As a salon owner or an independent salon professional, what better place to run your business than from one of the fabulous suites at Image Studios. Your beauty salon may focus on providing hair styling services or it may offer additional luxuries such as manicures and pedicures, make-overs and tanning. As a salon professional, your customers trust your judgment, training and skills when they pay your salon for services. If your customers feel you made a mistake (or even if they just slip and fall), it is possible they could sue you for the actual or perceived damages. That’s why it’s important for you to carry liability insurance.
There are two basic types of liability insurance: business liability (also called general liability) and professional liability. Business liability protects you against bodily injury lawsuits. For example, a lawsuit claiming that a customer or visitor was injured while on your premises (most commonly a trip and fall). Business liability also provides protection against third party property damage claims; personal injury lawsuits involving libel or slander; claims arising from the physical eviction of a person while on your premises and/or claims of false arrest; and claims arising from false advertising.
The second type of coverage is professional liability. Unlike business liability, professional liability only covers your professional services. That is to say, professional liability might protect you against claims made by customers who suffer an injury arising out of services provided by your business as a beauty salon (hair coloring etc.). For example, if an up and coming model comes to your beauty salon for hair and makeup styling, she trusts you to make her look good enough to win the modeling job she is after. If she claims that she didn’t get the job because your makeup artist did not prepare her properly for a black and white photo shoot, she may sue your salon for the losses in income. Your beauty salon professional liability insurance can help pay for your litigation expenses and potentially reimburse you for the losses in work time while you’re defending yourself in the lawsuit. Your professional liability insurance policy is also structured to pay for legal awards and settlements when applicable.
If salon professionals do not properly manage their risk and buy the proper liability insurance, their personal assets could be at risk – including their car and home. The risks associated with running a beauty salon are great and only with the right insurance plan can salon professionals lessen and manage those risks. Jon Jepsen at SentryWest Insurance is an independent insurance broker who offers policies tailored specifically to the needs of the beauty industry and includes general liability and professional liability coverage within the custom package of insurance.
If you have questions for Jon Jepsen or would like to receive a competitive quote, please go to www.imagestudiosinsurance.com.
Other Beauty Salon Claims Examples:
The salon professional completely lost track of time as two chatty customers were drying their hair. The patrons stayed under the dryers for 2 hours and completely burned their scalps. They sued the insured for injuries.
In order to get ready for a wedding, an entire bridal party of 8 went to the beauty salon. The salon was not equipped to handle so many customers. Amid the chaos, one of the employees left a sink running overnight. The water caused both $14,000 in building damage and $6,000 in business personal property damage. In order to repair the damage, the beauty salon had to shut down for three weeks, causing a $14,000 loss in income and $10,000 extra expenses to get the store up and running again. This loss was included in the business income with extra expense coverage.
A customer of the nail salon sued the salon professional for cutting their toe while receiving a pedicure, recovering damages for $2,000.
A barbershop installed a bright neon sign above the front door in order to attract new customers. During a heavy windstorm, the sign cracked, and a portion of it fell to the ground smashing into pieces.
After a bad haircut, a recent high school graduate decided to vandalize the barber shop by throwing a rock through the front glass storefront window.
An employee of a beauty salon was going through tough financial times. They ‘forgot’ to turn on the alarm system when closing up for the night. No signs of break-in were evident. The owner noticed inventory levels were repeatedly lower when this employee closed the store. Cash in the register also was mysteriously low on these same nights. The insured notified the agent, and made an employee dishonesty claim, and a money and securities claim.
The piping within the hot water heater ruptured from over usage, causing the nail salon to have to shut down for 4 hours. An equipment breakdown claim was made.
If you have questions for Jon Jepsen or would like to receive a competitive quote, please go to www.imagestudiosinsurance.com.
