Insurance For Nail Technicians: Explained

Nail technicians are no different to any other business in the sense that they need insurance to protect their businesses.

No matter how careful you are and how much training you have had, things can go wrong. Even the strongest security won’t keep a burglar out. And those “once in a thousand years” storms are happening more frequently at the moment due to climate change.

When things go wrong, it can lead to unexpected losses. So, how do nail technicians cover themselves against these unexpected losses?

Nail technician’s insurance

Although a standard business insurance package will cover many of the risks that a nail technician faces, relying on that standard business insurance package will leave gaps in cover that could leave the nail technician uninsured.

The standard business insurance package will include property insurance and liability insurance – two important types of insurance that all nail technicians need. However, a bespoke nail technician insurance package will also include a number of other covers:

• Treatment risk cover
• Legal expenses insurance
• Personal accident insurance

Property insurance

Property insurance is similar to household insurance in that it covers your business premises and its contents. It covers your business property against accidental damage or losses due to theft.

If you are operating on a mobile basis, it’s important to make sure that your business equipment is covered while it’s away from your business premises.

Liability insurance

Liability insurance is slightly less well understood, but essentially it covers you if a compensation claim is made against you.

Employer’s liability insurance covers compensation claims made by your employees, and it’s a legal requirement if you employ anyone. Public liability is similar but covers compensation claims made against you by people who aren’t employed by you, such as clients or members of the public. Products liability insurance covers compensation claims that arise as a result of a defect in a product that you have sold or supplied.

As well as providing cover for the amount of any compensation awarded, liability insurance also covers the legal fees incurred to deal with the claim and any associated expenses.

Treatment risk cover

Treatment risk cover is the main reason that a nail technician shouldn’t rely on a standard business insurance package.

Standard liability insurance will cover you if someone trips over in your nail bar or if you spill nail polish onto their clothing. However, it won’t cover you against compensation claims that arise out of your provision of nail services, because compensation claims arising out of professional activities are excluded from standard liability insurance policies.

Treatment risk cover addresses this issue by extending the cover to include such compensation claims.

Legal expenses insurance

Most people know that they need to insure their business property against accidental damage and theft, and many realise that they need liability insurance to protect them in case compensation claims are made against them. But many don’t realise that they should also consider legal expenses insurance.

Legal expenses insurance covers you against unexpected legal costs. This could be because you have become involved in a dispute with a client or a neighbour. It could be due to an employment tribunal or a tax/VAT inspection. It could even be because criminal charges have been brought against you.

Legal expenses insurance can be added to a nail technician insurance package as an optional extra.

Personal accident insurance

As well as insuring your business property against losses due to damage and theft, and insuring your business bank balance against it being hit by compensation claims and unexpected legal bills, there’s one other important business asset that you should consider insuring – and that’s you.

Personal accident insurance protects your income if you are unable to work by paying a weekly benefit until you return to work. This means that you don’t need to worry about how you are going to pay your bills and feed your family when your focus should be on getting better. It also pays a lump sum if you will never be able to return to work.