As a self-employed beauty therapist, you need beauty insurance because you won’t be insured under your employer, like an employee of a beauty salon would be. That means if a client or a member of the public were to take legal action against you, then you’d be liable to pay any damages plus your own legal fees.

The best way to guarantee you and your business could financially survive such an expense is to take out insurance, which would pay out any fees on your behalf so that you’re not left out of pocket.

Here is an overview of insurance for self-employed beauty therapists to guide you on what to look out for.

Self Employed Beauty Therapist Insurance

Beauty therapist insurance for the self-employed should start with liability cover. Any business is at risk of legal action if it causes injury to a person or damage to their property. However, with beauty therapy, the risks are more specific since you’ll be working directly on people’s faces and bodies and with dangerous tools and chemicals.

While insurance isn’t a legal requirement unless you hire others, it is strongly recommended. Taking the time to sort it out now could save a huge hassle, not to mention expense later down the line.

There are 3 main strands of insurance that you should consider if you’re a self-employed beauty therapist, which is as follows:

Beauty Public Liability Insurance

Public liability covers accidents relating to the public and your business. Specifically, if someone has an accident or has their property damaged as a result of your business, with any type of liability insurance, if someone were to take legal action against you, your legal costs and the insurance payout would be covered.

If you check how much public liability insurance is per week versus the maximum payout, it’s often an extremely good deal. Without such insurance, you would have to stump up the fees yourself, which few businesses, especially those run by sole traders, could afford to do. This includes hiring a legal team to represent your case, which can easily run into thousands of pounds on its own.

Scenario: You remove a nail extension from your client, and it pings off and lands in their eye. They need hospital treatment and time off work as a result.

Beauty Product Liability Insurance

Beauty therapists can use several products just in one treatment. The products needed to strip nails or even perform facials can cause injury, irritation or damage to your client person or property. Therefore, product liability insurance relates directly to the products you use to carry out your treatments.

While you may think the responsibility lies with the manufacturer of the product, they might seek out damages from you in terms of your clients. After all, it’s your business, and they would assume you carefully vet your products before using them on anybody.

Although a fault may ultimately lie with the manufacturer, if products you use injure your client or damage their property, they could still try to take legal action against you. Even if a disaster is not your fault, you would still need to mount a legal defence. It’s not unheard of for a client to bring a frivolous lawsuit. But having good insurance in place can act as a deterrent against clients bringing needless action.

Scenario: The hot wax you use rips a client’s skin as you go to pull it off due to an inconsistency in the mix caused by a factory error.

Treatment Liability Insurance

Treatment liability insurance will cover you in case the treatments you provide cause injury or damage to your client’s property. Considering most self-employed beauticians work outside of a salon environment, it’s wise to have this cover in place. Even if you work from home, there’s still the possibility you could damage a client’s clothing, wedding ring or similar possessions due to the treatments you carry out.

Injury or irritation due to treatments is also a serious matter. Even if you’ve completed a thorough consultation and a patch test, it’s no guarantee your client won’t have a reaction or become injured due to the treatment you provide.

Scenario: You use facial products that don’t take into account your client’s skin condition, making it much worse, not better. They have to consult a dermatologist for corrective treatment as a result.

Beauty Insurance Recap

With beauty, it’s too easy to focus on the fun side of the job. However, to protect your business, there are certain administrative aspects you need in place, and this includes insurance.

Ultimately, there are many different ways in which your business can injure someone or damage their property as a self-employed beauty therapist. So whether your specialism is waxing, brows, facials, massages or any other area of beauty, getting insured is essential.

Source:

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/business-insurance/beauty-insurance-mobile-freelance