Business Insurance Considerations for Hairdressers: 5 Tips

Your business insurance considerations should be as unique as your company. In this content series, we’ll be focusing on insurance considerations for particular types of small businesses. Our first instalment? Hairdresserss.

Every hair cut you complete is tailored to your client. It’s this attention to detail that got you this far. While we can’t insure your skills, we can insure your hairdressing business.

Here are five handy insurance considerations for haridressers:

1. Have Contingency Plans

Risk assessment is never fun – but it’s a crucial part of running a successful business. Knowing exactly what you’ll do if something goes wrong is empowering, and will help you to stay focused during tricky times. Consider what sorts of mishaps could happen (for example, an allergic reaction to a hair treatment), and make sure you have plans of action that both you and your employees know well and can launch if necessary. You can apply this to all areas of your business. For example, if there was a fire tomorrow, would you know how to locate suitable premises to prevent too much business interruption? Planning ahead is everything.

2. Fire Safety

Speaking of fire – do all your staff know how to operate your fire alarm? Are they up to speed with fire safety measures? Do they know how to evacuate customers in case of emergency? This should be a key part of their training. You should also aim to minimise fire risk by properly securing areas where flammable or toxic chemicals are stored.

3. Back Up Your Appointment Book

One of the biggest misfortunes for hairdressers when disaster strikes? Damage to the appointment book. Have a backup at all times, and keep contact details for your customers stored somewhere safe, too – ideally online. That way, if you do need to rearrange appointments due to property damage or other issues, it’ll be simple.

Remember to keep these details as secure as possible – this is sensitive customer data (names, phones numbers and possibly addresses) and needs to be protected.

4. Prevent Criminal Activity

Prevention is always better than cure. Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, and encourage your staff to do the same. Secure your premises as much as possible too. Keep cash stored in a safe, lock staff rooms when not in use, only give keys to staff members as absolutely necessary, and carry out stock takes on a regular basis. If possible, be sure to install a burglar alarm, too.

5. Be Prepared to Take Out More Than One Insurance Type

Here are just a few of the insurance products you may need when opening your own hairdressing business:

• Your equipment is vital to your work and the replacement of this could cost more than you think. Protect this, your stock and other workplace property against theft, fire and flood with contents insurance.
• You can also now take out insurance that protects against settling or defending a claim if a customer treatment goes wrong, this is called treatment cover. The cover can include hair extensions, hair colouring, styling and many other beauty treatments. You’ll need to purchase public and products liability insurance to obtain beauty treatment cover.
• As with all businesses that have members of the public coming and going, you’ll need to consider public and products liability insurance. This will cover you in case someone is injured on your premises or their property is damaged because of your services.
• By law, you’ll need to take out employer’s liability insurance if you have staff, contractors, casual workers or temp staff. This will cover claims for employees who become injured or seriously ill through working for you.
• If you own the building you work from, you may need to have buildings insurance. This may not be required if you rent – just check with your landlord.

For more guidance on what sort of business insurance you may need to take out, just get in touch.