Insurance for salon owners

Professional liability insurance - sometimes called errors and omissions insurance (E&O insurance), is insurance coverage for claims against businesses that provide professional and personal services, such as salon businesses like yours. One great reason to have insurance for beauty salon businesses is to protect you and your staff for accidental errors and when you don’t make a mistake but are still accused of doing so by someone.

When is it important to have professional liability insurance for salon owners? The reasons are abundant and include the following scenarios:

• Alleged negligence: A small salon owner is dyeing a client’s hair and leaves the treatment on for too long, which results in scalp burns and hair damage. The client sues for emotional distress, bodily injury from the burns, and loss of wages because she could not return to work in a timely manner. Professional liability insurance may protect the salon owner if such a claim is made.
• Loss of personal information: By mistake, you misplace your client’s personal financial information. It was an accident, of course, but the information is compromised, and your client is exposed to fraud. If your client sues you, we may cover claims subject to your limit of insurance.

Salon owners are entrusted with personal and private client information, including credit card numbers, addresses, and perhaps even medical information. It’s important to keep that information safe and protect yourself with beauty salon insurance in case anything is lost.

General liability insurance - sometimes called commercial general liability (CGL), protects your business from another person or business’s claims of bodily or personal injury, associated medical costs, and damage to property. A client could sue you for claims of emotional distress, lost wages or for an injury sustained while walking into your salon’s door.

Having salon owner’s insurance for general liability is beneficial in several instances. Here are a few industry-specific examples to demonstrate what we mean:

• Property damage: You’re visiting a client’s home for a makeover and accidentally knock over a piece of artwork, breaking it. Your general liability policy will respond to a subsequent covered claim, up to your policy's limits of liability.
• Bodily injury: At your salon on a rainy day, one of the esthetician’s customers has arrived for an appointment. The salon floor was wet and the customer falls and twists her ankle, and now requires emergency treatment. General liability insurance protects estheticians and salon owners against third-party claims of bodily injury, associated medical costs, personal injury and property damage.

All of these are unfortunate situations, but even in our best attempts to avoid them, there's still no guarantee they won't occur. In case of accidents like the ones above, it’s a smart idea to have the security provided by salon owner insurance at all times.

Learn more about general liability insurance costs for your business.