What type of insurance do I need as a Beauty Professional?
Working as a beauty professional such as a nail artist, hair stylist, barber beautician, or makeup artist can be a highly rewarding career but it comes with a lot of liability risks as well as you are dealing with people and their appearance. With each client, you have the potential for a claim (aka lawsuit) whether you made a mistake or not. An easy way to protect your personal assets from liability and to protect your business is to carry business insurance. Spoiler Alert: This type of insurance is insanely affordable!
Common questions about this type of business insurance.
What type of coverage do I need?
The main types of business insurance you will need to protect yourself and your business are general liability, business personal property, and professional liability.
General Liability will protect your business from any third party bodily injury or property damage claims. Some common claims scenarios are if your client or a vendor is visiting your work station and trips and falls, your client trips & falls off a styling chair, a client gets burned by a styling tool, if there is a fire caused by a candle that is left on, if chemicals fall on a client's expensive leather purse and gets ruined etc. There are endless ways for a client or another 3rd party can become injured or sustain property damage caused by your business.
Tools & equipment can be very costly and can take years to collect to complete your professional tool kit. It only makes sense to have insurance to protect against the theft or loss of these items. Since they are used for business use, you will need to protect under a business insurance policy. A personal renters or personal homeowners policy will typically not cover these items as they are for business use. Also, property coverage is tied to a physical location. So if you're not providing services from your house, the coverage would not travel with you if you were trying to insure them on a renters/homeowners policy. The proper place to insure your tools & equipment is under the business personal property limit on your general liability or business owners policy. The business personal property limit should be the value of the replacement cost of the tools/ equipment.
For all beauty professionals, such as hairdressers, barbers, nail artists/technicians, beauticians, & makeup artists it is critical to have professional liability coverage. What happens if a client sues you for cutting too much of their hair off? Or sues you for damaging their hair or scalp from chemicals from hair dye/bleach? What if you’re a beautician and your client has a bad skin reaction to a product you used? What happens if a client sues you for a bad burn from a waxing service? For nail technician, what happens if a client’s foot becomes infected from tools not being properly sterilized or the client’s nail turns into a painful ingrown nail due to the nail not being cut properly? All of these potential scenarios can result in a potential lawsuit. This is why professional liability is such a critical policy to have at all times when working with clients. This coverage covers your company against any claims that you were negligent in the work/services you provided. When working with a professional model or a person whose job closely tied to their appearance, there is a greater risk for a potential lawsuit resulting from a service gone wrong.
If you have employees, depending on what state you operate out of, carrying a workers comp policy for your employees will be mandated by the state. For example, if you’re operating out of California you are required by law to carry workers comp coverage even if you have just 1 employee. If you're in Calfornia and have independent contractors, you will need to make sure each 1099 Agreement you have with an independent contractor complies with the new California independent contractor rules. You can learn more about this here. If you have any questions you can email us at hello@beemabroker.com.
Can I just buy one policy to cover all of this?
Yes! You can purchase a Business Owners Policy with Professional Liability Coverage included from BeemaBroker! This policy would include general liability, business personal property, business income, and professional liability all bundled into one policy. The bundling of coverage would give you a max discount on premium and makes the managing of the policy a breeze!
If you’re in need of a workers comp policy, this policy can be quoted at the same time with the above coverage. It technically will be two policies but it will be purchased from the same insurance company and linked to the same account. This will help with having just one point of contact for billing, claims and servicing needs. The premium pricing is based on the payroll of the employee(s) and their job function.
How much does this cost?
This coverage starts at $41 a month for the bundle of $2,000,000 General Aggregate/ $1,000,000 Per Occurrence limit of liability for general liability, business personal property (as stated on the proposal), business income (as stated on the proposal), professional liability (included), and additional value added coverages. The best part is you’re able to pay this premium in a monthly installment plan. It works similar to a monthly subscription service plan.
Where can I purchase this type of policy?
You can purchase this type of policy from BeemaBroker! BeemaBroker is an InsurTech startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area that specializes in helping business owners like yourself find the correct insurance at the most affordable rates! Once you purchase your policy you will have access to a free BeemaBroker account profile to manage this policy on demand when it is convenient for you!
You can start a free quote here!
Some additional key coverage’s BeemaBroker can provide coverage for:
The business owners policy from our partner insurance company also includes the following additional coverages in addition to general liability, business personal property, business income, and professional liability all bundled into one policy as listed below:
- Medical Expenses: $15,000 (Any One Person)
- Broadened Coverage For Damage To Premises Rented To You: $1,000,000
- Data Compromise: Annual Aggregate $50,000, Legal & Forensic Information Technology Review Sublimit $5,000, Deductible $500 (Any One “Personal Data Compromise”)
- CyberOne Coverage: Annual Aggregate $50,000, Computer Attack Deductible $5,000, Data Compromise Defense and Liability Deductible $500
- Identity Recovery Coverage for Defined Individuals: Expense Reimbursement Annual Aggregate $25,000, Expense Reimbursement Deductible $250
- Case Management Service: Included
- Outdoor Signs:$25,000
- Valuable Papers and Records: $25,000
- Personal Property Off Premises (Including While In Transit): $10,000
- Valuable Papers and Records(Other Than Accts Receivable): $10,000 at each described premises, $5,000 at premises not described
- Accounts Receivable: $10,000 at the described premises, $5,000 at premises not described
- Blanket Additional Insureds (Owners, Contractors or Lessors): Includes persons or organizations agreed to by written contract, for liability arising from ongoing operations, or premises of the named insured.
- + Additional Key Coverage listed on each proposal.
What if I sell products to my clients?
If you are selling any products such as hair products, lotions, creams, etc. and you are not putting your own label on the products, you are able to include the product sales amount in your gross sales under the general liability coverage.
However, if you are placing your own label on products, insurance companies categorize this as a manufacturer risk. Even if you are “white-labeling” a product meaning another company is manufacturing the product for you and placing your logo on the goods, your business is still assuming the liability of a manufacturer. The insurance company you are purchasing the general liability policy from will not cover you for this added risk. If you are selling products under your own logo, will need to purchase a separate policy to protect your business from any claims of liability caused by the products. You will need to purchase a product liability policy.
Have any other questions?
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at hello@beemabroker.com. You can also DM us your questions on any of our social media accounts as listed below.
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Important Disclaimer: This is general information for educational purposes only. Each insurance carrier has their own specific policy language which dictates what their specific policy will cover. It is important to read your policy and ask questions on any language you are not clear about.
If there is a specific question you would like to have answered please email us at hello@beemabroker.com and we will be happy to help!
