Contractor agreement for a self-employed beauty therapist

A beauty therapist working self-employed in a salon or spa provides treatments that carry licensing, consent and insurance requirements of their own, from within premises someone else controls. The agreement has to grant the room, define which treatments the therapist may offer and on whose licence, keep the clients, prices and takings the therapist's own, charge a rent or a split for the space, and leave the therapist self-employed in substance rather than in name. I draft that agreement, for the salon or for the therapist, for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days. Status is checked case by case with HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool, and no agreement can guarantee an individual's status.

Who this is for

Salons, spas, clinics and wellness centres in England and Wales renting treatment rooms to self-employed beauty therapists, nail technicians, aestheticians and massage therapists, and therapists going self-employed who want the agreement right before they move in.

What matters in a self-employed beauty therapist's agreement

The licence to use the room and the facilities

The agreement should grant a licence to use a treatment room on stated days or sessions, keeping control of the premises with the salon so that the therapist acquires no tenancy protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and should list what the room includes (couch, lighting, storage, laundry, reception, booking system, card terminal) and what the therapist supplies (products, equipment, consumables), with shared use of the room by other therapists on other days addressed, including storage of each therapist's products and the cleaning between sessions.

Treatments, qualifications and licensing

The agreement should list the treatments the therapist may offer in the room, require the therapist to hold the qualifications and insurance each treatment needs, and deal with licensing: some treatments (massage, certain skin treatments, piercing and semi-permanent make-up among them) require a licence or registration from the local authority for the premises, the therapist or both, and the agreement should say who holds which licence and that treatments outside it may not be offered. Products and devices must be used as their manufacturers and the law require, and the salon may exclude treatments it does not want performed on its premises.

The therapist's own clients, prices and takings

The therapist sets their own prices, books their own clients (or receives bookings through the salon's system on the therapist's terms), takes their own payments or receives them from the salon without deduction beyond the agreed rent or split, keeps their clients' records and consent forms as controller under the UK GDPR, and deals with their own tax; all of that goes in the agreement, together with the treatment of walk-ins and clients the salon passes on.

Rent, splits and VAT

The agreement should state the rent (a fixed sum per session, day or month, or a percentage of takings), when and how it is paid, what it covers and how it is reviewed, and should say whether VAT is included, because a VAT-registered salon's supply of a room with facilities to a self-employed therapist is standard-rated; the therapist's own treatments are the therapist's supplies. Where a therapist trading as a business pays rent late, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 adds statutory interest.

Control and worker status

A therapist who decides their own hours within the room's availability, can decline bookings, bears the cost of quiet days and can arrange cover by another qualified therapist is in business on their own account; one who is rostered, paid by the hour, handed the salon's price list and expected to attend when told has the marks of a worker (section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996) or an employee, and with that the minimum wage and holiday entitlements of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Working Time Regulations 1998. The document describes the first arrangement; a salon that in practice runs the therapist's diary should not rely on it.

Insurance, consent and the client list

The therapist should hold public liability and treatment liability insurance naming the treatments offered, obtain and keep consent and patch test records for each client, and comply with the salon's hygiene rules; the salon, as occupier, owes clients the duty under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 and holds its own cover. The agreement should run on notice with termination for breach, and should say that the therapist's own clients and their records go with the therapist, with a non-solicitation of salon-introduced clients for a reasonable period and no attempt at a non-compete the agreement cannot support.

What it costs

Consultancy or contractor agreement, £595. Drafted for your business. Five working days.

Template set for repeat use, £895. One master agreement plus a short-form schedule you can reuse for every engagement. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the consultancy and contractor agreements 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 clear, express assignment of intellectual property to your business
• Confidentiality provisions that protect your business information
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Clear treatment of status, so the arrangement is not accidentally something else
• Payment, deliverables and termination provisions that match how you work
• A reusable structure, so the next engagement costs you nothing

What is not included

• Employment status determinations and off-payroll working assessments, which need your accountant
• Tax advice
• Disputes with a contractor you have already engaged
• Immigration and right to work compliance

Questions I am often asked

Who needs the licence for massage treatments, the salon or the therapist?

It depends on the local authority's scheme: some license the premises, some the practitioner, some both. The agreement records who holds which, and the therapist may not offer treatments outside the licence held.

The therapist keeps client records. Who is responsible for them?

The therapist, as the controller of their own clients' data, under their own privacy notice. The salon holds only the booking data it processes. The agreement says so and keeps the records with the therapist on leaving.

Can we insist the therapist works the hours we are open?

You can state the room's availability; requiring attendance at set hours is control that points to employment. The agreement lets the therapist choose sessions within the availability and arrange cover.

Related guidance and services

• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Contractor agreement for a self-employed hairdresser
• Contractor agreement for a therapist working in a clinic

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.