What insurance does a dog walking business need?

When starting up your new dog walking business, it could be easy to forget that you may need to take out insurance. Although if you start up without any insurance, it could leave you liable when faced with different scenarios. 

So to make sure you have all the information available, these are types of dog walking business insurance:

• Public liability insurance
• Business equipment insurance
• Personal accident insurance
• Self-employed insurance

Being a dog walker, there are a lot of possible scenarios. For example, while you are walking dogs, they could injure a member of the public or damage property. In both of these situations, you could be liable as the dogs are under your care while you walk them. 

While these scenarios are unlikely to happen regularly, it’s still good to protect yourself. You may be unfamiliar with certain dogs, and they may behave violently or destructively. In this case, having the right cover for that situation would be helpful.

Public liability insurance covers the cost for claims against you concerning:

• personal injuries
• loss or damage to property
• death

This cover means that customers or non-customers who claim against you for any of the above reasons will be compensated partly by the insurer. It will cover the legal costs of going to court, also. 

Countingup partners with Superscript to ensure your small business gets the cover it needs from a trusted insurer. Superscript offers public liability insurance for as little as £5 a month. 

For more information on how much public liability insurance costs, see this other article.

Being a dog walker, it is unlikely that you will use expensive equipment. Though you do have essential things you need, and if you keep having to pay to replace them, it could soon add up to a significant expense.

To cover the costs of replacing leads and collars, you could take out business equipment insurance. If these items are lost, stolen, or damaged, you may claim new ones. Some dogs are known to chew through leads quickly, so this is one to consider.

Superscript offers business equipment cover, which is commitment free, meaning you can change or cancel your policy at any time with no additional costs. Their quotes for cover start from £5.23 a month, and it takes less than ten minutes to set up.

Apart from the risk of dogs harming someone else, there is also the possibility that one hurts you. In the UK, we have public healthcare, so this isn’t to cover your medical bills. Instead, this cover provides you with compensation if you are made disabled or unable to work.

If you are badly injured, that could mean you cannot continue working. This cover means you have some financial support in replacement for the loss of earnings. The cover protects against:

• loss of sight
• loss of hearing
• loss of speech
• loss of limb
• a disability that permanently affects the ability to work

This type of cover is for when the worst possible scenarios could occur in your dog walking business. Being a self-employed person, you are financially reliant on your ability to continue to work.

Superscript offers personal accident insurance. They can provide you with £2000 or £5000 of cover if you are injured. It also includes cover for injuries that result in death so that your family can have some extra support in the scenario of passing away at work.

Due to being a self-employed person, you are often responsible for everything in your business. Superscript offers self-employed insurance, which provides some of the cover previously mentioned and some additional ones.

It provides you with:

• Professional indemnity cover — this could protect you if you provide business advice and it follows poor results, which leads the recipient to file legal action.
• Public liability insurance — like previously mentioned, this is going to cover injury to others and damage to property.
• Contents insurance — this could cover anything in your office being stolen or damaged.
• Business equipment insurance — as previously mentioned, this will ensure that the insurer can replace those leads and collars.
• Cyber insurance — this cover protects against a breach of personal data. This can cover financial loss as the system is down or if customers file legal action.

This policy aims to ensure that you have all of the covers you need to run your business safely. The policy also provides a lot of options to customise which cover you will need. It can be changed or cancelled at any time, and the quotes start from £5 a month.

Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like receipt capture tools, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.
For advice on how to market your dog walking business, read our articles on how to promote a dog walking business effectively and how to get dog walking clients.