The 5 Health and Safety Mistakes Every New Business Makes (And How to Avoid Them)

Starting a business is exciting. There's the business plan, the branding, the first sale, the moment you realise this might actually work. What's less exciting — but equally important — is health and safety. And in the rush to get up and running, most new businesses make the same handful of mistakes.

The good news is they're all avoidable. Here are the five we see most often.

Mistake 1: Thinking H&S Doesn't Apply to Small Businesses

This is the big one. There's a persistent myth that health and safety is only for big companies with factories and hard hats. The reality is that the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 applies to every employer, regardless of size. If you employ one person, you have legal duties.

Those duties include providing a safe working environment, assessing and managing risks, providing information, instruction and training, consulting employees on health and safety matters, and (if you have five or more employees) having a written health and safety policy.

Even if you're a sole trader with no employees, you still have duties under the Act to ensure your work activities don't put other people at risk — clients, visitors, members of the public.

Ignoring health and safety because "we're too small" isn't a strategy. It's a liability.

Mistake 2: Downloading a Generic Risk Assessment from the Internet

We see this constantly. A business needs risk assessments, so someone downloads a template from a website, changes the company name at the top and files it away. Job done. Except it isn't, because a risk assessment is supposed to be specific to your workplace, your activities, your equipment and your people.

A generic risk assessment for "office work" doesn't cover the specific layout of your office, the particular equipment your employees use, the specific vulnerabilities of your workforce, or the unique hazards in your building. It's a starting point at best — but most businesses treat it as the finished article and never look at it again.

Risk assessments need to reflect what actually happens in your workplace. They need to be carried out by someone competent, reviewed regularly and updated when things change. A template with your logo on it won't satisfy the HSE if they come knocking.

Mistake 3: Not Providing Any Training

"They'll pick it up as they go along." Famous last words. Employers have a legal duty to provide adequate health and safety training, and that obligation starts on day one. New starters need induction training covering emergency procedures, fire safety, first aid arrangements, reporting procedures, and any specific hazards relevant to their role.

Beyond induction, employees need role-specific training for the tasks they're expected to perform. If they're using work equipment, they need PUWER training. If they're handling hazardous substances, they need COSHH training. If they're working at height, they need working-at-height training. And all of it needs to be documented.

"Nobody told me" is the four-word sentence that turns a workplace incident into a prosecution.

Mistake 4: Ignoring Fire Safety

New businesses often focus on getting the space looking right — furniture, signage, decoration — without giving a thought to fire safety. But the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to virtually all non-domestic premises, and the responsible person (usually the employer or person in control of the premises) must carry out a fire risk assessment.

This means identifying fire hazards, identifying people at risk, evaluating existing fire safety measures, recording findings and implementing an action plan. It also means having appropriate fire detection and alarm systems, fire-fighting equipment, emergency lighting, fire exit signage, documented evacuation procedures and regular fire drills.

If you've moved into a premises and haven't had a fire risk assessment, you're already non-compliant. The Fire Safety Order has teeth — penalties include unlimited fines and, in the most serious cases, imprisonment.

Mistake 5: Treating H&S as a One-Off Exercise

Perhaps the most damaging mistake of all: treating health and safety as something you set up once and forget about. Risk assessments are completed when the business starts but never reviewed. Training is provided during induction but never refreshed. The health and safety policy gathers dust in a drawer.

Health and safety is a continuous process. Your workplace changes, your activities evolve, new equipment arrives, new people join, legislation updates. If your health and safety arrangements don't keep pace with these changes, they become increasingly irrelevant — and increasingly dangerous.

Set review dates. Put them in the diary. Treat health and safety reviews with the same seriousness you'd give a financial review or a client meeting. Because the consequences of getting it wrong are just as serious.

How to Get It Right from Day One

The encouraging news is that none of this is particularly complicated or expensive for a new business. A competent health and safety consultation at the start can set you up with the right foundations: proportionate risk assessments, a suitable training programme, a fire risk assessment, a health and safety policy, and a simple review schedule.

Getting it right from the beginning is significantly cheaper and less stressful than trying to retrofit compliance after an incident, a client audit or an HSE visit.

Starting a business and need H&S advice? Speak to a Consultant →

York Green Safety Partners helps new and growing businesses get health and safety right from day one. Based in Cheshire, supporting businesses across the UK.