Whether you’re the salon owner or a hairdresser renting a booth, you’ll probably need some type of beauty salon insurance. For beauty shop owner, the stakes are clear: you can be held responsible for injuries that happen in your shop, and you probably want to protect your equipment and products. For a hairdresser, you can be sued over injuries the products you use cause or bad hair cuts that cost your clients.
General Liability Insurance
General Liability Insurance can cover basic liability issues in a salon, such as…
- Third-party injuries. You can get sued by someone who slips and falls at the salon.
- Third-party property damage. Say you spill hair dye on your client’s very expensive suit. They can demand that you pay for the cost to repair or replace their designer threads.
- Product liability. A client may sue over the physical injuries your hair products caused.
- Advertising injuries. If you fire off an angry tweet about a problematic client, they may claim it’s libel and sue you over the damage to their reputation.
It may seem unlikely that any of these events may happen, but consider this: accidents are unpredictable. One day, you may wash a client’s hair and not notice the small puddle of water near their chair. If they slip on that puddle and fall, you may be responsible for their medical expenses.
Business Owner’s Policy
Many beauty shop owners buy a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) to save money on their insurance. This policy bundles General Liability Insurance with Commercial Property Insurance, and it usually costs less than buying each policy separately.
You know what General Liability does, and Commercial Property is another staple coverage. Between salon chairs, beauty supplies, furniture, and technology, your beauty shop relies on a lot of property to run. If this property were damaged in a fire, you’d lose the property that allows you to make a living.
Your BOP’s property protection can help pay to repair or replace your building and/or its contents so you can get back to work quickly after a fire, theft, or windstorm.
Beauty shops and Barber Shops cut, style, trim, color and apply permanent wave or straightening solutions to hair. Other services may be offered, such as wig cleaning and styling, massage, nail care, tanning, cosmetic consulting and electrolysis. Although salons traditionally catered to women, many salons now offer their services to men as well. Services may be offered on a walk-in basis, by appointment only, or both.
Beauty shops are subject to state regulations to reduce possible spread of disease. In addition, each beautician, manicurist or other professional must be licensed. Shops may employ professionals or may rent space to them as independent contractors. The status of the various professionals must be determined since it may impact how coverage’s apply.