Beauty salons provide services to men and women, including cutting and coloring hair, manicures and pedicures, and sometimes waxing as well. Operating a beauty salon can provide a lucrative income and become a successful business, but it also has its own set of risks. Since you rely on electrical tools and equipment to operate your beauty salon, you are further increasing the risk of accidents or damage.
Bodily Injury
A common risk when owning a beauty salon is bodily injury that can occur from accidents in your salon. The floors of your salon can become slippery for a variety of reasons, including spills from styling products, leaks from the shampooing sink, or hair clippings that haven’t been swept yet. This increases the risk for injury to not only your clients, but your employees as well. On top of that, there is the risk of burn from curling irons or cuts from electric razors on men. The smallest spill or mishap could cause a serious injury to your clients or employees and lead to a lawsuit.
Treatment Injuries
Aside from accidents resulting from slips and falls, there are also risks when dealing with the treatments you provide. A client could suffer a bad allergic reaction to the products you use on their hair or nails, get their scalp burned or irritated from the bleach or hair dye, or get chemicals in their eyes, nose or mouth when applying hair treatments. This is something your employees should be wary of, so be sure they always protect their hands and are careful when handling client’s hair. Inform clients of ingredients in the products you use to reduce allergic reaction risks.
Fire, Flood and Natural Disasters Risks
In regards to your building and contents, a significant risk is that of fire. All businesses with property have of a fire risk, but beauty salons have a heightened risk due to the chemical products and electrical tools used. Every time you plug in a curling iron or hair dryer there is a risk of fire from a nearby water or chemical spill. Even if you have taken the necessary precautions, you can’t always prevent a fire from breaking out in your beauty salon. However, it’s still important that you prepare for a potential fire and educate your employees on how to locate and use the fire extinguisher. You should also be concerned about other unexpected events that might occur and cause damage to your building and contents, including natural disasters, flood, or extreme weather like wind or hail.
Crime
Lastly, you have the risk of crimes occurring in your beauty salon. This includes crimes committed by clients, employees, and passersby. You run the risk of having products stolen from your beauty salon, money stolen from your cash register, or embezzlement and other employee-related crimes. Install surveillance equipment and always run background checks before hiring new employees.
To reduce your risks and avoid these mishaps, be sure to make the necessary changes to protect your salon, employees, and clients. Always clean up spills immediately, inform clients when you’re using chemicals that might cause an allergic reaction, and have a fire extinguisher in your salon at all times. You should also purchase business insurance to protect against events that can’t be prevented. Beauty salon insurance policies include general liability, property insurance, products liability insurance, worker’s compensation, and errors & omissions.
