How To Open A Beauty Salon: Budget, Equipment, and Formalities

A beauty salon can mean a variety of things, from a tanning and waxing salon on the high street to a mobile nail bar that comes to you.

While all salons share aesthetics and wellness in common, they range widely in treatments, equipment and licenses needed, and how much they cost to set up. Opening one is not just about finding the right premise, but thinking deeply about compliance, who your customers are, whether you will rent spare rooms or hire staff, and the admin involved. 

Regardless of the route you take, there are some common denominators: UK clients expect good hygiene, transparent pricing, easy booking and payment, and a friendly atmosphere.

Decide What Type of Beauty Salon You Want to Open

Before you spend a penny, and certainly before applying for a bank loan, you need to plan what type of salon you’re opening. Don’t just think “I’m opening a massage studio” or “skincare clinic” – really consider the exact services, the future scope of service, and how you service them.

Your service menu, location and booking type are great places to start. Some common approaches include:

• Appointment-only massage studio: Clients use booking software (and a deposit) to secure a 30 or 60-minute slot for a massage.
  
• Walk-in tanning salon: Fast client turnaround and cheap service mean that cash should be accepted to maximise revenue (countertop POS needed).
  
• Mobile nail bar: Avoid premise costs by arriving at clients’ homes to provide a nail service.
  
• Owner-led salon: Keep staff costs down by being the owner, receptionist, and treatment provider all at once. Push for online bookings as you may not be able to answer the phone.

The above service menu, booking type, and business structure will determine:

• Insurance 
• Premise 
• Licenses
• Staff and equipment
• Software 
• Payment solutions
• Capital or loan required

Market research can help decide what specific services and extras to offer. Your target audience matters, so try to gauge this by looking at what sells well at competitors’, local demographic figures, and what kind of other shops are around. If it’s young and affluent with nearby wedding dress shops, perhaps you want to offer wedding-related glow-up services?

More than 1,000 new beauty salons and nail bars opened in Great Britain in the year to July 2024

Estimate the Budget for Opening a Beauty Salon in the UK

Financial planning can be hard. While estimates for setting up a salon typically range from £10,000 to £50,000, some figures go as high as £250,000. Of course, it depends on location, salon size, treatment menu, fit-out quality, and whether you’re buying or leasing the equipment.

Keep these four statistics in mind:

• Labour makes up 60% of ongoing expenses
• Recent changes to NIC and minimum wage are estimated to drop profits by 15%
• Almost two-thirds of salons turn over less than £99,000 per year
• 80% of salons employ fewer than five people

Here’s a breakdown of set-up costs:

Cost	Estimated range
Premise deposit	£2,000 to £10,000
Refurbishment/fit-out	£3,000 to £30,000+
Furniture and treatment equipment	£2,000 to £15,000+
Stock and consumables	£500 to £5,000+
Licenses and registrations	£100 to £1,000
Insurance	£300 to £1,500
Website and booking software	£200 to £5,000
Payment infrastructure	£29 to £600
Marketing	£0 to £1,000+

Clearly, a mobile massage service (little equipment needed, no premises) will cost a lot less than a full beauty salon premise, stocked with all the latest products and contouring and lift machines.

Areas to keep costs down are to use SaaS and pay-as-you-go models. So for payments and software, you can use the myPOS £29 card machine and payment links to secure bookings. For the website, you can use drag-and-drop Shopify or Squarespace and do it yourself. 

When bootstrapping on a budget, it’s also worth considering starting with a limited service menu. As long as you plan for what you might include later on, and ensure you have the space in the premises and licenses, this can be a scaling opportunity down the line.

Choose the Right Location and Premises

Premise selection will impact many things. The space itself will decide:

• What treatments you can do (is there space for a tanning bed?)
• The number of customers you can serve concurrently (how many massage tables?)
• The ability to monetise spare rooms
• Customer satisfaction relating to hygiene, modern comforts, air conditioning

Then there is location selection. This shapes:

• Footfall
• Parking and transport links
• Nearby competitors
• Local affluence (disposable income for services)
• Local habits (retired population has more free time on weekdays, etc)
• Noise levels
• Nearby complementary shops (being near a shopping center could bring more leisurely traffic than next to a school or supermarket)

Before signing a lease, check:

• Planning use class. Confirm with the council or agent that the premises are approved for a beauty salon
  
• Landlord permission for refurbishment plans and signage change
  
• Business rates liability, and whether small business rates relief applies
  
• Ventilation, water supply, and electrics (e.g., outlets spread around to service many machines)
  
• Accessibility for clients with mobility challenges
  
• Fire safety compliance, can you have treatment room separation?
  
• Reception space and privacy. Certain treatments need a quiet, private space. Therefore, the number of rooms matters more than the square footage

Beauty salons are in a unique position where awkward layouts (many small rooms) are desirable, such as an ex-dentist space. This can be harder to come by, but sometimes having less competition as they’re not suitable for shops. Good existing interior design can save you money.

Laura’s lash bar opened on a busy high street and thrives on walk-ins and lunchtime appointments from day one. Danielle’s lash bar is in the first-floor studio two streets away and has relied on marketing spend to attract early sales. Cash acceptance and spare staff may be important to Laura, while a booking system and online payments are crucial for Danielle. 

Understand UK Licences, Registrations, and Formalities

Licensing and permits for beauty salons are mostly on a council level, not UK-wide. So, your exact compliance depends on what treatments you offer, the business structure, and what council you’re in.

This could include:

• HMRC registration for sole traders and partnerships or Companies House registration when forming a limited company.
  
• Special treatment license from your local council. London boroughs are more likely to need a license for more basic treatments than the rest of the country, where special licenses relate more to piercing, tattoos, Botox, and other higher-risk treatments.
  
• Laser and IPL approval may be needed, such as a Laser Protection Adviser and council compliance.
  
• Piercing or tattooing registration is typically required from your local council.
  
• VAT registration with HMRC if your taxable turnover is over £90,000
  
• Waste disposal arrangements are often expected for clinical or hazardous waste.
  
• Employer registration with HMRC (setting up PAYE) and employers' liability insurance.

It’s recommended to speak to your landlord to understand if beauty salons have operated on the premises before, and then to speak to your local council about licensing.

Buy Essential Beauty Salon Equipment and Supplies

Your equipment and supplies lists are built around your treatment menu. Then, they are organised by area. Start with what you need to trade and plan for upgrades as your bookings grow. Ask customers for early feedback on whether they would use said upgrades.

Equipment lists can be daunting, so breaking them down into areas helps:

• Reception: Desk, seating, card machine, display for any product upselling, consultation forms
  
• Treatment rooms: Treatment beds, chairs, stools, trolleys, magnifying lamps, sterilisation equipment, covered tool storage, PPE, bins
  
• Nail stations: Nail lamps, drill equipment, display sands, ventilation
  
• Waxing area: Wax heater, couch roll, disposable spatulas, pre/post-wax products
  
• Lash and brow area: Lash bed, specialist lighting, brow tools, mapping supplies
  
• Laundry and cleaning: Towel storage, laundry facilities, collection contract, disinfection, vacuum, dusting

Selling Beauty Products

While some cafes sell coffee beans to take home, others don’t, either because they don’t want to encourage drinking coffee at home or because they don’t want to manage the stock cycle and sales. Beauty salons are the same.

Having beauty products, especially selling products that you use in the salon (and are therefore trusted by customers) can be an upselling tactic. There is a lot of time before, during, and after the treatment to mention that you sell said product.

Products and consumables include skincare, aftercare products, nail products, wax, gloves, self-tanning, and so on. There may be room for discounts for loyal customers who regularly come in for treatments.

Supplier relationships are important as there are minimum orders. Suddenly, cash is tied up for weeks, so you need spare liquidity. However, more important will be your stock control, receipt printing, clear return policies, notifying the Secretary of State via the UK Submit Cosmetic Product Notification (SCPN) if acting as the Responsible Person and bringing goods to the UK market, and getting product liability insurance. 

Also, the small touches, like having carrier bags, seasonal deals, and gift boxes.

Plan Hygiene, Safety, and Client Care Procedures

Hygiene is both a matter of legal compliance and customer expectation. In the UK, a beauty salon is somewhere to go, not just for the material service (e.g., longer lashes) but to relax, feel treated, and have a broader experience of holistic wellness. This is severely hindered by hygiene, where a cluttered workstation leaves a bad impression, and an unwashed nail brush can pass on a fungal infection.

Every salon should document its hygiene and safety practices. Even if there are no other staff yet, documenting it from day one allows for repeatability and a compliance audit trail, should you need it.

• Cleaning schedules for workstations, treatment rooms, floors, etc.
• Sterilisation for reusable tools, ways to separate between clear and used tools
• Disposable tool policies that outline what items are single-use, and which are not
• Consultation forms and patch tests before relevant treatments. Records stored compliantly
• Contraindication checks and aftercare advice
• Consent forms and ID age checks for higher-risk treatments
• Incident forms stored securely should there be an adverse reaction
• Waste disposal procedures for clinical, chemical, and general waste

It’s important to factor in these workstation resets into your scheduling. Your client turnover cannot be immediate, and so this will reduce sales throughout the day.

Beauty as a sector grew 9% in 2024, four times faster than the UK economy. It now makes up over 1% of GDP.

Hire Staff, Rent Chairs or Rooms, and Check Qualifications

Staff are hugely important to a beauty salon. They must be trained, skilled in customer service, and have sufficient education to satisfy customers. Letting them keep their tips (as opposed to shared) is a routine way of keeping them motivated to go above and beyond.

Yet, 95% of beauty salons employ fewer than 10 people (80% employ fewer than five). While their wages will typically make up around 60% of your costs, you may only need a couple of great beauticians to be successful. Or, if you’re mobile or self-employed (e.g., have a salon room within a larger salon), you may not need any staff.

Having staff brings in some different responsibilities. Obligations typically include:

• Written contracts
• PAYE registration
• Right-to-work checks
• NMW compliance
• Statutory holiday pay
• Auto-enrolment pension contributions 
• Employers’ liability insurance

NHBF sells template employment contracts, and while you can use AI as a guide, you must be responsible for finalising and adjusting any details to your context and arrangement.

Renting a Room and Disguised Employment

Chair and room renters are really common in the industry. It brings passive, steady monthly income for the salon owner, while keeping premises and start-up costs down for the renter.

However, they must truly be self-employed, as disguised employment is rife in the industry and a cause of noncompliance. This is where the salon owner treats the beautician as if they are self-employed (e.g., no holiday pay), yet, in practice, there are all the elements of being employed. 

Red flags include (just one may not be an issue, but they mount up):

• Controlling their bookings
• Controlling their pay and tips
• Providing their equipment and tools
• Controlling when they can/can’t work

If you are unsure, use the HMRC Check Employment Status for Tax tool before making any arrangements.

Hiring staff

Ideally, staff are taken on having achieved the necessary qualifications (e.g., Level 2 or Level 3 Diploma in Beauty Therapy). However, training programs and additional support for education could be an incentive to attract bright prospects - a consideration in the face of a recruitment shortage.

Unless you have a lot of bookings and demand that you cannot fulfil, there should be hesitancy over hiring more staff. They take up the majority of expenses, and it’s an easily scalable resource as the business grows. So, there’s no need to commit to hiring lots of beauticians at the start.

For staff hiring at any level, POS staff accounts and tip recording are important. Appointment reports can provide insights into individual performance. For example, tips appear to be higher with one worker compared to the other. Or, perhaps your nail specialist is seeing more repeat customers than the masseuse. 

In any case, it’s important to have a POS provider with strong dashboarding and reports, so the data is easy to visualise. POS reports can highlight your best sellers, peak hours, and the average transaction volume. This kind of information is useful to the owner for strategy, but it could also be useful as structured, organised evidence to gain funding from lenders.

Set Up Payments, Booking, Accounting, and POS Systems

You can’t make money without accepting it. And, making this as easy and flexible as possible can lead to more sales.

The UK was an early adopter of contactless culture. Paying by card and mobile wallet is ubiquitous, with cash-only businesses being relatively rare in 2026. Ideally, you will accept all forms of payments and facilitate this with pay-as-you-go infrastructure, like myPOS, to avoid large initial costs.

Unclear pricing is a common complaint in salon reviews, and something that could lead to noncompliance. Upfront pricing that is competitive, clear, and intuitive can help convert customers who are on the fence.

Payment considerations include:

• Card machine that accepts contactless, Chip & PIN, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
  
• Online booking (e.g., payment link) to collect deposits. This protects against no-shows.
  
• Cancellation and refund policy that is explained at the point of booking/payment.
  
• Refund capability, ideally through the POS system so it’s easily accounted for.
  
• Tipping support (e.g., click 10% on the touchscreen at the POS rather than ask to add it on manually).
  
• Digital receipts sent to the customer for a secure record.
  
• Stock and inventory control when selling products like nail polish and self-tan

For mobile and card-only salons, a card machine for your beauty salon like the myPOS Go 2 (from £29 excl. VAT) can provide on-the-go card payments with digital receipt functionality. If you’re confident that most of your customers will pay with their smartphone or contactless (e.g., not Chip & PIN), then myPOS has a Tap to Pay solution that can turn your own smartphone into a payment terminal. 

The myPOS Ultra (£229 excl. VAT) could be suited to a high street salon needing a touchscreen terminal, in-built receipt printer, and slicker tipping functionality.

Arrange Insurance and Protect the Business

Insurance requirements for beauty salons aren’t just your typical small business policies - it’s recommended that they acknowledge the physical, personal, and chemical nature of your treatments.

Insurance type	What it covers
Employers’ liability	Required to cover injury or illness suffered by employees.
Public liability	Accidental injury to clients or damage to their property
Treatment liability	Claims from a treatment carried out
Professional indemnity	Claims from professional advice or a failure in the standard of service
Product liability	Claims from a product you sold, perhaps causing harm
Contents insurance	Damage or theft of your salon’s equipment and stock
Business interruption	Lost income if the salon can’t trade
Mobile cover	Protection when working at clients’ homes

The only insurance that is a legal requirement is employers’ liability, and that’s only if you hire staff. The others are about weighing up how much, if at all, they apply to your salon and whether you can handle/afford the risk of a potential claim.

Launch the Salon and Manage Early Cash Flow

Launch isn’t the end of this ordeal - it’s just the start. You need to get your Salon listed on Google and local directories, prepare signage, build a booking page, write up your service menu and pricing, and then create a buzz on socials around a new salon and its ambitions.

Your branding and marketing are important to get right from the start. That includes a brand colour palette, tone of voice, brand values, and, ideally, a brand story. 

Something you need to be consistent with is pricing, so make sure to factor in staff cost, rent, and your margins where possible. Discounting heavily at launch could lead to unrealistic pricing expectations.

In the first three months, carefully track:

• Bookings and walk-ins by day and treatment type. Know your best sellers.
• Revenue per treatment against your projected break-even point
• Retail attach rate: how often clients buy a product alongside a treatment
• Repeat visit rate: a great early indicator of sustained revenue
• Quiet periods by day and week, so you can plan staffing and promotions around them

Once you know which treatments are most popular and profitable, this may then dictate future staff hiring - bringing in a specialist in that area.

Conclusion

The beauty industry is an increasingly important part of the British economy. The high street isn’t dead - it’s just evolving and becoming service-based. Setting up a salon needs to own this, and lean into customer service, hygiene, and trust-building. 

First, you need to get your landlord and local council on side. After you have planned your initial business structure and service menu, you can then seek out the appropriate licenses and insurance. 

Stock and staff can wait until you scale, but best practices and payment infrastructure must be organised right away.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to open a small beauty salon in the UK?

Startup costs depend on the size and location of the salon, and the service menu. A realistic range is between £10,000 and £50,000, or more if you’re planning a major refurbishment or specialist equipment.

What licences do I need for waxing, nails, lashes, or facials?

Requirements vary by local council. In London boroughs and some others like Leeds, some basic treatments may fall under a special treatment license. For parts of the UK, there may be no formal license (but confirm with your council).

What insurance does a UK beauty salon need before treating clients?

The only legally required insurance is employers’ liability insurance (if you employ staff). It’s often recommended to get public liability and treatment liability insurance.

What should I include in a beauty salon business plan?

Your service menu, target market, startup costs, cost projections, expected revenue (by treatment type), staffing model and break-even analysis. It should also cover licenses, insurance, and compliance.

What records should I keep for bookings, consent, and patch tests?

A record of every client consultation, patch test results, consent forms, and aftercare advice given. If given consent, having client email addresses can help with retargeting and loyalty schemes.

When should I register my salon with HMRC or Companies House?

If you’re a sole trader or a partnership, you should register with HMRC. If you’re wishing to incorporate a limited company, register with Companies House. Tax registration within 3 months after trading starts (for limited companies) or by October 5th following the end of the tax year you started in (self-employment).