If you’ve trained as a beauty therapist, passed all the tests with flying colours and cannot wait to pursue your passion as a career, you may be wondering what to do next. You could certainly work for someone else in a bustling salon and gain some experience there. However, you may be particularly ambitious and fancy the idea of being your own boss, so for you, self-employment beckons. For example, you may want to hit the road as you grow your new enterprise and become a mobile beauty therapist, but with this approach, you need to ensure you are ready.
What do you need to know about mobile beauty insurance before getting things underway?
The Extra Challenges of Being Your Own Boss
Self-employment has certainly got its advantages, and you may be able to make more money from your endeavours by going down this path. Still, you need to take responsibility for many things and cannot rely on your 'boss' to worry about those details. Instead, you will want to ensure that your long-term prospects are rosy and that you do not encounter any serious problems that could throw you off track. You’ll certainly want to focus on having the right types of mobile beauty therapist insurance, as otherwise, you may not get very far.
You Never Know What Can Happen
Certainly, you may feel very confident and believe you are an expert in your craft. But accidents and mistakes can still happen, and it doesn’t matter how confident or careful you are. Remember, you are providing a very personal service and modifying people’s faces or bodies. Should you make a mistake, you could cause physical injury or mental anguish, and the client may want to take some legal action against you. And remember, you will work with products that a third party makes, and you will be responsible, to a degree, for any reactions the customer may suffer when applying them.
The End of Your Dream?
You’ll undoubtedly want to avoid compensation claims. Apart from the sum awarded against you, you may also need to pay legal costs, both for the plaintiff and your legal team. In the worst-case scenario, you may need to face a bill that is impossible to pay, and in this situation, you may well need to stop trading. The repercussions could wipe out your savings, or you may even face the horrible thought of bankruptcy. Suddenly, your dream of successful self-employment would be in tatters, and you would rue the day you overlooked the need for adequate insurance.
Types of Beauty Therapist Insurance
So, what type of insurance does a mobile beauty therapist need?
Professional Liability and Treatment
Perhaps the most important type of beauty therapist insurance is treatment and professional liability coverage. With this policy, you will get protection should you be accused of malpractice. In other words, if a client said you were negligent — which led to bodily injury, illness or worse — you’d claim against your policy. This will also cover any injuries caused by your products or issues that you may trigger as you perform your work.
You never know if a client will suffer an adverse reaction to a product or treatment you are using, even if you check the labelling, fully understand your craft or question the client ahead of time. Such a reaction could cause scarring or long-term issues for the customer, and that compensation claim could be significant.
Indemnity
Ask your insurance agent if your policy will include special indemnity coverage. This could come into play if someone accused you of a privacy infringement, breach of confidentiality or care.
Public Liability
You will also need public liability insurance. This will include protection should you cause physical damage to someone else’s property while performing your services. Imagine what would happen if you spilt a dye over someone’s expensive carpet while preparing to administer treatment. No amount of cleaning may get rid of the aftermath, and they could present you with a costly bill. Or, you could leave your treatment bag on the floor, and somebody may trip over it and hurt themselves. While you could privately argue that they were clumsy, they would not have suffered the injuries if you had not placed the bag there in the first place.
Industry Standards
These types of insurance are essential and are similar to the coverage that your 'boss' would have if you decided to work in a salon instead. This insurance will also come to your assistance when you are a mobile beauty therapist visiting the client at their home. It could help pay for your legal costs in court and any damages that a judge may award.
Equipment Insurance
Before you can take your show on the road, you must ensure that you have the correct type of equipment to perform your skill and trade as a professional. However, what happens if some of this equipment is out of action for some reason? What if somebody steals it from your car while you pop into the house? You wouldn’t be able to work in this situation, so you need portable equipment insurance. This will help you to repair or replace these items or hire any equipment in the meantime.
Personal Accident
You may also need to protect yourself if you cannot work due to accidental injury. Personal accident insurance will help pay some of those bills until you are back on your feet and raring to go again.
What About Renting a Chair?
By the way, if you decided that you want to be self-employed but will simply rent a chair at a local salon, you may still need to consider your own insurance. While the salon owner will have theirs in place, they may ask you to get professional or public liability insurance, so everyone has protection at every stage.
Taking the Next Step
Now that you know what types of mobile nail and beauty insurance you may need, you must put the coverage in place. Reach out to Salonsure, and we will help you get the ball rolling.