What Does Barber Shop Insurance Cover?

When you run a barbershop, it is essential that you take out business insurance that is tailored to meet your needs. A barbershop business insurance policy can look very different to a shop insurance policy for a business across the street from your business.

Shop insurance is created to protect you from a unique set of risks you face in your day-to-day operation. But because of the nature of your business, one of the most essential business insurance protections you can have is public liability insurance. This will cover you against any third-party claims made against you from a customer or a member of the public that gets injured while on your premises.

Public liability insurance should only make up one part of your policy, so you should check your quote to see what barbershop liability insurance is included. Insurance for barbershop protection should focus more on public liability as this is one of the most significant risks faced by the shop. However, product liability insurance should also be a consideration if you sell things like hair products or brush and comb sets.

What does barber shop insurance cover?

Barbers provide a service to their customers, and it is your job to ensure your customers get the hairstyle, shave or type of beard and moustache trim they want. But barbers use many different grooming tools, including sharp scissors and razors that can cause injury if carelessly used.

Your barbershop insurance policy should include the following:

• Employers liability insurance: Unless you are a sole trader who runs your barbershop on your own, you will need to have employer’s liability insurance to cover the staff you employ in your shop. Employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement for every employer, no matter how large or small his or her business is.

• Public liability insurance: Barbershop business insurance should include public liability insurance as you are physically interacting with your customers who visit your premises daily. This insurance coverage will protect you if your customer slips and falls and gets injured, or their clothing or belongings are damaged while on your premises, and they make a compensation claim. It will also protect you should a customer book a hair colouring treatment and suffers an allergic reaction or if you accidentally cut a customer during a trim.

• Product liability insurance: This is valuable coverage if your barbershop sells things like hair products such as shampoo, conditioner, grooming sets or hair accessories. Even if you don’t make these products yourself, you can still have a claim made against you for selling faulty products.

While the only insurance that you need by law is employer’s liability (only if you employ staff), there is optional extra coverage that you may want to add to your policy to help give your business an extra layer of protection.

If you rent your shop premises from a commercial landlord or rent a chair in an established barbershop, then building’s insurance should be covered by the building owner. However, suppose you plan on buying a premises to operate a barbershop. In that case, you will need to take out buildings insurance to cover the costs of any building repairs, refurbishments or complete rebuild you need following a fire, flood or storm damage.

Do you need specialist barbershop insurance?

A barbershop will operate differently from a retail shop that sells physical products to the general public. As a barber, you will offer your hairdressing and grooming skills to your customers, but you may also sell them related hair products or grooming kits to help keep their new style looking sharp.

A retail shop selling groceries, newspapers and magazines may require a higher level of product liability insurance than a barbershop that sells haircuts and beard trims. But in turn, your barber shop may need a higher level of insurance to protect the tools of your trade.

It can help to take out extra cover to protect the essential tools and equipment you need to run your business should they get stolen or lost to a fire. You cannot cut hair, trim beards and style hair without hair scissors, razors, trimmers and hair dryers!

Consider contents insurance to cover the fixtures and fittings in your barbershop that are not typically covered by buildings insurance. Things like your barbershop chairs, sinks and shower attachments, mirrors and counters that you installed yourself into an empty shop premises while setting up your business. All these fixtures and fittings are an essential part of your business that you couldn’t operate without.

How do you compare barbershop insurance quotes?

The easiest and most convenient way to compare barbershop insurance quotes is to do it online with the help of Brisco Business Insurance. Using our quote finder, you can search for the most cost-effective quotes from leading UK providers. Then you can take your time to read through the quote details to ensure that it offers the right level of protection your business needs.

It is essential that you take enough time to thoroughly read through to note how much coverage is included. While the cheapest quotes may be the most desirable because of their low price, you may discover in the small print that you will be vastly underinsured on an essential element of your insurance. This means you could pay out of pocket to compensate for a shortfall in your insurance coverage.

Our team at Brisco Business Insurance have many years of experience in helping thousands of UK businesses find the right insurance coverage. We are here to offer our clients help and support whenever they need it and can help to build you a perfect business insurance policy to suit the individual needs of your barbershop.

Your barbershop business costs can be much lower with our expert help. We work with businesses of all types and sizes every day to help them find the right coverage from the UK’s leading insurance providers.

Conclusion

Barbershop insurance will help you cover losses and handle any compensation claims made by your customers without having to pay compensation and hefty legal fees out of your pocket.

There is much to lose should a customer claim against you. Hence, it makes sense to work with professional business insurance brokers, such as Brisco Business Insurance, to ensure you get the right coverage for your business.

Maria Hickey

For more than 20 years, Maria has worked in the insurance sector and has extensive underwriting and customer service expertise. Maria is an experienced Senior Underwriter with a particular specialism for shop, office and surgery related insurance.

All articles by Maria Hickey