Becoming a professional fisherman is a serious life decision. The leap from hobby to pro is wide, and your vocation encompasses many important details from balancing your budget to time management. Along with this job change comes the serious business of making your hobby into a business. Pro fishing is incredibly expensive and time-consuming and requires a dedication both to managing your books and business affairs as well as a dedication to your sport. Depending on your lifestyle and life goals, becoming a professional fisherman can be a rewarding dream job. There are many considerations that you need to factor into your decision before you make the plunge, including why professional fishermen need business insurance.
Financial Investment
Above almost all else, the financial investment required of professional fishermen sets the pros apart from hobbyists. Obtaining all of the necessary equipment, from boats to rods, can set you back tens of thousands of dollars.
Lifestyle
Additionally, the lifestyle that comes along with professional fishing requires many travel expenses, including fuel, lodging, and boat maintenance. The competitive nature of many fishing events adds extra expenses in the form of entry fees and other competition expenses.
Depreciation and Expenses in the Future
Even once you’ve acquired all of the tools that you need for launching your professional fishing career, you need to keep in mind the depreciation of your boat and fishing tools and budget inevitable expenses into your long-term financial goals.
Beyond Breaking Even
The money that you earn from fishing competitions can be little more than you need to break even, which doesn’t leave much room for your life outside of fishing. You will need to plan the number of events per year you need to participate in and win when setting out in your professional fishing career.
Personal Investment
The nature of a fishing career is necessarily transitory. As you travel from competition to competition, you will need to crisscross the country going between locations. Additionally, you’ll need time to practice your sport.
Where to Go
All of these factors add up to a lot of time away from your family and loved ones. You also raise the question regarding where you will live and why. Consider whether you may be better off living in an RV or traveling from place to place in some other gypsy-like fashion.
Secure Insurance Your Fishing Business
Business insurance is a necessary component of the whole business package that you need to develop when you take your sport to the pro level. This investment may not seem like the most obvious one to make when you start out. After all, you’re focused on the big-ticket items like your boat, rods, and truck.
Investments and Risks
However, because of these investments, business insurance is absolutely necessary for the professional fisherman. Fishing, along with other outdoor agricultural, forestry and hunting activities, comes with inherent risks and expenses that set it apart from other career fields. The work is hands-on, physically demanding and can expose you to inherent dangerous situations from time to time.
The Career Transition
If you’re involved in fishing culture, you’re already aware of some of these risks to a certain degree. When you decide to become a career fisherman, however, these risks take on a whole new meaning. As your livelihood transitions to the risky business of professional fishing, you need to adequately insure yourself against the dangers you’ll face on the job. This is where business insurance comes in.
Specific Policies for Fishermen
A fishing-specific business insurance policy protects you from damages and commercial liability from work-related incidents. Some policies may also protect you from crime and other liabilities, depending on the level of coverage that you choose.
Cover Losses
If you were to lose your boat and supplies in a work-related incident, your insurance policy would kick in to cover some or all of the loss and help you get your feet back on the ground. Because fishing is such an expensive and competitive industry to break into, an uninsured setback could entirely undo your hard work.
Get Back on the Water
When you have the protection that you need, even horrible losses can be recouped to get you back on the water as quickly as possible after your incident. Your boat and gear can be replaced without draining your family’s savings account or putting your business’s other assets at risk.
Consider the Law
If you have employees, a business insurance policy, along with workman’s comp insurance as required by law for non-owner employees, protects you when something goes wrong outside of your control. Insurance can kick in to help you cover lost time and disability leave, if necessary, after an unforeseen event or on the job injury occurs.
If the idea of the financial investment required to make the leap into a professional fishing career has you scratching your head, consult a CPA for advice and practical tips. For information about your personal life and family concerns, look to other pros who have been in your position. Consult an insurance professional to get more information about business insurance related to a fishing business and to learn more about liability and the coverage you need.
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