Growing up, my parents owned a shoe store. To this day I'm always looking down at people's shoes. For a short time I was an apprentice jeweler. I pay attention to the design of a woman's ring. I'm an artist so I'm always admiring or critiquing another artist's brush or pencil stroke. I'm also an insurance agent, so I pay attention to way people use their cars.

So often I see a passenger car used for delivering pizza's and wonder if the young man behind the wheel has purchased the right kind of insurance. Just the other day, on a January morning, I watched a mini-van drive by, mom driving, daughter in the back in a car seat. On the roof of the van sat a loud-speaker. No doubt used for playing music during the summertime selling ice cream. The signs offering 20 flavors of ice cream were taken down. I am encouraged when I see a taxi cab drive by and assume the agent and company covering that converted police cruiser inspected the vehicle before placing a policy on it.

The importance of paying the proper amount to get the right kind of coverage is more and more important. Courts are leaning more each day in favor an insurance company's denial of a claim because the policyowner didn't declare the correct use of the vehicle. You don't want to find out after an accident that your insurance company will not cover you passing through a red light and striking another car while in a hurry to deliver a pizza. Worse yet, backing over a child in a busy parking lot selling ice cream in your family van without properly insuring it for use as a mobile food vendor.

Newspaper delivery. The debate continues whether a regular personal auto insurance policy is sufficient to cover you getting up at 4 am to deliver the newspaper. I say, don't take the chance. Get a commercial auto policy. You might be surprised that it costs just about the same as a personal policy. Sometimes less.