What if my kid damages a customer's property?

It will happen eventually. A sprinkler head, a window, a scratch down the side of a car, a stain on a carpet. What matters is the next hour.

Your kid tells the customer immediately. Not you, and not later. This is the whole thing, and it is the part they will want to avoid most. A customer who is told right away about a broken sprinkler head is dealing with an honest kid and an inconvenience. A customer who finds it themselves three days later is dealing with somebody who hid it, and that is what ends the relationship and the reputation on that street.

Have the sentence ready before it is ever needed, because a panicking fourteen year old will not compose one. I broke this, I am sorry, here is how I want to fix it.

Then work out who pays. If the business has money, the business should pay, and that is a real and useful lesson about why a float exists. If the damage is beyond what a kid's business can absorb, this is squarely a parent problem, and covering it is appropriate rather than a rescue. The distinction from the coach not operator guide applies: catch the fall that would end the whole thing, and let the ones that only sting land.

Check your coverage before you need to. Homeowners policies commonly exclude business activities, so the assumption that you are covered is worth verifying with your agent rather than discovering at the wrong moment.

Two habits prevent most of this. Photograph a property before starting, which resolves nearly every argument about whether something was already damaged. And stay inside actual competence, which means saying no to the deck, the second story, and the antique anything.

One thing worth telling your kid afterward. Most customers who were told honestly will use them again, and some will think better of them than before. The mistake is rarely what costs you somebody. The hiding is.