Health & Beauty Spa Business Valuation Benchmarks

Business owners, prospective buyers, and industry investors rely on a diverse set of financial benchmarks to assess the value of a business. We have compiled data from current BizBuySell listings and sold businesses to provide insight into the business for sale market and important benchmarks for pricing and evaluating spa businesses relative to industry standards.

Jump To:

Highlights of Health & Beauty Spas Sold on BizBuySell

Spas listed and sold on BizBuySell are primarily locally owned and operated, independent brands, though franchise brands are not uncommon, and are included in this report. These businesses cater to a variety of clients, but all generally focus on providing a relaxing atmosphere where customers can enjoy an assortment of health and beauty related treatments. These include beauty spas, day spas, and medical spas (med spas), each offering progressively greater levels of service.

Health & Beauty Spa Business Transaction Trends

The median sale price of spas listed and sold on BizBuySell had been consistent through the pandemic years, then increased significantly in 2023 and 2024, as many larger and more profitable businesses entered the market. Prices pulled back in 2025, though they remain well above 2021-2022 levels. 

Health & Beauty Spa Business Valuation Multiples

Valuation, or pricing, multiples are financial tools that allow for comparisons between businesses that have different levels of revenue and earnings. They represent the sales price of a business relative to its financial performance, and given enough individual business sales data, they represent what the market is willing to pay for a business given its revenue and earnings.

Valuation Trends

Business values and associated multiples fluctuate over time, influenced by a variety of macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, consumer spending, and overall economic growth.

Valuation multiples of spa businesses have been fairly consistent over the past several years.

Earnings Multiples

Earnings multiples represent the value of a business relative to its owner's discretionary earnings. Arguably the most important valuation metric - as the seller's discretionary earnings will often dictate how much a buyer is able to borrow to finance the business acquisition - most valuations will hinge on the earnings multiple.

Revenue Multiples

Revenue multiples represent the value of a business relative to its overall sales or revenue. In conjunction with an earnings analysis, revenue multiples are commonly used to value a business based on its overall sales.

How to Interpret These Multiples

Recent Listings vs. Sold Businesses

We calculate and provide valuation multiples from two sources: Current and recent listings of health and beauty spas for sale, and our database of "comparable" businesses sold on BizBuySell. Multiples based on listing data are generally higher due to owners setting asking prices above what their businesses might typically sell for. This occurs either intentionally as a negotiation strategy, or incidentally due to business owners’ common tendency to overvalue their own businesses.

Multiples based on comparable businesses - "comps" in business broker parlance - are much more useful as they represent the prices at which businesses ultimately get sold. Business brokers and valuation professionals will always turn to local comps when pricing businesses for sale or evaluating businesses for acquisition. We provide both sets of data at the national level to offer general context.

Quartiles, Median, and Average

No two businesses are identical, and as such, valuation multiples exist in a range. We have carved out four common values within this range: Lower quartile represents the value under which the lowest 25% of valuation multiples fell. Upper quartile represents the value above which the highest 25% of multiples fell. Median is the middle of the range, and average is the mean of the set. Mean is almost always higher than the median, driven by a minority of high volume, high value businesses sold at multiples above the upper quartile.

Businesses with consistent financial performance, above average revenue and earnings, demonstrable growth potential, low owner involvement, unique competitive advantages, and a seller willing to finance will command a multiple at or above the upper quartile. Lower volume businesses with thin profit margins, full-time owner involvement, and many direct competitors will trade at or below the lower quartile. Most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle.

Based on this data, half of spa businesses are valued between 1.4 and 2.78 times their annual seller discretionary earnings, with 25% of exceptional, high traffic spas trading above this range, and 25% of smaller, less popular spas trading below.

Financial Benchmarks

To determine how a business compares in terms of revenue and earnings relative to industry peers, it’s necessary to have some insight into industry standards. "Benchmarking" describes the practice of comparing a business’s financial performance to typical industry standards to determine where a business falls relative to other businesses in the same industry. These benchmarks can help guide owners and investors towards appropriate valuation multiples from the range above.

To that end, we have aggregated financial ranges useful for comparing an individual health and beauty spa business to its peers in the market.

Health & Beauty Spa Business Revenue and Earnings Trends

Median revenue of spa businesses listed for sale fluctuated between 2021 and 2023, then jumped in 2024 before pulling back in 2025. 

Median discretionary earnings trends have followed a similar pattern, peaking in 2023 and remaining above early-2020s levels since.

Earnings Ranges

Discretionary earnings (used interchangeably with the terms "cash flow" and seller's discretionary earnings or SDE) is often the crux of business valuations, so it is important to benchmark it relative to other businesses traded on the market. Below you will find discretionary earnings ranges for spa businesses sold over the past five years and those recently listed for sale.

Revenue Ranges

Sales volume plays a large role in business valuation, as it measures the size of the potential income opportunity for new ownership. It's not uncommon for buyers to select an earnings multiple range based on overall revenue. The table below includes revenue ranges of health and beauty spas sold over the past five years and those recently listed for sale.

How Revenue and Earnings Level Affects Business Values

Clearly higher levels of earnings lead to higher valuations, even given the same multiple. However, valuation multiples also tend to rise with business sales volume. Popular spas that consistently generate higher revenue (and maintain reasonable profit margins) tend to sell for earnings multiples on the higher end. So, a med spa consistently generating sales over $800k annually may sell for an earnings multiple of 2.78 or higher, while a less popular day spa with sales well below $250k would likely sell for an earnings multiple closer to 1.4.

This tendency for higher sales volumes to fetch higher valuation multiples is largely driven by the economics of business acquisition financing. Higher volume businesses give buyers more cushion to cover debt service obligations and still have enough left over to pay the new owner a reasonable income.

Sector Comparisons

For a more complete understanding of the market and valuation standards, consider comparisons within the broader beauty and personal care sector when benchmarking spa businesses. The chart and table below includes key metrics from sales of select beauty and personal care businesses on BizBuySell between 2021 and 2025.

Compared to other businesses in the beauty and personal care sector, health and beauty spas tend to generate higher average sales volumes, and so tend to sell at higher multiples. Even so, the high level of service and labor required brings multiples down slightly, compared to more "self-serve" business models, like tanning salons.

More Resources and Tools from BizBuySell

Thinking of buying or selling a business? BizBuySell has the tools, resources, and professionals you need to get down to business.