How to open a barbershop in Spain: paperwork and costs
Opening a barbershop is not complicated, but it has an order. These are the steps to take in Spain, in the order worth taking them, and an honest idea of where the money goes at the start.
1. Register as self-employed
These are two separate registrations and plenty of people only do one. First, the tax registration with the modelo 036, choosing the hairdressing IAE heading (972.1 covers men’s and women’s hairdressing services). Then registration with the RETA, the self-employed branch of social security. If several of you are going in together, a company starts to make sense; for a barber working alone the paperwork rarely pays for itself.
2. Get the licence for the premises
A barbershop counts as a harmless activity, so in most town halls you open on a declaración responsable rather than a classic licence: you file the paperwork and you can start. If you are going to change the layout, alter the shopfront or run new plumbing, that is building work and needs its own permit. Ask your town hall before you sign the lease, not after — the requirements vary a good deal between municipalities.
3. Meet the rules you will be asked about
Your region has health rules for hairdressing premises: sterilising your tools, waste handling and a first-aid kit. On top of that come complaint forms, data protection as soon as you keep client records, and invoicing: from 2027 receipts will have to comply with VeriFactu, so it is worth choosing what you take payments with that already in mind.
4. Do the numbers before you sign anything
What eats the money at the start is almost always the premises: deposit, the first months’ rent and the fit-out. Then come the chairs, mirrors and furniture, your tools and the opening stock. And then there is the line most people forget: several months of fixed costs while the calendar fills, because it does not fill in the first week. If you can take over somewhere that was already fitted out as a salon, you save most of the refurbishment.
5. Have somewhere to be booked from day one
The day you open, people will look for you on Google. Create the Google Business Profile listing before you open, because verification takes a few days, and have a page where they can book themselves instead of ringing you mid-cut. Starting with the calendar already set up avoids the month of paper diaries and missed calls almost everyone goes through.
Open with the calendar already set up
If you are starting on your own, trimly costs you €0 a month: your booking page, your calendar and VeriFactu inside, with no card.
Create my barbershop