The barber shop is an iconic and well-established part of the local community, dating back all the way to ancient Egypt. As an owner of your own barber’s shop, you’ve built up a regular clientele and a talented team of hairdressers. You’ve finally built your dream, and now you want to protect it.
Like with every business, you have to prepare for the worst. As careful as you may be, if a client is cut or accidentally injured or suffers a reaction to a product, you’ll need insurance as a safety net.
Barbers businesses today come in many shapes and sizes, classic and contemporary. Whether your speciality is traditional wet shaving, modern male grooming or razor-sharp haircuts, we’ve got you covered here at Salon Gold. Our comprehensive barbers insurance packages are here to safeguard your business and let you get on with doing what you do best.
Don’t wait for the worst to happen. Buy your Barbers Insurance policy today and be protected instantly.
We provide cover for a wide range of treatments for barber shops. You will be covered in the event that a treatment you provide causes injury, damage or illness. For example a cut to a customer’s ear during a haircut.
You will automatically be covered for all treatments listed below providing you hold a suitable qualification for any treatments carried out.
| Descriptions of cover | Automatic | Optional |
|---|---|---|
| Use of cut throat razors, hair clippers and trimmers | Yes | No |
| Washing, styling, cutting and drying of hair | Yes | No |
How much barber shop insurance costs is tricky to answer because no two barber shops are the same. If you’re running a small barber shop in a rented unit in a provincial town, you’ll be paying a lot less than you were doing so in a building that you own in London’s West End, for instance.
The only sure way to find out how much insurance is going to cost you is by speaking to an insurance broker to get a quote. Here at Salon Gold, we won’t charge you a fee for the privilege, and you won’t be obliged to accept the quote that we provide either.
However, there are certain factors that affect the cost of insurance and knowing these can help you manage your insurance costs better.
A fully qualified barber with 20 years of experience and no incidents on their records will be looked on more favourably by an insurance company than someone who hasn’t got any qualifications, has simply bought a pair of scissors on eBay and decided to have a go.
But that doesn’t mean the cost of setting up will be prohibitive to those with no experience. If you’ve done a proper training course, it shows the insurance company that you know what you’re doing and that the chances of something going wrong are lower. And that doesn’t just mean a training course related to hairdressing. Taking a business course can also help because it shows the insurance company that you know how to run your barber shop professionally.
It also doesn’t mean that you have to have qualifications to be insurable. If you’ve been working for someone else for a number of years without an incident and have decided to go it alone, that experience will help you get better terms from the insurance market.
If you’re operating from a million pound building with state of the art equipment that you’ve purchased on a no-expense-spared basis, your insurance will cost you more than if you’re working from a rented unit with fairly basic equipment. This is because if your barber shop burns down or is burgled, the insurance claim will be more expensive to settle if you have more possessions.
That’s not to say that trading from an expensive building is a bad idea. Sometimes, if you’ve got impressive premises you’ll attract more clients and that’ll more than offset the additional insurance cost. But it’s something to bear in mind.
Similarly, liability insurance is usually based on your annual turnover. Obviously, if you’re doing twice as many haircuts, that’s twice as much chance of one going wrong and a compensation claim being made against you. Again, that extra turnover will more than pay for the additional insurance cost, but it’s again something to think about.
If you are operating in an area with a considerably high crime rate, your insurance cost will be higher because there is a great risk that your premises will be burgled or vandalised. You can address this by improving the security at the premises, which will often result in a discounted insurance premium too.
But the other side of this is that, if you are operating in a relatively upmarket area, you might need to consider a higher public and products liability indemnity limit. If that’s the case, your insurance cost will be slightly higher.
All Salon Gold policy holders have access to our Salon Gold Superstars.
They’re on hand to answer your questions and offer advice.
Talking about qualifications when trying to buy insurance for your business can be a bit daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! Here at Salon Gold, we know that there is often a lot of uncertainty over what qualifications you’ll need to be covered, so we’ve compiled all the information you’ll need to know in this handy guide
Do you train other professionals to become instructors in your chosen activity? Our Teacher Training insurance is an optional cover. Just add it to any of our freelance hairdresser, beauty, holistic or health & fitness policies. And we offer student insurance — at special student rates!
There are two main differences between standard business insurance and barber shop insurance.
First, the liability insurance in a standard business insurance policy only covers compensation claims involving either an injury or property damage. Barber shop insurance includes a financial loss extension, which means that purely economic losses are also covered.
Second, standard liability insurance excludes cover for professional services. This means that compensation claims that arise as a result of providing services as a barber wouldn’t be included. However, barber shop insurance should feature something called a treatment risk extension that covers such claims.
Whether you are a freelance or mobile barber, renting a chair in a barbers shop, or own your own barber shop or make grooming business, the risks you face are the same. What would you do if you injured one of your customers or damaged their property? Without insurance protection, a compensation claim for a cut ear for example could cost thousands and you would be left to foot the bill.
If you have good quality barbers insurance, your insurer will defend you and meet all costs in the event of a compensation claim. Not to mention loss or damage to your barbering equipment caused by fire, flood or theft for example. A good quality barbers insurance policy will overall provide the protection you need.
Here at Salon Gold, a barber shop insurance package can include covers such as:
