Shareholders agreement for a salon

Salons are often owned by a stylist and an investor, and the business is the clients who come to a particular person. The agreement has to divide the money between working and owning, record the lease and the guarantees, decide whose the clients are when they are booked with an owner, deal with the self-employed stylists who rent chairs, and set the price of shares on a departure where clients may follow. I draft it for the owners together: a briefing session first, then the agreement and a note on the articles, for £995 fixed and five working days.

Who this is for

Owners in England and Wales of hair, beauty, nail and barber salons operating through a company with more than one shareholder, from a stylist and an investor to two stylists who opened a salon together.

What matters in a salon shareholders' agreement

The stylist-owner, the investor and the floor

The agreement should record who runs the salon day to day, with authority over staff, stylists, products, pricing and bookings, what each owner put in, the reserved matters (borrowing, a second salon, pay above a stated level, transactions with an owner's connected persons, a sale), and how each owner is paid: a salary under a service agreement for the owner who works on the floor and dividends under a policy within section 830 of the Companies Act 2006 for both; a working owner whose takings are treated as pay and an investor whose return is never decided are the usual sources of the first argument.

The lease, the fit-out and the guarantees

The agreement should record the lease, the owner who guaranteed it, any finance on the fit-out and equipment and its guarantor, the indemnities between the owners for guarantee payments beyond their share, and the obligation to seek release or replacement when a guarantor sells; the salon is the occupier of its premises under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 and holds the insurances the business needs, and the owners should agree the cover and who maintains it. Security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is in the lease rather than the agreement.

The clients and the column that each owner brings

Clients book with a person, and the agreement should state that the client list, the booking system and the client data are the company's, held under the UK GDPR by the company as controller, that each owner's column is worked for the company, and that an owner may not take client details on leaving; the agreement should also address clients an owner brought from a previous salon, which may be recorded as that owner's, with the valuation on departure reflecting the revenue the leaver's column represents.

Self-employed stylists and the owners' own takings

Salons rent chairs to self-employed stylists on terms the owners should approve together, and the agreement should say that chair rental income is the company's, that the stylists' agreements are in the company's name and reflect a self-employed engagement in substance (status being checked with HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool and not guaranteed by any document), and that the owners' own takings from clients are banked by the company and paid out as salary and dividends rather than kept; VAT on chair rental and on the owners' services is the company's to account for.

Departures and client retention

The agreement, with matching articles, should require an owner who stops working in the salon to offer their shares at a stated valuation, with good and bad leaver terms, payment over time, and a non-solicitation of clients and staff for a reasonable period given as a shareholder, with a non-compete limited to a radius and a period a court will enforce; a stylist who leaves and takes their column is the salon's biggest risk and the agreement cannot prevent clients choosing, but it can decide the price of the shares and the covenant the leaver has given.

Selling the salon or closing it

A sale of the salon, a second site or a franchise should be reserved matters, with drag-along and tag-along for a sale of the company, the brand and the name assigned to the company under the Trade Marks Act 1994 so that there is something to sell beyond the chairs, and a procedure for closing the salon if it fails (the lease, the staff, the stylists, the guarantees and the directors' duties under the Insolvency Act 1986 to creditors); section 33 of the Companies Act 2006 makes the articles binding on every shareholder, which is why the note on the articles lists the transfer provisions they must carry.

What it costs

Shareholders agreement, £995. An agreement between the shareholders of a private company, with a note on how it interacts with your articles. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the shareholders agreement page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A briefing session with all shareholders together, to work through the questions people avoid asking each other
• A shareholders agreement drafted for your actual situation rather than a precedent with the names changed
• A note on how the agreement interacts with your articles, and whether the articles need amending to make it work
• A plain English explanation of every material choice, so nobody signs something they have not understood
• One round of amendments
• Signature-ready documents

What is not included

• Acting for individual shareholders separately, because I act for you jointly
• Company valuation
• Tax structuring, which needs your accountant and should run alongside this
• Amended articles of association and IP assignments, which I quote separately
• Filing at Companies House
• Resolving a dispute that has already started

Questions I am often asked

My business partner is a stylist with a full column. If she leaves, do her clients go with her?

Clients choose, and the agreement cannot stop them. It makes the client data the company's, binds her to a non-solicitation and a limited non-compete, and sets a leaver valuation that reflects the revenue she takes. That is the protection available.

Who owns the chair rental income from our self-employed stylists?

The company, under the agreement, with the stylists' agreements in the company's name. The owners share it through the dividend policy.

I guaranteed the lease. Can the agreement release me?

Not from the landlord, who alone can release you. The agreement requires the company and the other owner to indemnify you beyond your share and to seek your release when you sell.

Related guidance and services

• Shareholders agreement, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Contractor agreement for a self-employed hairdresser
• Shareholders agreement for a gym or fitness studio

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.