Holiday parks are meant to be fun places to work for and to visit on holiday but remember that, like any business, holiday park insurance is needed to cover risk to staff and customers. Owners of holiday parks need to be alert to these risks and to insure against them.

Holiday park owners employing staff to make sure customers have an enjoyable time must, by law, have employee liability cover of at least £5m. Failure to have this insurance policy in place is a criminal offence punishable by heavy fines. And that is no fun.

Holiday parks are all about having a good time, but come with many hidden and not so hidden risks for staff working there. Accidents will happen and should negligence be proven the business can find itself being sued for damages which can result in hefty legal, medical and damages costs. No laughing matter. Employee liability insurance helps holiday park proprietors to meet these costs, should an employee be injured or made ill at work through the fault of the employer or the business.

It is impossible to generalise about the risks involved as it is highly dependent on the facilities and premises of the holiday park. Many holiday parks operate heavy machinery and there are always fixtures, fittings and premises requiring to be maintained or repaired. These always have the potential for accidents. Even the failure to maintain these can result in injury and the risk of damages. For example, the use of standard electrical equipment can cause accidents and claims for damages.

Consider too the risks inherent in any holiday park business which serves food and drink to employees and customers. Failure to follow good hygiene processes can result in illness and in this event employee liability insurance will provide protection against employee claims.

And remember too that if staff are using vehicles owned by the caravan park and are involved in an accident resulting in injury or worse, the employer may be liable for the cost of any damages if fault is proven. And in such an event even the NHS can recover its costs.

Even moving furniture, using step ladders or even poor use of computer equipment in these litigious days can result in claims from employees, if injured.

And all these risks might also result in a claim from customers of the holiday park should they too be injured or made ill. In this unlikely event any sensible holiday park owner will insure against these risks through a public liability insurance policy. This is not compulsory but if a holiday park owner accepts that there are risks to employees then it is only common sense to protect the business from similar claims from customers.

Public liability insurance covers any awards of damages given to a customer or member of the public because of an injury or damage to their property caused by any employee of the business, including legal fees and the cost of any hospital treatment.

Holiday parks are not dangerous places by nature, but there are risks and dangers. Having employee and public liability insurance cover in place might help owners of holiday parks relax and enjoy their business.

Managing a company efficiently is about organisation, focus and process as a massive 55% of businesses fail in their first five years of existence. The experts offer banal opinions as to why this occurs. I continuosly observe three key reasons why this tragedy happens so often and to so many individuals with different backgrounds, qualifications and skill.

The primary reason is insufficient market understanding.

No foresight. For example People dream up the idea, create the product and then expect the market to come and buy. In this connected age there is no excuse for lack of research prior to spending any time and cash on creating a product until you have robust evidence there is a market.

The number two reason is lack of understanding of fundamental facts about business.

The majority of folks starting a business know their trade, how to offer a service or build a product, but not how to run a business.  Having the ability to understand and follow the balances in the profit and loss or the balance sheet is a vital. The basic knowledge of accounting is rarely imparted coherently by the business manuals, internet resources and those with the knowledge such as CPAs and bookkeepers. The problem is maginfied by greedy and short sighted vendors such as Sage software misleading the market by selling only a portion of the functionality actually needed by small businesses.

Small business accounting software isnt a complete answer.

Large corporations way back worked out that all of their Information systems should be wired together to give them a complete picture of the business and then along came ERP software solutions and packages. One technology business NetSuite had the foresight to see the gap in the market and began selling its small business ERP software. NetSuite pricing has since increased and put their technology out of the economic reach of small companies.

The third reason businesses don’t make it is a because of the lack of good management processes and policies to enable a sustainable fabric of disciplines and behaviours.