A tiny slip with the scissors, a fall on the floor, or forgetting about hairstyling chemicals in a client’s hair for just one minute longer can create some serious legal claims against your hair salon. Not sure how you can protect yourself? You’ve come to the right place!

Today, there are nearly 43,000 hair and beauty businesses across the UK, which represents a 45% growth over the past five years. Moreover, according to Global Data, an analytics firm, the health and beauty sectors will be the UK’s fastest-growing industry over the next years, estimated to be worth £26.7 billion by 2022.

Yet, even in such a thriving industry, many things can go wrong. And, try to guess who will be affected the most. That’s right:  the business owners who have to pay for these extremely costly problems.

Let’s explore the biggest hair salon misfortunes that can result in major financial losses and how you can prevent them.

Broken or damaged equipment

Hair salon equipment costs a lot, there’s no doubt here. The list of necessary hair salon supplies is substantial, including scissors, razors, electric styling tools, towels, brushes, mirrors, hair colouring instruments, and, obviously, hair styling products.

Now, imagine what a financial loss your hair salon would suffer if all these supplies were damaged. And, like it or not, they can get broken or damaged for several reasons, including a natural disaster or theft. Prepare with cheap salon insurance and a policy that covers all damaged or broken supplies. Otherwise, you’ll have to take a lot of money out of your wallet.

Staff illness or injury

If you are a self-employed salon owner, whether you work from home or are mobile, you most likely don’t have additional staff members working for you.  Yet, if you own a hair salon and have multiple staff members, like it or not, you are responsible for the safety of your employees while they are at work.

Workplace accidents are often overlooked by business owners, especially in the beauty industry. However, slips and falls can happen at any time in your hair salon leading to injuries both to your staff members and the clients.

It would be great if you have policies in place that keep your hair salon’s floor swept and dry at all times to minimize the risk of slips or falls. Moreover, employers liability insurance is also mandatory to be covered for staff illness or injury as a result of your business.

Broken business vehicle

Data shows that nearly 54% of people who work in hairdressing and barbering and 57% of people who work in beauty are self-employed. Therefore, there are a lot of mobile beauty professionals out there who rely on their vehicles to do business. If you are one of them, there’s one more big loss you may be exposing yourself to a damaged business vehicle.

As a mobile hairdresser, your vehicle is essential because it is the only way you can do business by going to your clients’ homes. Now, imagine that one day, your vehicle gets damaged in a car accident. The result? Your business will be directly affected as you can no longer travel to your clients to offer your services. Plus, if you are responsible for the accident, you’ll have to pay for the repairs.

How to prevent paying for a broken business vehicle? You get the insurance that covers the repairs so that you make sure you never miss a client because you can’t afford to repair it on your own.

Going out of business for a while

Business interruption is probably the biggest fear of any business owner because the company takes a severe hit when it must interrupt its activity even for a short period. And, the biggest problem of going out of business for a while is the fact that it isn’t something you can premeditate. It’s often an event, such as a flood, a fire, or a break-in, that happens unexpectedly and leads to business interruption overnight.

So, how do you protect your hair salon from the unexpected? You get business interruption insurance that covers the costs of loss custom and helps you get back on your feet.

Scalp injury or hair damage caused by chemicals

Can a client sue you for giving them a bad haircut? Legally, yes, because it is considered to be a matter of emotional trauma.  But will they do it? Most people won’t, but can you take the risk?

Plus, maybe a bad haircut is not a good enough reason for clients to sue you. However, when it comes to suffering a scalp injury or getting their hair damaged because of you, the chances are that they will most likely sue your salon.

Scalp and hair damage caused by chemicals is a pretty common problem that leads to costly expenses for business owners. Harsh chemicals are used to change the colour or the texture of the client’s hair. And, although hair styling products are safe to use when left for too long or as a result of an allergy, the clients may be injured.

Injuries caused by other beauty treatments

Do you also offer additional beauty services such as manicures, pedicures, massages, or tanning at your hair salon? If the answer is yes, you need to know that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with these services as well. For example, if a client gets a nail fungus as a result of improperly disinfected manicure tools you use or a customer gets burned because of a broken tanning bed, your salon may face a lawsuit.

You’d never think that so many hazards can happen in a hair salon. This is why some hair salon owners overlook purchasing insurance to protect their employees, business reputation, and their finances. Unfortunately, their salon hazards can and do happen even more often than you’d imagine. So, you need to protect your business to avoid losing everything that you’ve worked hard to achieve.