Insights

If you are looking to buy a restaurant, in this post we will explore four important considerations that may help you make a good investment while avoiding certain costly mistakes.

Four key considerations we’ll be exploring are:

• Location
• Licensing
• Employees
• Financing

We’ll explore each of these in more detail below including what you need to be looking for and the questions you should be asking yourself.

Restaurant Location

There are three main approaches to buying a restaurant:

• Buying an existing restaurant, and taking over as the new owner
• Buying a vacant commercial property, and converting it into a restaurant
• Building a new restaurant from scratch on an empty plot of land

Whichever approach you take, location is one of the most important factors for your restaurant’s future success. When it comes to location, there are a number of questions you should ask yourself:

• Accessibility and footfall
  How will customers get to your restaurant? Is it on a busy high street with lots of footfall? And if not, is there any nearby parking, or public transport links?
• Location prices
  What are the property prices like in the area? You could make a saving by investing in an area with lower prices. But you might then get a lower footfall.
• Crime rates
  It is also worth researching the crime rates in the area. Open a restaurant in an area with high crime rates and you could deter many potential customers. You may also have to invest in extra security to deal with the increased risk of break-ins and theft.
• Local competition
  What is the local competition like? Will your restaurant be one of many, or will it be one of the few eating options in the area?

Licensing for Food Safety and Alcohol

You will need to register your restaurant with the local authority in the area at least 28 days before you start trading. As part of this, you will have to establish and document your food safety procedures. You will also have to provide allergen information, and follow all relevant labelling guidelines.

Read a full guide to registering your restaurant on this government page.

You will need to get a separate premises licence if you wish to serve alcohol at your restaurant. Some establishments choose to forego this step, and instead implement a “BYOB” policy, in which customers are free to bring and consume their own alcohol.

Employee Needs and Recruitment

You will of course need a team of employees to help you run your restaurant. The number of employees you need will depend on the size of the establishment.

If you are buying an existing restaurant and taking over as manager, then you may already have a team of employees in place. If not, you should consider your staffing requirements carefully.

You will likely need:

• Kitchen staff, including dishwashers
• Front of house staff, including waiters, bartenders, and hosts
• Management staff, if you do not intend to manage yourself
• If you want to offer delivery services, you may also want to appoint your own drivers

There are multiple avenues you can use to recruit staff. You can ask around your friends or family. You can place an ad on an online job listings site, such as Reed or Indeed, or a specialist hospitality site like Caterer or Restaurant Jobs UK. And you could even do things the old fashioned way, with an ad in a local paper.

If you need a trained workforce as soon as possible, you could also turn to a temping or recruitment agency.

Financing, Investment and Overheads

If you are thinking about opening a restaurant, it is likely that you will have already considered your finances. You know you will need a significant financial investment in order to open your restaurant. You also know you will need an additional sum to cover your overheads once you open: staff wages, stock orders, maintenance and repairs, utility costs, and so on.

But when it comes to finances, one thing you may not have considered is insurance. There are certain insurance products that you will be required to get, by law. For example, if you employ any staff, then you have a legal duty to get employer’s liability insurance. You may also need to get some form of buildings cover as part of your leasing arrangement.

Beyond this, there are a range of insurance products that will give you essential cover should anything go wrong. These include public and product liability insurance, contents insurance, and business interruption insurance.

Read our full guide to the many types of insurance a restaurant may need. We also have a guide to how much you might expect to pay for your restaurant insurance.

Get Specialist Restaurant Insurance From James Hallam

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers.

If you are looking to open a restaurant, we are here to help. Whether this is your first restaurant, or you are adding another establishment to an existing portfolio, we can help you get the specialist cover you need at a competitive price.

Get in touch for a free quote today.

If you own or manage a manufacturing business, then you are likely aware of how heavy on resources your operations can be. In this post, we will explore some ideas and strategies that may help you make your manufacturing business more sustainable.

Why Sustainability Matters in Manufacturing

Sustainability in manufacturing means moving to a cleaner, more efficient, and less wasteful model. There are a number of benefits to working towards sustainability:

• Reduce costs – Sustainable manufacturing processes generally use less energy while producing less waste. This can lead to lower running costs across your entire manufacturing operation.
• More efficient processes – Through reducing waste and inefficiency across your production line, sustainable manufacturing processes can lead to higher throughputs and outputs.
• Regulatory compliance – Investing in sustainability will help you stay in line with national and global sustainability regulations. The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), for example, will require manufacturing businesses across the world to report certain sustainability data. Investing in sustainability now will help to future proof your business, as you may not have to make too many major adjustments as the regulatory landscape evolves.
• Competitive advantage – One recent study found that 79% of consumers actively choose to work with businesses that make sustainability a priority. Investing in sustainability could help you attract and retain new clients and customers. Employees tend to prefer to work for sustainable companies too. Your sustainability efforts, then, could also help with your recruitment and staff retention.

Key Aims of Sustainable Manufacturing Practices

There are many aspects to a sustainable manufacturing strategy. These include:

• Reducing emissions and pollution levels.
• Reducing waste while investing in recycling.
• Prioritising efficiency and moving towards “lean” manufacturing procedures.

What is Lean Manufacturing?

Sustainable manufacturing is lean manufacturing. This means that every aspect of the operation has been optimised to maximise efficiency while reducing waste.

As an example of lean manufacturing in action, think about Toyota’s “just-in-time” production principles.

Previously, Toyota would manufacture every part and component they could possibly need, in bulk. With “just-in-time” production, though, they only made the parts that they really needed, and only when they really needed them. In this way, they managed to boost their output and their speed while also dramatically reducing waste.

Lean manufacturing can lead to improvements across your entire manufacturing business. For instance, it can lead to a happier and more productive workforce, as “lean” production lines tend to be cleaner, less cluttered, and generally more pleasant places to work.

Key Ideas and Strategies For Sustainable Manufacturing

• Perform a thorough audit of your operations
  Identify any sources of waste and inefficiency. Be sure to talk to your employees, too. They are sure to have some ideas on how certain processes might be improved.
• Audit your tools and equipment
  Older equipment might use more power to produce less. And when inspecting your machinery, you could identify certain sources of pollution, along with some quick fixes: Exhaust filters that need cleaning, air hoses that need sealing, heat that could be recovered and reused, and so on.
• Upgrade your raw materials
  Switch to recycled, biodegradable, plant-based, and low-impact alternatives wherever possible. Also consider whether any of your current “waste” could actually be recycled and reused, such as scrap metal, packaging, and paper.
• Think about circular economy practices
  What can you do to extend the life cycle of your products, or to make it easier for your clients and customers to dispose of or recycle your products? Solutions could include switching to sustainable packaging, and making your products easier to disassemble for reuse or recycling.
• Think About Your Partners and Suppliers
  Finally, as well as auditing your processes, equipment, stock, and materials, you should also audit the partners and suppliers you work with. In short, you should only partner with businesses that take sustainability as seriously as you do. The right suppliers and logistics firms, for instance, can help you reduce lead and delivery times while also cutting down on emissions.

Your commitment to sustainability can even extend to the professional services you work with, such as your insurer. And this is where we come in.

Specialist Manufacturers Insurance from a Broker Committed to Sustainability

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers. We can help you access specialist manufacturers insurance, and you can rest assured that we share your commitment to sustainability. You can read more about our environmental policy.

Find out how we can help you today.

If you are a warehouse manager, health and safety should be your priority. You have a duty of care to your staff, and a legal responsibility for keeping them safe. Yet even beyond this, any accidents and incidents in the warehouse will lead to costly delays with repercussions that could be felt across the entire organisation.

In this post we will highlight some major health and safety risks for warehouses, before listing the key areas of focus for a warehouse health and safety policy.

Health and Safety Risks For Warehouses

There are a number of major health and safety risks for warehouses, including:

• Employee injuries
• Fire and flood
• Theft
• Cyber risks

We’ll go through each of these in more detail to explore exactly what these risks are and how they can affect you and your employees.

Employee injuries

Warehouses may be among the most hazardous of all working environments.

Employees may slip, trip, or fall, or they may get injured by a falling object. Depending on what you store in your warehouse, there may be a risk of exposure to hazardous substances.

Also, without the proper training and equipment, they could even injure themselves while doing the daily tasks that their job requires – such as through spraining their back while lifting a heavy object.

And of course, many of the injury risks that exist for your employees will also exist for visiting clients, delivery drivers, contractors, and other members of the public.

Fire and Flood

Warehouses are full of flammable substances, including cardboard boxes, packing materials, and cleaning substances. This means that even a small outbreak of fire could quickly spread.

You should also be aware of the risks of flood. Even if your warehouse is not located near a body of water, a burst pipe could still do a lot of damage.

Theft

Thieves actively target warehouses, and a break-in could result in significant inventory losses. If your organisation or your clients experience financial losses as a result of a preventable theft, it could cause liability issues for you, as the warehouse manager.

Cyber Risks

Finally, all organisations are vulnerable to cyberattacks, and warehouses are no exception.

As a warehouse manager, you will have a lot of valuable data stored on your devices, and you may use dedicated warehouse management systems to keep everything running. Cybercriminals may actively target your warehouse, either to steal your valuable data outright, or to encrypt it as part of a ransomware attack. Or they may target your management system simply to cause some chaos.

A cyberattack of any size could result in severe disruption and serious losses across the whole organisation. And on top of this, you could experience significant reputational damages if a client’s data is leaked as a result of the attack.

Warehouse Health and Safety Policy Checklist

There are a number of key areas of focus to make an effective warehouse health and safety policy, including:

• Risk assessment
• Employee awareness and training
• Cleaning and decluttering
• Safe storage
• Flood preparedness
• Equipment audit

We’ll explore these in more detail, to look at what they entail and how to work through each of these steps.

Warehouse Risk Assessment

To begin with, you should perform a thorough risk assessment for your whole warehouse, and the surrounding areas to identify:

• All the things that could go wrong.
• Assess how likely it is that each incident will occur
• How costly each incident could potentially be

This risk assessment should form the basis of your warehouse health and safety policy. Once you have identified every possible risk that you, your employees, and other members of the public could face, you will have a good idea of the steps you should take to address these risks.

Employee Awareness and Training

Your next step is to ensure that every employee understands:

• The risks they may face in their work
• How they should protect themselves against these risks (such as with PPE)
• The actions they should take should anything ever go wrong (such as essential first aid and incident reporting procedures)

You should also invest in ongoing staff training. Every member of warehouse staff will likely receive induction training. But you could offer periodic refresher sessions to keep everyone updated.

The training should of course cover how employees can do their jobs without injuring themselves, which may include guidance on proper lifting techniques, or on how to safely use certain pieces of equipment. Some members of the team will likely need additional specialist training, such as your appointed first aiders, and your forklift drivers.

And of course, all members of staff should receive training in spotting and responding to cybersecurity risks.

Cleaning and Decluttering the Warehouse Environment

Simply endeavouring to keep the warehouse environment clean and decluttered could help prevent many slips, trips, and falls. Cleaning and decluttering are also vital for reducing the risk of fires, and of ensuring that any fire that breaks out can be safely contained without spreading.

There should be a policy to immediately clean any spillage, clutter, or mess. There should be no obstructions to any doorways, walkways, corridors, or pathways. Everywhere should be lit appropriately, and you should change any broken lights as soon as they are spotted.

Safe Storage

Implement a policy of never storing heavy objects on high shelves. This can help reduce the potential injuries from falling injuries, as well as any potential accidents as a result of lifting a heavy object too high.

Any potentially harmful substances should be stored, handled, and disposed of in accordance with all relevant guidelines. The warehouse environment should be well ventilated to prevent the spread of harmful vapours. And in the event of a spillage, it should be cleared up as soon as possible, by trained staff in line with the applicable HSE guidance.

If you store potentially hazardous substances, your warehouse health and safety policy should outline the evacuation procedure in the event of a spillage, along with the procedures for addressing potential medical emergencies.

Flood Preparedness

Consider your flood risks, and determine how you would respond to a flood outbreak to limit the potential water damage, and to keep everyone safe.

Depending on your location, flood risk management may involve keeping an eye on weather conditions and looking out for government weather warnings. Or it might be that your only risk of flood is from leaks and burst pipes, in which case all members of staff should know how to spot the early signs.

Equipment Audit

Do you have all of the right safety and security equipment to prevent or respond to potential hazards? This might include:

• Fire alarms, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, fire doors, and smoke ventilation systems.
• CCTV, security alarms, security fences, and automatic floodlights.
• Equipment for safe lifting and handling, including forklifts and employee PPE.

You should regularly inspect all equipment for any faults, or any signs of wear and tear. You should also ensure that any perishable equipment is in code. If anything needs repairing or replacing, do so as soon as possible.

Reviewing Your Warehouse Health and Safety Policy

Your warehouse health and safety policy is not the sort of document that you can finish and then never think about again. Health and safety is an ongoing commitment, and as part of this you should regularly review your health and safety policy.

This means new risk assessments, to ensure that you are staying on top of all existing risks, and to help you keep abreast of any emerging risks. It also means ongoing staff training, and ongoing equipment inspections.

Specialist Warehouse Insurance From James Hallam

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers.

We can help you get specialist stock and warehouse insurance that can help to cover you and your employees for all the risks you face in your work, at a highly competitive price.

Find out how we can help you today.

Working as a personal trainer or a fitness instructor can be risky, for both you and your clients.

In this post we will outline all of the insurance you should consider getting as a personal trainer or a fitness instructor.

Do I Need Insurance If I Work For a Gym?

If you work for a gym, they may provide some form of cover to you as an employee. Yet you may not the full cover you need for all risks.

If you are an independent personal trainer or fitness instructor, or if you run online classes, then you will certainly have to arrange for all of your insurance cover.

What Insurance Do Personal Trainers Need?

There are different types of insurance that personal trainers could benefit from to protect them and their clients should the worst happen. This includes:

• Personal injury insurance
• Professional liability insurance
• Public liability insurance
• Equipment insurance
• Employer’s liability insurance
• Cyber insurance

We’ll explore each of these individually, what they cover and how they can help.

Personal Injury Insurance

Working as a personal trainer or fitness instructor can be a lot more physically demanding than other roles.

What this covers: If you ever injure yourself while exercising, or even while performing other daily tasks, and you will not be able to work.

Personal injury insurance can give you a cash injection that will help you make ends meet while you recover from your injury.

You could also get dedicated loss of earnings insurance, which could provide additional cover should a serious injury put you out of action for an extended period.

Professional Liability Insurance

Your clients work with you because they want to see results. If a client does not see the results that they expect to see, then they may make a claim against you. They may allege that you made unrealistic promises, or that you misrepresented your abilities. And they may demand compensation as a result.

This may seem unrealistic, but it happens.

What this covers: Professional liability insurance can cover you for claims of negligence, dishonesty, and other allegations from dissatisfied customers. The insurance can cover your legal fees, should you need to defend yourself in court, along with any compensation that may be due if the court rules in your client’s favour.

Public Liability Insurance

You can do all you can to keep your clients safe during sessions. But accidents happen. And if a client injures themselves during a workout or a class, they may make a claim against you.

What this covers: Public liability insurance can cover any compensation payments that may arise.

Public liability insurance can also cover damage to property. This can include instances where clients damage your property during a session, or the equipment at a gym you work at. If you offer home visits, public liability insurance can also cover any accidental damage to your client’s property.

Some personal trainers run online sessions. Public liability insurance can also cover you should a client injure themselves while taking a digital class in their own home, while you are located elsewhere.

Equipment Insurance

What this covers: Specialist sport equipment insurance can cover your valuable equipment for loss, damage, or theft. You can get cover for when you are storing and transporting your equipment, and for when you are using it, either on your own premises, in a gym, or in a client’s home.

Equipment insurance can also cover the technology you use to run your personal trainer or fitness instructor insurance, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and stereo systems.

Employer’s Liability Insurance

Many personal trainers work alone. But if you hire any staff as part of your work, then you have a legal requirement to get employer’s liability insurance.

What this covers: This will cover your employees for any accidents, injuries, or illnesses they may sustain while working for you.

There are no ifs and buts with employer’s liability insurance. If you employ staff, then you need this cover in place. This is true even if you only employ someone part time to manage your schedule and carry your equipment, and even if you hire a friend or a family member to do so.

Cyber Insurance

Finally, anyone who runs any kind of business should take the risks of cybercrime seriously. Personal trainers and fitness instructors are no exception. If you use a computer to manage your schedule and your clients list, then you are vulnerable to a cyberattack.

Cybercriminals may target you in order to steal your valuable client data. Or they may forcibly encrypt your data as part of a ransomware attack. Cybercriminals will not care if you are “only” a personal trainer with a small handful of clients. Anyone is fair game to them.

What this covers: Cyber insurance can cover you for many of the risks associated with cybercrime, as well as for the costs of responding and recovering to the attack. As such, it is one form of cover that no business owner should do without, and this extends to personal trainers and fitness instructors.

Specialist Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor Insurance From James Hallam

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers.

If you are a personal trainer or a fitness instructor, we can help you get the specialist cover you need at a competitive price. We can help you whether you work for a gym, or you offer your own independent services, or even if you run online fitness classes.

Get in touch for a free quote today.

As a tattoo artist, you have a duty of care to your customers. This extends to aftercare.

In this post we will outline your responsibilities as a tattoo artist when it comes to advising on, and providing, aftercare to your customers.

The Importance of Aftercare for Tattoos

Good aftercare is vital for making sure that a tattoo heals properly. It can also help ensure that the tattoo looks good for the long-term. Without aftercare, tattoos may eventually start to look faded or distorted.

As a tattoo artist, you might not provide the aftercare procedures yourself. But you can certainly advise your customers on how they can best take care of their tattoo in the days, weeks, and months following the process.

Good Tattoo Aftercare Starts With Understanding Your Customers

The specific aftercare advice you provide should vary depending on:

• tattoo location
• tattoo size
• your customer’s skin type and medical history

This is why it is important to enquire about your customer’s medical history as part of the initial consultation. Not only will this help you keep them safe during the process, but it can also mean you can provide tailored aftercare instructions.

What Sort of Aftercare Advice Should Tattoo Artists Give?

There is some basic aftercare advice you should share with your customers:

• Cover the tattoo
  The customer should keep their new tattoo covered with a bandage or a plastic wrap for the first few hours following the process. How long precisely will depend on the size, complexity, and location of the tattoo.
• Keep it clean
  After this, the main thing is that the customer keeps the tattooed area clean. This will help prevent infection while also promoting healing. Advise your customers to avoid using any harsh chemicals, including exfoliants. Instead, they should use lukewarm water and the mildest possible soap. Customers should avoid scrubbing the area, and they should avoid submerging it entirely in water for at least two weeks following the application.
• Moisturise and Relieve itching
  New tattoos can get itchy. Some tattoo artists provide their customers with specialist balms or ointments to help relieve itching while promoting healing. The product should be light and fragrance free, and you can advise your customers to apply a thin layer periodically during the first few days following the procedure.

More Aftercare Tips Tattoo Artists Can Give Their Customers

Beyond the basics, here are some additional aftercare tips you can give:

• Wear loose clothing to help the tattoo breathe, and to avoid irritating the area.
• Avoid direct sunlight for a few weeks, along with sunbeds.
• Try to avoid scratching and picking at the tattoo, as this can lead to infections.
• Keep the tattoo area moisturised, even after it has healed. This will help prevent the tattoo from prematurely fading.
• If the tattoo does start to fade or blur, the customer can always come back for a touch-up.

What Happens If a Tattoo Artist Does Not Give Aftercare Advice?

If you do not advise your customers on how best to take care of their tattoos, then it could result in:

• Infection
• Tattoo flaking, blurring, or fading.
• Customer complaints, poor reviews, and refund requests.
• Claims against you on the grounds of negligence, or breach of your duty of care.

And in the case of legal claims, if it transpires that you did not provide adequate aftercare advice, you could be liable to cover compensation payments, along with some costly legal fees.

This is why it is a good idea to have your aftercare advice in writing. This could be included in the consent form. Give your customer a printed copy of the consent form, including aftercare advice, and ask them to sign it and date it. This means there will be a record of their consent and the exact advice you gave, which could help you avoid any costly claims.

Specialist Insurance Services for Tattoo Artists

If a customer ever does make a claim against you, dedicated tattoo artist insurance can cover any compensation payments, along with your legal fees.

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers. We can help you understand the unique risks you face as a tattoo artist, and we can help you access the specialist cover you need at a competitive price.

Find out how we can help you today.

We recently published a guide to the sort of insurance you should consider if you are running a 24 hour gym. In this post we will take a closer look at a key aspect of your 24 hour gym risk management – your induction process.

Why 24 Hour Gyms Need to Take Induction Seriously

All gyms should offer their new members an induction process. It is an opportunity to show new members how things work, and the processes they should follow in the event of an accident or emergency.

But in their inductions, 24 hour gyms will have to account for the fact that the gym will be unsupervised at certain times. Most gyms can instruct their members to report to a member of staff if something goes wrong. But what should your members do if something goes wrong, and there are not currently any staff on the premises?

Below we will outline some of the items that should be included in every gym’s induction, along with some special considerations for 24 hour gyms.

1. Operating Hours and Entry Procedures

If your gym is open round the clock, you should make it clear to your members when there will be staff on the premises, and when the gym will be unsupervised.

For security reasons, it may be necessary for members to use certain entrances and exits outside of your standard operating hours. During induction, you should make it clear which entrances and exits your members should use, and at which times they should use them.

2. Use of Facilities

Tell members where they can find:

• Toilets, including the accessible toilets
• Dressing rooms
• Other facilities.

Be sure to highlight any special procedures or restrictions concerning the use of any facilities outside of your standard operating hours. For example, members may be required to use their pin or fob to enter the changing rooms while the gym is unsupervised.

3. Etiquette

How do you expect your members to behave in the gym?

Here are some of the etiquette points you might cover in your induction:

• Wear appropriate clothing and shoes.
• Wipe down equipment after use.
• Return all weights and other equipment after use.
• Use headphones when listening to your own music, or when watching videos on your phone.
• Be courteous and polite to other members, and to staff. As well as looking after your own safety, also look after the safety of others.

4. Safety and Security Procedures

As a 24 hour gym, you will likely have slightly different safety and security procedures depending on whether there are any staff on site.

All members should be aware of your gym’s evacuation plan. During your standard hours, you can instruct members to follow the staff’s directions in the event of an emergency. But what about when your gym’s unsupervised?

Specialist Procedures for 24 Hour Gyms:

• Outline the procedures your members should follow if an alarm sounds outside of your standard hours. Specify which exits they can use, and request that they remain calm and look out for anyone who may need assistance.
• Also outline the procedures for members to sound their own alarms should they discover a fire, or if they spot a security risk. As well as sounding an alarm, you may need them to notify your CCTV team through calling a certain number.
• Provide a “safe room” for any members who may feel threatened while the gym is unsupervised. Some 24 hour gyms use their accessible toilets for this purpose, in which members can activate duress alarms to alert security personnel.
• In the event of a fire, make it clear that the priority should be for members to evacuate, and that the fire extinguishers should only be used when the fire is blocking their escape.
• If a power cut occurs while the gym is unsupervised, instruct all members to leave the premises immediately.
• You may also instruct members on the correct use of first aid kits and defibrillators if a medical emergency occurs while the gym is unsupervised.

5. Incidence Reporting

If an incident occurs outside of your standard hours, instruct your members on how to report it. You can provide dedicated first aid and incident reporting forms, and instruct members on when they should complete them.

These forms do not have to be too complicated. All the member has to do is outline what happened, when it happened, and what actions they took. You can then review the incident, talking to anyone involved where possible, which may help prevent future incidents.

You should have a similar process to allow members to report faulty or damaged equipment when there are no staff around to notify.

Get Specialist 24 Hour Gym Insurance From James Hallam

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers. We can help you understand the unique risks you face as a 24 hour gym, and we can also tailor a comprehensive insurance package to cover you for these risks at the best price.

Find out how we can help you today.