Don’t leave it to chance – get your salon insured

Maria Dowling talks about how to be prepared when the unthinkable happens

It’s been quite an eventful summer with our dear friends at Salon Ink suffering a terrible fire at their salon in Jumeirah. Thankfully, everyone evacuated safely but a frightening incident like this can have numerous implications for any business, particularly a salon where appointments have been made and clients are reliant on regular hair colouring and cutting.

Whether it’s a fire, water damage or loss of items, it’s essential to make sure that you are covered, in order to protect your business from any unexpected losses and help you get back up and running as soon as possible. You can cover yourself for virtually every eventuality and there are brokers who can offer various options specifically tailored to salons.

How can you continue to provide a service to your clients?

If your salon is unusable, your business cannot just stop functioning. Your clients may be understanding to a certain degree, but you want to be able to continue offering services to prevent them going elsewhere. One option is to temporarily relocate your premises. You could take space in an existing salon or set up a makeshift salon elsewhere. This may be costly but if you are keen to still offer the service your clients are used to while your damaged salon is being rebuilt, it is something to think about.

Can your team continue to work?

Your key styling team will have regular clients but you may not have the space to offer work to the whole team while your premises is being renovated. It might be a good time for some of your staff to take paid or unpaid leave. Make sure your insurance covers loss of income and payment of salaries during this period of disruption.

How much of your stock and equipment can you salvage?

When it’s safe to go back to the damaged premises you will need to salvage what stock you can, clean it up and make sure it’s usable before assessing the items that need to be replaced. Your insurance should cover these items up to a specified amount, which you generally set when taking out the policy.

How will you rebuild your premises?

This is when good insurance is worth its weight in gold. You will need to consider everything from putting together plans for the salon, submitting them for approval and finding good contractors – everything you did when you first set up your business. It may seem like a daunting task but the majority of good insurers will help you with this and cover most of the expenses.

So what kind of insurance do you need to look at when opening a salon or spa? I spoke to Greenshield Insurance Brokers (greenshield.ae) who recommends every salon owner should look at the following:

Property insurance covers your property, it’s contents and any equipment/stock you might have, which can be lost or damaged due to accidental, theft, fire or water damage. Business interruption insurance covers you for the loss of profit and all fixed expenses, including salaries, during a specified period.

Third party liability insurance is important to protect your business from claims made by third parties who could be exposed to insurable risks.

Your clients rely on you and you rely on them, so make sure you have insurance policies in place that put everyone at ease and allow you to get on with running a successful business without worrying about "what if".

Maria Dowling is creative director at mariadowling salon and has been a colourist for more than 20 years. For more information call +971 4 345 42 25.

Maria Dowling talks about how to be prepared when the unthinkable happens

It’s been quite an eventful summer with our dear friends at Salon Ink suffering a terrible fire at their salon in Jumeirah. Thankfully, everyone evacuated safely but a frightening incident like this can have numerous implications for any business, particularly a salon where appointments have been made and clients are reliant on regular hair colouring and cutting.

Whether it’s a fire, water damage or loss of items, it’s essential to make sure that you are covered, in order to protect your business from any unexpected losses and help you get back up and running as soon as possible. You can cover yourself for virtually every eventuality and there are brokers who can offer various options specifically tailored to salons.

How can you continue to provide a service to your clients?

If your salon is unusable, your business cannot just stop functioning. Your clients may be understanding to a certain degree, but you want to be able to continue offering services to prevent them going elsewhere. One option is to temporarily relocate your premises. You could take space in an existing salon or set up a makeshift salon elsewhere. This may be costly but if you are keen to still offer the service your clients are used to while your damaged salon is being rebuilt, it is something to think about.

Can your team continue to work?

Your key styling team will have regular clients but you may not have the space to offer work to the whole team while your premises is being renovated. It might be a good time for some of your staff to take paid or unpaid leave. Make sure your insurance covers loss of income and payment of salaries during this period of disruption.

How much of your stock and equipment can you salvage?

When it’s safe to go back to the damaged premises you will need to salvage what stock you can, clean it up and make sure it’s usable before assessing the items that need to be replaced. Your insurance should cover these items up to a specified amount, which you generally set when taking out the policy.

How will you rebuild your premises?

This is when good insurance is worth its weight in gold. You will need to consider everything from putting together plans for the salon, submitting them for approval and finding good contractors – everything you did when you first set up your business. It may seem like a daunting task but the majority of good insurers will help you with this and cover most of the expenses.

So what kind of insurance do you need to look at when opening a salon or spa? I spoke to Greenshield Insurance Brokers (greenshield.ae) who recommends every salon owner should look at the following:

Property insurance covers your property, it’s contents and any equipment/stock you might have, which can be lost or damaged due to accidental, theft, fire or water damage. Business interruption insurance covers you for the loss of profit and all fixed expenses, including salaries, during a specified period.

Third party liability insurance is important to protect your business from claims made by third parties who could be exposed to insurable risks.

Your clients rely on you and you rely on them, so make sure you have insurance policies in place that put everyone at ease and allow you to get on with running a successful business without worrying about "what if".

Maria Dowling is creative director at mariadowling salon and has been a colourist for more than 20 years. For more information call +971 4 345 42 25.