How to Open a Spa

To open a spa, decide exactly which services you’ll offer, find out which state licenses each service and the space need, plan the treatment rooms around those services, and get the location licensed before you open. A day spa, a head spa and a massage studio all follow that path, but the licenses differ because the services do.

Start with the menu. It decides your licenses, your rooms and your plumbing.

What Kind of Spa Are You Opening?

Spa covers a lot of businesses. A day spa usually mixes facials, waxing, body treatments and massage. A head spa focuses on the scalp. A med spa adds medical treatments like injectables and lasers, and that brings a whole different set of rules, covered in how to open a med spa.

Write down every service you plan to sell in the first year. Next to each, note who is licensed to do it in your state. That list drives everything below.

What Licenses Does a Day Spa Need?

Expect at least two layers: licenses for the people and licenses for the place. A spa that offers both skin care and massage may need two separate establishment licenses.

On the skin side, Texas and California license esthetics through the same board as cosmetology. Texas, for example, licenses an esthetician specialty establishment and requires a facial bed or chair and a mirror for each practitioner providing services.

Massage is often licensed separately. Two examples:

• The Florida Board of Massage Therapy issues a massage establishment license per location. Fees total $255, a partnership, corporation or LLC must name a licensed massage therapist as the designated establishment manager, and the license comes only after the location passes inspection. Operating before then counts as unlicensed activity.
• The Texas massage establishment license costs $200, requires fingerprinting before it is issued, and lasts two years. No establishment may start operating until the application is approved.

Massage rules vary by state. Check each service with your state before you print a menu.

How Do You Open a Head Spa?

A head spa is a spa that specializes in scalp care. California’s board describes head spas as “establishments specializing in scalp facials” and lists the usual services: cleansing, steaming and exfoliating the scalp, scalp massage, neck and shoulder massage, hair masks, and shampooing and blow-drying.

That last pair is where licensing trips people up. In its head spa industry bulletin, California says estheticians may do facials and scalp treatments but are not licensed to shampoo or blow-dry hair. Those services have to be done by a licensed barber, cosmetologist or hairstylist. Other states write their scope of practice differently, so check yours.

A head spa also needs real plumbing. Every wash station is a shampoo bowl or a backwash unit, and Buy-Rite Beauty says a backwash takes roughly 5 to 6 feet of width and 6 to 7 feet of depth once you count clearance. Put the wash stations on the wall with the water lines and fit a hair trap on each drain.

How Big Should Spa Treatment Rooms Be?

Size each room from the bed out. Nova Spa Equipment says most facial beds are 70 to 74 inches long and 28 to 30 inches wide, and a lash bed is often narrower at 24 to 28 inches. Buy-Rite Beauty advises checking the bed’s full length with the back and leg rests extended, then leaving room to move around every side, plus space for a cart or steamer.

A 10 by 10 foot room fits one facial bed with clearance on every side, plus a stool and a trolley. Massage tables, body treatment beds and couples rooms need more. If you can, keep a sink in or near the treatment rooms so staff don’t cross the spa to wash up.

How Do You Lay Out a Spa Floor Plan?

Spa clients want quiet, so the layout separates the calm areas from the busy ones. Plan:

• Reception at the entrance, with a reception desk, a small retail wall and a few seats.
• A relaxation or waiting lounge between reception and the treatment hall, away from the door.
• Treatment rooms off a hallway, each with its bed, stool and trolley.
• Wet services, like a head spa wash area or a body treatment room, grouped on the plumbing wall.
• A laundry room. Spas go through linens fast, so plan space for a washer, dryer and shelving.
• Restrooms and a staff area.
• Halls at least 36 inches wide, the minimum for an accessible route in the 2010 ADA Standards.

The spa floor plan maker includes a 10 x 10 ft treatment room block, facial and massage beds, a lash bed, esthetician stools, spa trolleys, a washer and dryer, storage shelving, a restroom and partition walls. Drop in one room, furnish it, then copy it down the hall to see how many rooms fit. It flags walkways under 36 inches, and you can print the plan or save it as an SVG for your contractor.

What Do Spa Inspectors Check?

In Texas, the esthetics side of a spa falls under the same shop rules as a salon. That means hot and cold running water where services are done, a container big enough to fully soak tools in disinfectant, washable non-porous floors where products are mixed or water splashes, ventilation for chemical odors, and one restroom in or near the shop. Each esthetician needs a facial bed or chair and a mirror.

The massage side brings its own inspection. Florida inspects a new massage establishment after the application is complete and before the license is issued, and a field inspector contacts you to set the date. Texas fingerprints applicants for a national criminal history check before it issues a massage establishment license.

Plan the sinks, floors and restroom with those checks in mind, and there’s less to fix when the inspector arrives.

What Does It Cost to Open a Spa?

Costs swing too widely for one honest range, because a two-room skin studio and a full day spa with wet rooms are different businesses. Build your own budget from quotes: the lease, the build-out (plumbing for each wet service is the big swing), beds and furniture, laundry, licensing and your first months of payroll.

If you plan medical services, Vagaro’s figures for med spas are in how much it costs to open a med spa. If you want to start very small, a single salon suite can hold one treatment room, and suite rent usually covers utilities.

What Are the Steps to Start a Spa?

1. Write the service menu and note who may perform each service in your state.
2. Find out which establishment licenses the services trigger, from the cosmetology board, the massage board or both.
3. Choose a space with plumbing where the wet services will go.
4. Draw the floor plan with real bed and equipment sizes.
5. Get build-out quotes and permits.
6. Apply for each establishment license and pass the inspections.
7. Hire licensed staff, buy linens and supplies, and set up booking.

For the business side, like a plan, an EIN and funding options, how to open a salon covers the same ground.