What insurance do you actually need?

The one that is compulsory

Employers liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ anyone, from their first day. Fines are charged per day without cover.

It applies more widely than people assume. Casual staff, part-timers and in some cases work experience placements can all count, and treating someone as self-employed does not automatically remove the duty if the reality is employment.

The certificate must be accessible to your employees.

Public liability, and why it is not enough on its own

Public liability covers injury or damage to a third party or their property. Someone trips over your cable, you flood a customer's kitchen, a client slips in your reception.

The critical gap for anyone who works on people is that a standard public liability policy typically does not cover harm caused by the treatment itself. A customer who trips in your salon is public liability. A customer burned by a chemical treatment usually is not.

That is what treatment risk cover is for, and it needs to name the specific treatments you perform. Add a new service and you need to check it is covered, because policies are written against a list.

Many landlords and most commercial premises require public liability as a condition of the lease, so check what level you are obliged to hold.

The others worth understanding

Professional indemnity covers advice or a service that causes financial loss rather than physical harm. Relevant to consultants, tutors and anyone whose recommendation a client relies on.

Product liability matters if you sell or supply anything, including retail products in a salon or parts fitted in a garage.

Equipment and stock cover for the things you cannot work without. Ask specifically about tools left in a van overnight, which is a common exclusion that catches out mobile trades.

Business interruption for when you cannot trade at all. Read the trigger conditions carefully, because what counts as a qualifying event is where these policies differ most.

Cyber and data cover is increasingly relevant now that every business holds client records digitally, and it typically includes support with breach notification.

What actually invalidates a claim

A treatment not named on the policy. The single most common problem: the business added a service and never told the insurer.

No patch test record. For hair colour and several beauty treatments, insurers expect a documented test and a signed consent. A verbal "she said she was fine" is not a record.

Unqualified staff performing a treatment the policy assumed was carried out by someone qualified.

Records you cannot produce. If your consent forms, patch tests and treatment notes are on paper in a drawer, assume that at the moment you need them most you will not find the right one.