Accidents may be unavoidable but it is possible for small business owners to prevent these accidents from turning into disasters. You’ll want to be especially careful if you own a janitorial or custodial business. Otherwise, you may end up paying a heavy price.
Consider data (PDF) compiled by small business liability insurance company, InsuranceBee. It shows slips, trips and falls make up 10 percent of all small business claims, with an average payout of $20,000.
What’s more, if a third-party is injured, the average liability awarded is between $60,000 and $100,000.
Janitorial and Cleaning Business Insurance Tips
Get Smart, Get Insured
If you don’t want to pay large sums of money on damages, get a cleaning and janitorial general liability insurance policy in place.
Not only can it help protect your business by paying for legal defense. It will cover the cost of any compensation awarded.
Minimize the Risk of a Claim
It’s of course best to minimize the risk of a claim against your business. For that, you can take some preventive measures. For example, provide training for employees to help them understand how they should carry out day-to-day tasks.
Ensure your staff follows procedures correctly to minimize the risk of injury to third parties. For instance, they should use signage to alert others to a potential risk such as a wet floor.
Another good idea is to make sure employees performing specialist cleaning tasks have the correct certification to perform their duties.
Protect Your Equipment When You Hire a Cleaning or Janitorial Company
If, however, you are on the other side of the spectrum and want to hire a cleaning company, there are steps you can take to prevent damages.
Secure or relocate your rare, valuable and fragile items that could be damaged.
Janitor Photo via Shutterstock