Salon and aesthetics clinic valuations for Melbourne owners, buyers and partners.

A Melbourne hair, beauty or aesthetics business is valued on the profit it keeps after paying every stylist, therapist and the owner a market wage and paying market rent. Our valuers test whether clients book with the salon or with one person, how the staff model works, and what prepaid packages and vouchers the buyer must honour. For aesthetics clinics, injectables income depends on registered prescribers and nurses working within national guidelines, so the prescribing arrangement is checked closely.

Do clients book the salon or the stylist?

In hair and beauty, loyalty often runs to a person. A salon on Chapel Street in South Yarra or Smith Street in Collingwood with a team of stylists, a busy online booking page and a steady flow of new clients is a business a buyer can take over. A salon where the owner holds most of the regular clients is closer to a job with a lease attached. The valuation uses booking software data to measure revenue by staff member, rebooking rates, new client numbers and the average spend per visit, and charges a market wage for the work the owner does on the floor. Product sales are looked at separately because retail margins, supplier terms and stock levels differ from service income. The report then sets earnings on what the salon can keep doing with the team in place, not on the owner's busiest year.

Staff models, chair rental and payroll tax

Salons run on very different staff models: employees on award wages, staff paid a percentage of their takings, and chair or room rental where independent operators pay the salon a fee. Each changes the margin, how secure the revenue is and what happens if a popular operator leaves and takes their clients. The SRO says payments to contractors can be deemed wages for payroll tax under the relevant contract provisions, subject to exclusions, and that the rules apply whether the contractor works as a sole trader, company, trust or partnership. Whether those provisions touch your arrangements is for your accountant or the SRO. The valuation sets out the staff model as it stands, records the position your accountant gives us, and tests what earnings look like if the buyer had to move operators onto a different footing.

Council registration and the lease

Victorian councils register businesses that offer hairdressing, beauty therapy and skin penetration under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. Frankston City Council, for example, says operating an unregistered public health business is an offence, that a new owner must apply to transfer the registration with the outgoing owner's signature, and that approval follows an inspection once any identified matters are resolved. Each council runs its own process. For a valuation, the registration is treated as a condition of the sale, and any fit-out work an inspector is likely to require is noted. Most salons also hold a retail lease. The Victorian Small Business Commission explains that a tenant must ask in writing to transfer a retail lease, with details of the buyer's finances and experience, and must give the buyer the disclosure statement and three years of business records. A short lease in a strong strip takes value away.

Cosmetic injectables clinics: prescribers and guidelines

Aesthetics clinics that offer anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers have extra risks. Ahpra's guidelines for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, issued 2 September 2025, apply to registered health practitioners other than medical practitioners, who follow the Medical Board's own guidelines. They require an in-person or video consultation each time a cosmetic injectable is prescribed, say asynchronous prescribing by text, email or online questionnaire is not acceptable, and say prescribers must comply with state drugs and poisons laws for Schedule 4 cosmetic injectables. They also set experience and supervision requirements for registered and enrolled nurses. For a valuation, a clinic's income is only as secure as the prescribing model behind it. A clinic built on a model that does not meet the guidelines faces a cost to change it, and a clinic whose prescriber or lead nurse may leave carries key person risk. The valuer records the arrangements; compliance is for your lawyer and Ahpra.

Prepaid packages, vouchers and when salons are valued

Gift vouchers, prepaid treatment packages and memberships are cash the business has already received for work it has not yet done. A buyer must honour them, so the valuation identifies the outstanding balance and adjusts for it rather than counting that cash as profit. The same goes for deposits on bridal and event bookings. Melbourne salons and clinics are usually valued for a sale or purchase, a partner leaving, bringing a senior stylist or nurse in as a part owner, moving the business into a company, or market value evidence for small business CGT concessions on exit, which your accountant applies.

• ·Hair, Beauty and Skin Penetration Business, Frankston City Council
• ·Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, legislation.vic.gov.au
• ·Guidelines for performing non-surgical cosmetic procedures, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
• ·Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, legislation.vic.gov.au
• ·Contractors (payroll tax), State Revenue Office Victoria
• ·Transfer of a retail lease premises, Victorian Small Business Commission