Beautician’s Insurance Made Simple

Beauticians, whether they are mobile operators or operate from a salon, face risks that can lead to unexpected losses.

Beautician insurance protects you against these risks. But what exactly is beautician insurance? Read our simple guide to understanding beautician’s insurance and what it covers to become a beautician or beauty salon insurance aficionado in no time.

What beautician insurance covers

Like all business insurance packages, whether it’s for a beauty salon or, mobile / freelance beautician, insurance includes a number of different essential covers.

The main two covers are property insurance and liability insurance. These are the core covers of any business insurance package, and no business should consider operating without them.

Where beautician’s insurance differs from a standard business insurance package, though, is that it includes cover for something called the “treatment risk”. This is a vital cover for any beautician as, without it, many claims would be uninsured.

There are also a number of optional covers that can be added to a beautician insurance package.

Property insurance

Property insurance covers your business property against accidental damage or loss due to theft.

You can cover your business premises and its contents, fixtures and fittings. You can also cover your stock and equipment.

It’s important to make sure you insure for the full value of your business property because, if you’re underinsured, you could be penalised in the event of a claim. It’s also important to ensure that any property that you take away from your business premises is covered if you’re a mobile operator.

Liability insurance

Liability insurance covers you if any compensation claims are made against you. It also covers any legal costs that are incurred as a result of the claim.

There are three types of liability insurance that deal with different types of compensation claims:

• Employer’s liability insurance, which covers compensation claims made against you by your employees
• Public liability insurance, which covers compensation claims made against you by members of the public or your clients
• Products liability insurance, which covers compensation claims arising from defects in any of the products that you have sold or supplied

This is a vital type of insurance because some compensation claims can cost over £250,000. In addition, you’re legally required to have employer’s liability insurance if you employ anyone.

Treatment risk cover

One problem with the public liability insurance cover in a standard business insurance package is the fact that it does not cover compensation claims that arise out of professional activities, and providing beauty services is a professional activity.

What this means is that, although you would be covered if someone claimed compensation from you because they had injured themselves in your beauty salon, you wouldn’t be covered if their injury had been caused by a beauty treatment that had gone wrong. Clearly this is a major gap in the cover which would leave you uninsured for many of the compensation claims that could be made against you.

A beautician’s insurance package should include treatment risk cover to address this issue. As mentioned, compensation claims can be incredibly expensive to settle, so treatment risk cover is crucial for any beautician.

Optional covers

Property insurance and liability insurance are the main types of insurance that people think about when they think about business insurance, but there are other types of business insurance and these often get overlooked. However, the good news is that they can be added to a beautician insurance package.

The first of these is personal accident insurance. This covers you by paying a weekly benefit if an injury or an illness means that you are unable to work. If the injury or illness means that you won’t be able to work permanently, a lump sum is payable.

The other type of insurance that often gets overlooked is legal expenses insurance. This covers you against unexpected legal bills if you find yourself involved in legal action. This could be due to a dispute with a client, a tax/VAT inspection, an employment tribunal or even having to defend yourself against criminal charges that have been brought against you.