Paintless Dent Repair Techs Worst Nightmare

Paintless Dent Repair Tech’s Worst Nightmare

I Can’t Work….Now What?

It’s never planned. Always painful in more ways than one. Getting sick or injured and being unable to work can have life-altering consequences. It can quickly become a Paintless Dent Repair Tech’s worst nightmare. Sick days or paid time off does not exist when you are self-employed. You are on your own. Even if you work for a company, do they offer disability or critical illness insurance? Is it enough? What happens if you get injured away from work on your own time? The time to deal with this is not after it happens, but before.

Do I Need To Worry???

As you know being a Paintless Dent Repair Tech is a physically demanding job. You don’t have a cushy office job where you can put your feet up or do light duty work in the event of an injury. Take a moment to think how a sprained wrist, a broken arm or leg would affect your ability to work. Now imagine it happens at the height of the season. The season in Canada is short and every good weather day needs to be exploited. Even if you are only down for a month or so, this can greatly impact your standard and quality of life. Everyone says I don’t have time to get sick or hurt, the truth is that when it happens you have very little say over it.

Lesson Learned

I speak from experience. I operated under the flawed thinking that I never get sick and could not possibly see myself in a situation where I could get injured. So I blew off my insurance broker everytime she brought up disability insurance. I mean, after all, we live in the land of socialized medicine. What more did I need? Then the last six months kicked my ass. All it took was a moment’s lapse in judgement and I was down. I tripped and tore ligaments and tendons in both my ankle and foot. My driving foot. Guess what part of my job is, driving the tool truck. Kind of hard to do that with a non-functioning foot. My only saving grace was that I did this during the offseason. It still impacted our business though, as I couldn’t even continue with our local deliveries for months. Yes, OHIP picked up the tab for the Xrays, Ultrasounds, and an MRI but that’s where it ended. The out of pocket expense for the splints/braces, crutches, meds and physical therapy were insane. Again, thankfully we had a second source of income but this injury still took its pound of flesh.

What Are Our Options

Every province is different, but a good place to start is with whoever you have your other insurance policies with. Bundling multiple policies usually saves you a bit of money. Before you reach out though it’s good to sit down and take a look at both your personal and business monthly expenses. This will give you a good idea as to how much insurance you truly need. Besides disability and critical illness policies, most banks offer in-house insurance on credit cards, lines of credit, mortgages etc. in the event you cannot work. Now for the sceptics who believe insurance companies are little more than a money grab (which in my opinion they kind of are but they serve a purpose) you can go it alone. What does this entail? A substantial savings account. Whether you have extra insurance or not most financial advisors will tell you that you should have a “rainy day” fund set up that is equal to at least 3-6 months of your average expenses. If you choose not to go the insurance route then this fund should grow to roughly 6-12 months at the very least.

What About My Business

Again depending on your situation, you will have decisions to make but pre-planning can provide you with options. Create a backup plan now while you have a clear head.  Remeber to keep the lines of communication open with your customers. Let them know how you are doing and when they can expect you back. Be visible and transparent. If you have employees, take care of them as they pick up the slack. Ask for help. Friends, family whoever is in your wheelhouse. Remember to account for these expenses as well when figuring out either your insurance needs or your “rainy day” amount. Having a little extra cash to throw at clients or the people helping you, buy’s you time and goodwill. You will need both if you are going to have a job to go back to.

The Bright Side

It’s never easy to think about how fragile we really are. Spending hard earned money on a “what if” is even harder. The only advantage to any of this is that in the event that the worst happens you can focus on getting better, getting back to work and having the peace of mind that your bills are covered and your business interests are protected to the best degree possible.

1 thought on “Paintless Dent Repair Tech’s Worst Nightmare”

  1. Pingback: Paintless Dent Repair Tools Bulletin Canadentools May 2018

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