A few years ago, you tended to get just two types of hairdressing salon. Either a ladies salon or a barbers. Then we started to progress and along came unisex salons, for both men and women. Nowadays though, you tend to still get a traditional style barber shop and then a variety of salons catering for everyone.
Many salons have also moved on to provide beauty treatments. You still get traditional beauty salons with no hairdressing but most are a combination of the two.
Depending on what beauty treatments you provide can have quite important salon insurance implications. For example, many insurers are now restricting the cover they will provide if you operate sunbeds.
Every business insurance company that provides this cover will have stipulations within the policy cover that apply to anyone using a sunbed. They will also say that sunbeds should be serviced regularly by approved persons and that a disclaimer is displayed on the wall. In reality, the disclaimer does not mean much if you the salon owner can be proven negligent, then a valid claim could be made against you.
If you do have sunbeds, you need to make sure that this is specified in your policy wording (that you can operate them and have liability cover). Speak to your broker and ask them to confirm in writing to you:-
a) That you have the cover in place and
b) What cover stipulations there are
Do not take their word for it, ask them for the sake of clarity, to confirm this in writing to you. They will not charge you for this and if they try to, ask for confirmation of their terms of business which states they can do this, because in reality this is part and parcel of the service from a broker.
In addition to the liability insurance, you also need to check that the physical sunbed is insured, particularly if this is leased, as it will be a condition of your lease agreement that you insure the bed. They can cost up to £10,000 each to replace, so make sure you are adequately protected.