Starting up and running a business these days is not quite as straightforward as it was in the days when our grandparents had an idea and took it flying, as it were.   Maybe our grandmothers were in service, i.e. were employed by a bigger, richer family, doing their kitchen and cooking duties or parlour maid – general skivvy in other words.   No one worried unduly about the legal aspects of being employed by ‘the big House’ as each major family in a town or village was invariably known.  These days though there are many more features of paying the lady down the road to come in and be chief cook and bottle washer, on a regular and permanent basis.    This lady becomes your employee and you have duty of care towards her.   Employers’ liability insurance covers you if she, or anyone else you employ, gets injured or becomes ill whilst carrying out their duties.   This is a legal requirement if you employ even just one person.  Public liability inmsurance is needed too as it covers you in case services your staff carry out cause injury or damage to someone else who not your employee, see a visitor to your house who slips on a damp floor or falls in your garden if flagstones are loose etc. etc.

Knowing what is needed when you retain that helpful domestic angel is always worth knowing before you begin to be her boss.