when you buy something serious

Income protection

This is the most-skipped cover of all, and the one that ends businesses. There's no sick leave when you're solo. No annual leave, no workers comp safety net. If you can't swing a hammer for three months, your income is zero for three months, and the mortgage doesn't pause to match.

Income protection pays you a portion of your usual income while you're too injured or sick to work. The big lever is the waiting period - how long you cover yourself before payments start. Longer wait, cheaper premium. Worth an honest look at how many weeks your savings would actually carry you.

Your ute is a work vehicle. Tell the insurer.

Quiet trap: a ute insured for private use, driven for work every day. If you have a prang on the way to a job, an insurer can knock the claim back because the vehicle wasn't declared as commercial. Make sure your policy matches how you actually use it, and mention the racks, toolboxes and signage while you're at it.

All three of these are a phone call to an insurer or broker. Boring call, big difference. And they only protect the business you've already built - the other half is making sure the work you've done gets paid.

Basics only, not insurance advice - talk to an insurer or broker about your own situation.