Running a cleaning business can be highly appealing to many people. After all, it’s possible to set up a cleaning company speedily and cost-effectively, as Startups.co.uk explains – and you can consider various types of cleaning within the broad categories of domestic cleaning and commercial cleaning.
However, your costs in running a cleaning business will strongly depend on the type of cleaning in which you opt to specialise. You could particularly struggle to edge your firm into promotional contention in a crowded marketplace, while the costs of your equipment can heavily add up as well.
Still, these sources of financial leaks could fade into insignificance if you make a mistake when carrying out your cleaning work. When an accident does happen, you might not be able to clean up the mess as swiftly as you could a blotch of food from a kitchen worktop.
Instead, you could find yourself on the hook for a large payout – such as for compensation to a wronged worker or client or to replace essential tools, equipment or keys. That’s when you could breathe a sigh of relief if you had implemented the following types of insurance beforehand…
Public liability insurance
Naturally, your job as a cleaner is to help other people recover from their own accidents. However, though you could swell with pride as you hoover up debris from a carpet or wipe spilt milkshake off a tabletop, you can’t entirely rule out the cleaning itself possibly giving rise to accidents.
Let’s assume that you dust a client’s mantelpiece, only to accidentally knock a vase off it in the process and see that ornament smash onto the floor. This blunder would count as property damage for which you could be held liable to pay compensation to the client.
Having to pay that compensation – especially if the vase was particularly old and valuable – could seriously dent your firm’s finances, but less so if you hold public liability insurance capable of meeting much, if not all, of the cost. We offer cleaners insurance policies that include such cover automatically.
This cover can also pay for compensation to clients or members of the public inadvertently injured due to your business. Such injury could occur through, for example, someone slipping on a shopping centre’s floor which remains wet from your cleaning but to which you had forgotten to add a “wet floor” sign.
Employer’s liability insurance
It’s possible to run a cleaning business as simply a one-person outfit with responsibility for maintaining just two domestic properties weekly. However, your business could handle more tasks in more places, and thus gather more revenue, if it recruits a few extra pairs of hands.
Should you go down this route, you might need to take out employer’s liability insurance. This cover is basically to your employees what public liability cover is to your clients and members of the public, as it can help you to compensate workers who suffer illness or injury due to your business.
However, employer’s liability cover differs from the public equivalent in being legally compulsory, too – at least for most employers, as the Health and Safety Executive explains. The Government body has outlined various instances where your own business might not strictly need this cover.
These instances include taking, under your wing, cleaners who do not work just for you; for example, because they are independent contractors. However, given that fees of up to £2,500 are daily chargeable to firms not meeting their legal need to hold the cover, you should research it carefully.
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Providing insurance and services to businesses since 1984Tools and equipment
If you specialise in domestic cleaning, you might find that many of the households you serve provide the equipment that you need to get the job done. In this way, they would spare you the need to spend on your own cleaning equipment, but what if you are set to work as a commercial cleaner?
For that role, it will be necessary to spend on equipment of your own. Rudimentary examples of such equipment include a mop and bucket. Meanwhile, if you seek to clean in large offices or public spaces, a cleaning trolley can save you having to keep running back to the supply cupboard.
If many hard floors are awaiting your attention, treat them with a hard floor cleaner capable of washing, scrubbing, polishing and vacuuming them. Yes, all of that is possible with just one machine for a time-effective job – but imagine how costly all of this equipment could be to replace…
Sadly, you might need to replace it if any of it is stolen or damaged. Reassuringly, though, “tools and equipment” cover could financially ease the task. At Tradesman Saver, we offer that cover at levels ranging from £1,000 to £5,000 per person – and you can choose in increments of £500.
Loss of keys
Many clients might be willing to temporarily hand over keys to their buildings so that you can clean interiors without the clients present. This could be the case with domestic cleaning, which you would typically carry out while the homes’ residents are at work.
Naturally, keys could be handed to you by commercial clients, too – such as those running large office buildings. For cleaning either homes or offices, you could be entrusted with quite a few keys, so you can easily imagine every party’s dissatisfaction if you lose any of them.
For the client, rectifying the issue might not prove a matter as simple as getting an extra set of keys cut. It could also be necessary for that client to replace locks and alter other security features – at inconveniently high expense. You could be deemed ultimately liable to foot that particular bill.
We have taken account of this, which is why we offer “loss of keys” cover with the various other covers in our palette of optional extras. Whether you clean carpets, windows, curtains or anything else in a domestic or commercial setting, cleaners insurance from Tradesman Saver could help to keep your business financially resilient.
