Uk Insurance for a clay artist. Clearing up some of the confusion

I know that a lot of people work without any insurance, feeling like they are too small to need it.

Whenever I break any rules in life, I always get caught  (I bunked on day of school in my whole life and got caught out and have a long list like this). I also think that it is important to protect your customers.

Public liability insurance 

Most craft sellers know that we need public liability insurance, if we sell at fairs or in shops.

This insurance covers any member of the public against injury in any of your work spaces. It doesn't cover you or your staff.

Product liability insurance 

This one is less known about, but just as important.  If someone hurts themselves on something that you made  (like a kid swallowing a bit that broke off a model,  or cut themselves on a sharp edge ect) your public liability insurance will not cover this.

Personal / staff insurance 

This will cover you / your staff if you get too ill to work or injured.

I don't have any staff, so I haven't really looked into this. I think that you have to have this if you have staff, but personal cover is not mandatory.

I have chosen not to until I get my business to the stage where it is financially stable enough to come off benefits.

Do remember, if you choose to not cover yourself,  to put some money aside for sick pay for yourself. You will need it at some point and the lack of this has ended many businesses. Finding that you can no longer afford to pay your bills, is a living hell.

Stock and tool cover 

This is what it sounds like and another one that is not mandatory,  but you are a fool to not have it.

You are counting all the items you have made ready to be sold, all the materials you keep to make things  (clay, crystals, armatures etc), all the equipment used to desplay at fairs, the tubs and shelves ect that you use to store everything, all the packaging for postal and any stamps for postage, every tool you have for your work. Literally everything you use for work.

Keep a list of everything you have,  what it cost with pictures and receipts off of your work premises.  Give them to a friend or relative or store them digitally somewhere else. If your workplace is destroyed, you don't want that paperwork to go too as you are going to need it. Make sure it's up to date.

Premises insurance 

This one depends on how you work. I work from home and don't have a actual shop  (I sell on the Internet or at the few fairs that I am well enough to get to). I also store my stock around my home  (instead of at a warehouse). So, I don't think this is applicable for me at the moment.

If you do have a studio that you work in or a shop where you sell your work or somewhere you keep your stock,  then you really want to get this.

When your things are somewhere unusual 

You may have some of your work at a gallery or exhibition at all sorts of places. You could have an arrangement with a shop to rent you a shelf, or start to store some tools and materials at a place where you teach. Anything that is different from what you have told your insurance company.......

At the stage of negotiations and before you agree,  make sure you ask if they are covering your bits with their insurance and what they will not cover.  I ask for this in writing.

I have found that almost no one agrees to take any responsibility for these situations. You must then get in touch with your insurance company before you agree the deal. They may say that this is allowed under your current cover or say that it will cost extra. You can then bring this information into the negotiations.

If you don't inform your insurance upfront, you will not be covered. This is why I get a email from them stating coverage.

Tell your insurance everything 

All the job roles you perform, your method of sales and the country's you are available to buy in, what you expect to earn, just everything. Spend some time before getting in touch with them, to write down everything you think could possibly effect your policy. No matter how unlikely.

If anything changes throughout the year  (you sell more than you expect or do anything new) get in touch with them.

Make sure you have their phone number and email address saved.

Some stings 

There are several things I have come across, that made my eyebrows go up for different reasons. Here are the ones that I can think of, but please let me know ones that I have missed and I will add them.

• Selling to America. UK insurance companies hate it and would rather you don't. It has a massive premium on it, that they divide into percentage of total sales.  I am in the bracket of no more than 25%. If I think I am getting close,  I have to get in touch to pay to go into the higher bracket. America has the reputation for a suing culture.  

    They seem to have no problem with you       selling to the rest of the world,  no matter     how bad their postal service or if they are     at war etc.

• If you are found to be knowingly negligent, then you are on your own. 

• They don't cover copy write disputes. 

• They all have various excess you have to pay on a came.

• They seem to charge you more in your first year, because all you have is a prediction of earnings.

• If you call the mane companies that find you a quote twice and make sure that they don't use the same company as the fist serch, you can get a bidding war going on for your business. Really is woth the extra effort!

     You tell each company the same            

     information and inform them of the 

    other ones quote. I guarantee that they 

    will come back with a better offer. Mine 

    started at  £660 for the year and I am now     at a  £220 for the same cover.  I am about     to inform them that they have just been         undercut by the first again, so I will let           you know who wins me.

Be nice to your brokers 

These people are nice guys doing a complicated job  (even when you are not making them work far harder with the bidding war). Remember to be nice to them both. 

I have a rule that if I get a good service from someone, then I email their boss to say so. They are all going to have a end of year appraisal and their boss will have all the complaints lodged that year. We are all good at complaints  (as we should be if something was wrong), but we do not leave positive feedback. It is actually just as important.

Where I went for my insurance 

The first company that I went to, to get the 2 different insurance brokers was;

BIBA Commercial (British Insurance Brokers’ Association)

https://www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance

They put me in touch with;

1) J.M. Glendinning; 

https://www.jmginsurance.co.uk/business-insurance

2) Towergate Insurance Brokers;

https://www.towergateinsurance.co.businessuk/-insurance

Why I want to be a polymer clay teacher

If you decided that you liked to mess around with polymer clay,  you might consider methods to learn more about it. While there are a range of books out there  (your local library will have some), online tutorials, websites, if you encounter any problems then you are left asking around on forums.

So, it is worth paying for lessons.  There are some who run online courses and others who teach in person.  I am planning to become the latter.

My main reason for wanting to become a teacher,  is actually to get to know new people. I know that there are a lot of teaching roles where you are not allowed to make friends with the students, but since this is a adult teaching adults and there is not any big power difference,  then this is fine.

Having a lot of long term health problems prevent me from getting out and about, so I don't get to meet people that way. Since I work for myself from home,  that takes away all the people who we meet through work.  I am not Billy no mates by any means, but I think I really need to work at that part of my life.

I have looked around the UK and found that there are quite a few teachers out there, but none of them are in Surrey and there is no clay groups either.  The teachers I did find, teach either jewellery and bead making,  canning, flower making and one or two who teach various model making or sculpting. I plan to be a little different.

I am planning to run classes for 8 people at a time. They will pay for one lesson a few hours long, rather than a long course,  but I also plan to run a much larger clay group, which I will explain more about at the end.

Lessons 

I  will start the lessons the same,  with showing how to use the clay and tools properly.

The main body of the lesson will have several options. I am making worksheets that are the step by step process to make different items.  Each step will have a photo and a explanation. The help sheets are divided into two types;

1) Design
How to make a type of pattern or effect with the clay.

2) Project 
How to make a home decor item from clay, either patternedor plain. These will be things like bud vases, little boxes, tea lights, decorative bowls etc.

I know that I will need to have all 8 students working from the same 2 cards, but I am not sure how I am going to do this.  These are the options,  let me know which one you think is best;

1) The democratic option 
Once 8 people have signed up,  allow them to vote between them.

The benefits to this is that I can run a class as soon as I have 8 people.  The down side is if someone want to do one in particular and it doesn't get voted for.

2) Advertise them as different courses
I would permanently pair the designs and the projects and then advertise each option as individuals classes. When I get 8 people I run the course.

The benefit to this, is that everyone gets what they want.  The downside is that it will take a lot longer to get 8 people who want to do that specific course,  so it would make organising the dates for the class very difficult.

3) Cycle the lessons  
This is my least favourite option. Like before, I pair off the designs and projects,  I then run each pair one after the other.

The reason why this is my least favourite option,  is that I really am not sure how to deal with it if I have too few people who sign up for the class.

So....
I will need at least 6 people attending in order for me to make it so that I make any money for my time.

I have already bought all the tools and equipment needed to teach 8 people,  so that I know that I will definitely be doing this as soon as I am well enough.

Clay group
As I said,  there is no clay groups going on locally, the nearest is London.

One of the first places I checked was with The British Polymer Clay Guild.  Since they had nothing in Surrey,  I have decided that I am going to do it myself.

A lot of the different guild groups organise tutors for each of their meetings and charge  £10+ for members to attend the meeting/ lesson,  but I as usual want to do it different.

My plan is that everyone comes along and works on their own thing in a social environment.  I  will keep a loose eye on things and help anyone who wants some help,  but I will not be a tutor.

I  will be happy to supply the clay  (which I will sell to people at the price I got it.  They will get to use my tools on a "you damage any,  you replace it" basis,  but it will be encouraged for them to bring their own.

Doing it this way,  all people would need to pay, is enough to cover the room between them. If I get a church hall or scout hut,  then this should be very cheap.

This really would be me on my own time, organising a social event for like minded people to have fun claying around.