Insurance for Selling Candles Made by Another Company?

[candlemama]

I am very, very new to candle making as a hobby and have been reading the posts about liability insurance, which are scaring the hell out of me. I'm not planning to open a candle-only type business but am considering selling personalized hurricane shells if I get good enough making them. I currently have a very small online business that sells personalized memorial items and keepsakes to families who have lost a child. We sell other companies' candles right now. And, no, I don't have liability insurance, and we are registered as a partnership (no personal asset protection). I do not turn enough profit to even consider buying insurance that runs $500-$1000 a year. The only reason I have this business is because I want to help other parents who have lost a child. I work full time and have two small children -- no time really to spend on online marketing (which is a full time job in itself).

Our business license is up for renewal in a few months, and I am thinking about going to an LLC so I can have some protection.

I searched the boards but couldn't really find an answer. Does anyone have any insight into whether I should be carrying liability insurance to sell other companies' candles? I know, probably a strange question to ask people who sell their own candles, not other people's!

I was planning to test two ways of personalizing candles -- 1) make a hurricane shell myself and imbed the personalization, and 2) buy a hurricane shell from a wholesale company and screen print the personalization on the shell. Any opinions on whether I should have liability insurance for the second option?

I read the recent post from Les Chandelles on LLCs and liability insurance and am thinking I don't need it since literally my profit is so low, and I don't really have any business assets (other than a computer). We don't carry an inventory right now as all our products are drop shipped from a vendor or, in the case of the charcoal memorial portraits my husband does, made to order.

Any opinions and comments would be really welcomed!

[mparadise]

As long as the person that makes them has insurance it should be fairly simple for them to get you an "also insured" certificate from their insurance company naming you as an insured party for their products. I know mine offers the few for free and more for a small fee ($25?). Because you are not the manufacturer this "should" cover you if there was a problem with their product. Once you can afford to get insurance it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to get some general business liability as well since people tend to sue when there is a problem.

[barncat]

I would not think you would need insurance. However, some home owners insurance does not cover home business businesses and may actaully drop you. I would talk to your insurance agent and see what they have to say. Most reputable companies have product liability coverage, so just be careful of smalll home based companies and ask lots of questions.