Most salon insurance policies are very similar. As with most commercial insurance policies, the options available include a standard range of package covers. These include, commercial building insurance, contents, stock, liabilities, money and business interruption.

In addition, if you are leasing your salon (or hairdressers or barbers) then you will also find that under the terms of your lease agreement with the property owner, then you will be responsible for the shop front glass. Some commercial leases, will request that you cover the frames and fitments as well. Whilst this may not seem a lot, a smashed window which requires a full frame and door replacement can easily cost a few thousand pounds.

You do therefore need to ensure that your business insurance broker provides you with the correct policy cover that includes shop front glass. Certain insurers, few and far between though, do offer unlimited glass cover. In the main the remainder ask for sum insured to be declared. You may need to speak to a glazier to get a replacement quote for all of your glass, but you would normally be looking at a sum insured of at least £2,000 for a normal shop front. You have to think as well about any emergency boarding up costs if your windows are smashed through the night. Most police authorities have the authority to appoint an approved emergency glazier without the need to contact you.

As glass claims are one of the more common ones under salon, pub and shop insurance, if you have roller shutters (external) you may be able to get an additional discount on your annual insurance premium. This does raise one further question though, that is that you need to ensure that you have insurance cover for loss or damage to your roller shutters as well.

Going back twenty years, if you were a hairdresser looking for a quote you really only had one option, a simple, basic salon insurance. This covers the usual things such as contents, stock, glass and liabilities. If you were a barber or gents hairdressers then you would take the same type of policy.

Nowadays though, you don’t tend to get a hairdresser that just does hair. Time has moved on and most salon owners know that they have to offer more than just hairdressing. You can now get beauty treatments, sun tans, fake tans and nails from many salons.

So what does this mean when looking for a business insurance quote? Thankfully, not a lot. Insurers have also recognised the need for policies that cover the whole range of treatments and many offer policies where you can include the “treatment risk”.

Yes, you can get a policy that will cover all that you do but it is absolutely vital that you declare all of this to your broker. You cannot, and should not, assume that because you have declared that you are, for example, a beauty salon, that all of your treatments are covered. Some insurers do not like invasive treatments or those that involve the application of creams and lotions that you have created yourself. There are options available for this cover but the best thing to do is to advise your broker via email (so you have written proof) of your treatments and ask them to confirm that this is acceptable.

You can get policies that cover hairdressing or beauty on their own, or a combination of hair and beauty but you need to get a broker to decide what is the most suitable type of policy for you.

If you have a hairdressers or salon insurance policy, now is the time for you to review your cover.

Why are we saying this? Only because we know, from speaking to salon owners day in, day out that when you actually review your sums insured, you can find yourself with a few gaps.

The best way to understand what cover you have and what you need is to speak to a professional, a business insurance broker. The reason for speaking to a broker is that they know and understand what you are looking for, and also the penalties if you do not have the right sums insured.

Stock insurance is one area where, most businesses at some point are under-insured. What this means is, if you have £20,000 of stock and only have a policy covering £10,000 then any claim, whatever the amount, is reduced by 50%.

So, you need to refer to your policy, usually in the first few sections of cover, and look for the amount that your stock is covered for. Then, compare this to your average stock levels over the past 6 weeks and compare the two. If there is a difference of more than a few percent, you need to speak to your broker.

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.