Regardless of the industry or type of small business you run, business insurance can play an critically important role in reducing your risk, which will help to sustain your business for the long-term. Business insurance such as cleaning company insurance – also sometimes known as housekeeping insurance – helps protect cleaning business owners from unforeseen incidents and accidents that may reduce their capacity to run their business.
Cleaners insurance is all the more important given the nature of the work cleaners perform and the fact that they generally work on third-party premises.
Whether you operate as an individual contractor (self-employed or sole trader) or a company, you and your business may benefit from business insurance that specifically addresses the risks associated with operating a cleaning business.
With cleaning company insurance in place, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your cleaning small business has taken the important step to actively reduce its risk. And it’s also worth noting that some cleaning clients may only work with cleaning businesses that hold the relevant business insurance. In fact, if you are targeting commercial or industrial clients for your cleaning business, the growth of your cleaning business may actually be hampered over time if you don’t hold business insurance. This is due to the fact that commercial or industrial companies may require that their cleaners are covered by business insurance such as cleaners insurance or self-employed cleaning insurance.
While every business may benefit from holding business insurance relevant to their specific business, the argument can be made that cleaning business owners may especially benefit from reducing their risk through business insurance.
Cleaners typically travel to multiple sites and work at third-party premises often. They also occasionally may perform their work in dangerous circumstances, such as on rooftops and in ceilings. As such, business insurance such as cleaners insurance is something that professional cleaners will often use to ensure their business is covered in the event that an accident or incident occurs while they’re performing their work.
What are the common risks to cleaners?
When one considers the nature of the work and the types of environments that professional cleaners may be exposed to on any given job, it becomes acutely apparent that professional cleaners can face potential risks and safety hazards on many jobs. Here are just five common on the job risks that cleaners may face while performing their job – and which business insurance may cover.
1. Injury to yourself or your employees: Whether you work alone as a sole cleaner or you have a partner or a small team of cleaners on site to share the workload across jobs, it can be beneficial to think ahead and plan out cleaning jobs so as to reduce any on the job risks may result accidents or injuries.
2. Injury to a third party: In the event that a third party is injured, perhaps by an accident involving your cleaning equipment and products, or your staff or cleaning supplies, as the owner of the cleaning business you may be liable. In such situations you may need to file a claim for injuries if someone slips on a wet floor you are in the process of cleaning.
3. Theft: Insurance can protect you against the cost of cleaning staff who steal items from clients. You would be able to pay for the item immediately, despite all the legal problems.
4. Property damage: This claim is most common for cleaners and cleaning businesses. Liability insurance can cover costs for property damage.
5. Equipment Damage: Cleaning equipment such as vacuums, buffers and other special cleaning tools will be used nearly every day. If your equipment is damaged during transport or by someone on the job, you must protect yourself.
What are the insurance requirements for cleaning businesses?
Before you start searching for reputable business insurance providers or ‘housekeeping insurance’, it may be beneficial to understand what types of business insurance will provide the appropriate protection for your cleaning small business.
Equally important is understanding to the letter exactly what is and isn’t covered by each of the business insurance products you are considering purchasing for your cleaning business. Let’s look at cleaning company insurance and the types of business insurance that can help reduce the risks to your cleaning business.
1. Public Liability Insurance
Public Liability insurance provides cover for you and your cleaning business if a customer, supplier, or a member of the public is injured or sustains property damage due to your negligent business activities.
Whether you clean commercial premises or domestic properties, there can be numerous things that could potentially go wrong and possibly leave you looking at a public liability claim for personal injury or property damage.
It can be as simple as:
- forgetting to display a ‘wet floor’ sign and your customer slips and injures themselves;
- a passer-by tripping over the vacuum cleaner cord that you didn’t pack up; or
- spilling industrial cleaning products that leave permanent damage to carpet, furniture, or floors.
2. Business Insurance
If you rely on essential cleaning equipment that you’ve purchased for your cleaning business, what would happen to your livelihood if that equipment was stolen or damaged beyond repair? How would you continue to run your business and provide your services?
This is where Business Insurance, including General Property insurance, can help by covering specific items essential to the running of your business, such as your commercial cleaning tools.
3. Personal Accident and Illness insurance
As a professional cleaner, you rely on your health and your physicality to provide your cleaning services to your clients. What would happen if you were to injure yourself or become sick and need to take time away from your business to recover? Try as we might, accidents can and do happen – anywhere, and anytime.
Personal Accident and Illness insurance can provide cover should you become permanently disabled or pass away as a result of an accident. Cover can also include a weekly benefit for loss of income if you are unable to work as a result of an unexpected injury or illness (even if it occurs outside of your employment).
BizCover helps cleaning small businesses Australia-wide to reduce the risks to their business via business insurance* made easy. Whether you are looking for cleaners insurance or self-employed cleaning insurance, or other types of business insurance for your cleaning business, with BizCover you can get your business covered and get on with your day. Start a quote now.
