One of the main types of liability is public, your responsibility as a business or an individual to members of the public that you may cause injury, illness, disease or damage to.

Under most salon insurance policies, whether for hairdressers, barbers or beauticians, you will usually have cover for the treatment risk. A standard public liability policy wording will usually have, in the depths of the wording, an exclusion relating to the treatment, and the associated risks, of customers.

Under a salon policy, this cover is brought back in, by means of a specific endorsement. This will be heading something along the lines of hairdressers treatment indemnity or treatment extension. The limit of indemnity is normally lower than that provided under the public liability insurance.

You should make sure of two things. Firstly, that you have a suitable amount of cover. If a hairdresser burns someones scalp and they then choose to go to a no win, no fee solicitor, with the solicitors fees and costs for pain and suffering, you could quite easily be looking at the thick end of £50,000.

Secondly, makes sure that your insurer is fully aware of all types of treatment that you undertake. Hairdressing and beauty is fine, but as soon as you start to get involved with invasive treatments, such as vein removal or injections, such as Botox, make sure that your insurance company is providing you the cover for every type of treatment you may undertake.

Negligence is quite strict, in that the onus on you is to disprove it, rather than someone making a claim having to prove it.

So what happens when you are face with a claim for injury from an employee? All standard business insurance policies will include certain sections of cover, usually liability cover is available.

One of these types, is employers liability insurance. Whilst we have said that negligence is up to you to disprove, EL cover is even stricter. The government does not want to have to face a welfare bill for people injured at work. For this reason, they enforce cover for employees, and boy is it strict.

You have to be extremely lucky to be faced with a claim that you can repudiate, when it has been proven that you are negligent. If you don’t have a policy, or don’t have this within your existing cover and you do have employees, then you really are taking a huge risk.

There were a few local companies that you would approach to see if they could quote, but there were not really any other options. Nowadays, you will probably receive a handful of flyer’s every year, have more directories than you can shake a stick at and also, the internet.

You are therefore faced with so much choice, it is untrue. So why, when you are faced with this much choice, should you get you business insurance from us?

This is a good question and the answer covers many points.

Firstly, whatever any of the insurers say, in 2010 insurance is sold primarily on price. We have a good selection of providers who are able to give market leading prices, compared to others. We are confident that we can offer any salon a competitive premium compared to other providers.

Secondly, the level of cover. We don’t cut corners on your protection. Even within our market leading prices, we will include treatment cover, legal expenses and accidental damage on your contents and equipment.

Thirdly, the service. Phone us at 9 am and and you can have a quote by quarter past and your policy documents 10 minutes later.

And lastly, everyone’s shop window, claims. If you have a claim, we are there for you every step of the way. Whilst insurers do not try to wriggle out of claims, they do sometimes need pushing a bit to make sure settlements are made as soon as possible.

These four reasons are why you should speak to us before going any further.

We receive enquiries from salons that offer all types and ranges of beauty treatments. A new, standing tan machine can you set you back around £10,000. When you think of a shop with up to a dozen machines, the replacement costs can be considerable. Even the spray tanning booths, whilst they are just simple structures, can cost many thousands of pounds.

If you have invested money in purchasing these, or you have them leased, then you will need to have a suitable business insurance policy in place that covers damage to these. You do need to watch out though, many insurers nowadays are offering quotes at a standard level of cover, which does not include accidental damage. The broker, or company quoting, will need to include this cover and some are neglecting to do so, in order to give the cheapest quote.

Here at businessinsure, we always quote AD cover, it only adds 2 or 3% to a premium but it really is essential cover in the modern day and age.

If you have a policy in force at the moment, you need to speak to your broker or provider to see what level of cover you have. If there is no accidental damage cover, our advice is that you get this added as soon as possible.

Something dropped onto a sun bed can cost a lot to repair or leaked tanning solutions can destroy the electronics. This is all related to accidental damage and you really should have this cover in force.

There is not a shop in the land that decides to sell a certain range of products and then sticks to that range over the years. They will do all they can to understand exactly what Joe Public want and to amend and alter the items they sell. Look up and down every single high street in the land and you will see certain types of shops. One of these is the good old fashioned hairdressers.

But, how many hairdressers do you know that have remained unchanged? There are of course a few that steadfastly stick to just offering the same service to the same clientele, but even they will adapt the style of the cut. Mullets and male perms are no longer the order of the day, so they change what they offer.

Other hairdressers, mainly ladies, will expand their service range and bring in a direct beauty employee or even sub-contract this and rent out a beauty room to a third party. This is something though that has a direct affect on the salon insurance cover that you may already have in place.

As the range of treatments gets ever wider, the number of claims for these different treatments grows. The big issue for the insurers is the invasive treatments or if you have sunbeds. General beauty, such as make up, nails or massage is fine. As soon as you branch into more elaborate treatments you need to notify your insurers of this.

The chances are that most insurers are more than happy to extend your public liability insurance to pick up additional activities, in return for a small increase in the annual premium. But, the key is that you must tell them. The last things you want for your shiny new salon is to face a claim for a many thousands of pounds from a customer who alleges that you have injured them. It is, of course, much better and preferable for you to have cover in place to support you in the event of such a claim.

The good thing about the cover is that even it is a spurious claim that has no chance of being settled, the insurers will still deal with this and notify the third party that there is no valid claim.

When you buy a house, you will normally appoint a solicitor to undertake this process for you. As part of their role, they will source and read through a number of legal documents which apply specifically to your house purchase. If there are any problems or queries it is up to the solicitor to identify these and if necessary get them amended or make you aware of the consequences.

When you are looking at your insurance protection, things are slightly different. You will not, in most cases, pay an expert to undertake a review of your policy wording. Additionally, unlike a house purchase, you will actually receive the documentation yourself and can review it (if you really want to).

To save you having to do this though, there is a much easier way of doing things. Take for example, salon insurance. You will more than likely have employees and will therefore have a legal requirement for cover. Usually this will be purchased in the form of a packaged policy. When you get your policy, it can be 60 or 70 pages long. Deep within the wording there will be certain terms about the type of intruder security that you must have at the premises.

All policies will have a condition that states the minimum security that is required. If you do not have this security in place, after a loss, your claim will not be paid. But how do you know whether the locks you have are correct or the roller shutters are of the right type.

Looking at your wording can be a bit mind-numbing and do you really have the time? The answer is, in all likelihood, no. What you do need to do is deal through a broker. The broker is there to answer all your questions. What type of alarm do you need? They will answer this for you. What British Standard do you need on your locks? They will know.

Don’t assume your policy will always pay out, get a broker to review it for you and, the good news is, they will do this for nothing.

Most business insurance companies that offer this cover, will have the option of extending the public liability insurance to cover injuries caused to customers receive hairdressing or beauty treatments. Usually, your public liability is at a limit of £1,000,000 or £2,000,000. The treatment extension you get under the policy will be for a lower limit any one loss, such as £50,000 or £100,000. Usually the claims do not exceed £10,000 and most of the cost of the claim is usually swallowed up with solicitors fees.

But, what happens if you are doing treatments are clients premises, say for a wedding or a special function?

Your standard policy would not cover you, unless you specify to the insurers what you are doing, ie working at clients premises.

The risks are slightly higher, because you can potentially damage third party property and you are also not using all of the equipment you have at the salon, when at someones house.

It shouldn’t cost a lot more for the additional cover, maybe an extra £50, but it is worth having it mentioned on your policy so you have the correct protection.

However, when getting cover for your business, things are slightly different, particularly if it is a new venture. If you are one of the thousands of people who decide every year to start their own hairdressing, barbers or beauty business each year, some of the information the insurers need will be at best, a “guestimate”.

For salon insurance, the major business assets, such as contents, flooring and even the buildings will form part of your policy. But, you also need to give consideration to the stock insurance. Gone are the days when a hairdressers simply had a few pounds worth of shampoo and hair cream on their shelves. Nowadays, even the shampoo and hair products can cost hundreds of pounds and that is before you consider items such as straighteners.

There is some good news, you may receive stock from a supplier on a promotional basis, they are obviously looking for you to sell their products and may, as part of the deal, agree to insure the stock themselves. But, in most cases, you are responsible for the stock that is sitting on your shelves. As a result, you need to make sure that you have a suitable sum insured.

Break in’s to salons do happen and the theft attractive, easy to move contents, are the ones that are taken. Money is obviously the first on the list, but the boxed up electric items and stock are second on the theft list. Speak to a business insurance broker to make sure that you get the best possible price for the widest cover in the market.

Every shop window is a potential advertising space and most owners make the best use of this. Sure, there are some businesses that do not help themselves by having cheap and nasty signs or none at all. But, most are sensible and savvy enough to make the best use of the space available, whilst still letting passing customers see into their shop.

There is of course, a cost involved in putting signs and lettering on your shop front glass. For hairdressers and salons, this is a great place to show your prices and services. It follows naturally that you need to make sure that your salon insurance policy provides suitable cover in the event that a shop window is smashed or damaged in some way.

Most packaged, business insurance policies do include cover for your glass. But, not all of them offer you a sensible or suitable limit in respect of your signs.

When looking at arranging your cover, you will more than likely, speak to a business insurance broker. You will then receive a quote and you need to check, amongst other limits and covers, that you have at least £1,000 for lettering (or unlimited in some cases) and secondly, that you have a reasonable excess. £100 is best, some underwriters will increase this to £250 or even £500, which is, in reality, too much. You should consider the overall cost of the quote and if there is a difference of £50 between quote a and quote b, it may be worth taking the more expensive one if the limits are higher and excesses are lower.

Most commercial insurance companies will offer cover, or quotes, based on a standard shop insurance contract. There are certain changes and alterations to the cover, that they will make, to provide the protection that a salon would more usually require.

Under the package policy, you will get public liability insurance cover, this is better explained as third party liability insurance. If you injure, cause illness or damage any third party property or person, you will need public liability insurance. As far as a hairdresser is concerned, this can cover three areas.

Firstly, through the products you supply. Secondly if someone slips, trips or falls (for example) and thirdly, if you cause injury through application or treatment to scalps or skin.

This last part is excluded from the standard shop policy we mentioned above. What happens is that this cover is extended or expanded to cover hairdressers treatment insurance. Most insurers will provide cover for a fixed limit any one claim. Usual limits are £50,000 or £100,000 any one claim. It is very, very rare that claims exceed £15,000, but you never know. Half of the cost of the claims usually fall to the solicitor that is appointed by the claimant. The potential costs are not affected by inflation, particularly where a solicitor is involved.

You need to make sure that your cover is as wide as possible, to prevent the business losing out. As usual, you should speak to a business insurance broker as they are independent experts who will search and scour the market for you.