How to open a barbershop in BC: rules, permits and costs

You do not need a barber licence to open a barbershop in BC — no licence or trade certificate is required to cut hair for pay. The rules sit on the shop instead: a municipal business licence, approval from your regional health authority, which wants floor plans before you open, and a registered name if you trade under one. This guide covers the licence answer, the eight steps in order, what an inspector checks, WorkSafeBC and hiring, the government fees, and the BarberFlow setup.

Does the barber or the shop need a licence?

No. British Columbia does not require a licence or trade certificate to cut hair for pay, and it has no barber trade at all. Hairstylist is a voluntary Red Seal trade run by SkilledTradesBC, with 3,150 hours of work-based training and 15 weeks of technical training over two years for anyone who wants the certificate. Neither barber nor hairstylist is on SkilledTradesBC's list of compulsory trades.

That is the opposite of Ontario, where the hairstylist certificate is compulsory — see our Ontario opening guide. The full BC picture, including challenge exams for experienced barbers, is in the BC barber licence guide. No licence on the barber does not mean no rules on the shop.

The eight steps to opening a BC barbershop

1. Decide on certification — optional in BC.
2. Register the business with BC Registries, or incorporate.
3. Get a CRA business number for GST and payroll, and register for PST with the province if you sell retail product.
4. Confirm zoning before signing the lease.
5. Send plans to your regional health authority and book the inspection.
6. Apply for the municipal business licence.
7. Register with WorkSafeBC once you hire, and put chair rentals in writing.
8. Set up booking, payments and tax before day one.

Registering the business and the CRA accounts

Trade under your own legal name and BC needs no name request or registration. Call the shop "Main Street Barber Co." and you do. A name request costs $30 and holds for 56 days; registering a sole proprietorship or general partnership costs $40. Priority approval, in one to two business days, adds $100.

Incorporating goes through Corporate Online for $350, plus the name request. Then comes the CRA business number, the identifier your GST/HST and payroll accounts hang off.

GST registration becomes mandatory once taxable revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, with 29 days to register. Registering early lets you claim input tax credits on the build-out, but from then on every haircut carries 5% GST. PST is a separate provincial registration: haircuts are exempt, retail product is not. Our BC PST guide for barbers covers the $10,000 small-seller rule and why a storefront almost always fails it.

What does a BC health inspection cover?

BC treats a barbershop as a personal service establishment. The Regulated Activities Regulation under the Public Health Act names barbershops in that definition and makes operating one a regulated activity. Its standing rule: an adequate supply of hot and cold water at all times, plus a conveniently located hot and cold water hand-washing facility. The rest comes from the provincial Guidelines for Personal Service Establishments (November 2017), which list barber services by name.

The guidelines say to have a site plan reviewed by the health authority before you build or renovate, and to notify it that the shop is ready for inspection before you offer services. Fraser Health wants an application with at least two printed copies of scaled floor plans, lists of your services, major equipment, implements and chemicals, and your cleaning and disinfection procedures. Vancouver Coastal Health takes a non-permitted application form and supporting documents at your local Health Protection Office.

BC has five regional health authorities: Fraser, Interior, Island, Northern and Vancouver Coastal. The one covering the shop's address is the one you apply to. Older guides still cite the Personal Service Establishments Regulation (B.C. Reg. 202/83); it was repealed on September 9, 2011.

The inspection checks the room and the routine. The guideline items that apply to a barbershop:

• Hand-washing sink: separate from the washroom, reachable from every station, with potable hot and cold running water, dispensed soap, and paper towels or an air dryer.
• Tools: combs, brushes, scissors and clipper blades cleaned, then disinfected after each client; a blade that nicks skin needs high-level disinfection. A reusable straight razor must be sterilized; the guidelines recommend a single-use one.
• Single-use items: disposable razors, shaving blades and neck strips go in the bin after one client. Styptic pencils are not acceptable.
• Surfaces: easily cleanable floors and walls; chairs and work surfaces disinfected after each use.
• Records: daily disinfectant test results, safety data sheets and any blood exposure incident, kept on site for one year and on file for five.

Municipal licensing, zoning and your lease

Business licences are issued by your municipality, so the fee and process change with the city. In Vancouver, every business needs a licence, and the application starts with a check that your business is allowed at the location. Staff review land use and life safety: the unit may be approved, need permitted alterations, need an inspection, or be refused. Vancouver charges a $77 non-refundable application fee, then an annual fee set by business type in Schedule A of its Licence By-law, pro-rated in year one.

Vancouver says business owners need a licence and employees do not, so ask whether each chair renter needs their own. Do the zoning check before you sign — a refused location means rent with no revenue. Then read the plumbing. The guidelines call for a hand-washing sink apart from the washroom, an instrument-cleaning sink unless every tool is noncritical, and a janitorial sink or written procedure, and retrofitting plumbing into a raw unit is an expensive surprise.

Hiring: employees, chair renters and WorkSafeBC

Most BC shops mix employees on wage or commission with barbers renting a chair as their own business. Employees fall under the Employment Standards Act, and the general minimum wage is $18.25 an hour as of June 1, 2026. Register a CRA payroll account before your first remittance is due: the 15th of the month after you first withhold from a paycheque.

WorkSafeBC is not optional the way Ontario's WSIB is for barbers. You must register if your business hires one or more workers, full-time, part-time, casual or on contract. A self-employed owner with no workers or unregistered subcontractors does not have to register, though an unincorporated owner can buy Personal Coverage.

Chair renters bring a federal wrinkle too: the shop owner owes EI premiums on a self-employed barber, covered in the guide to paying EI for a chair renter. Put each rental in a barber chair rental agreement, and run both pay models in the BarberFlow employee tools.

What does it cost to open a BC barbershop?

Government fees are small and published; the build-out is not. Rows marked Example sketch a three-chair shop in round numbers — they are not averages or quotes, and they leave out leasehold work, usually the largest cost.

How to set up a new shop in BarberFlow

Once the health authority and the city sign off, the software side takes about fifteen minutes. Set tax before your first payment and the pay model before your first payout.

The five mistakes new BC shops make

1. Building out before the health authority sees the plans. A hand-washing sink is cheaper to draw than to retrofit.
2. Signing the lease before the zoning check. Vancouver can refuse a location or require permitted alterations while rent runs.
3. Assuming no licence means no paperwork. The barber needs no certificate; the shop still needs a business licence and health approval.
4. Treating a fixed-shift chair renter as independent by default. WorkSafeBC looks at how the work runs, not the label.
5. Keeping styptic pencils on the station. The guidelines rule them out — use powder or liquid with a disposable applicator.

Quick checklist

• Decide whether certification matters to you; BC does not require it.
• Request a name ($30) and register ($40), or incorporate ($350).
• Get a CRA business number and add GST and payroll as needed; register for PST with BC if you sell product.
• Confirm zoning before signing the lease.
• Submit plans to your regional health authority and book the inspection.
• Apply for the municipal business licence.
• Register with WorkSafeBC when you hire; put chair rentals in writing.
• Set GST, PST, cancellation policy and pay models in BarberFlow.

Once the doors open, the first policy question is the empty chair: our barbershop no-show policy guide covers the three numbers to set. For the tax side nationally, see sales tax on haircuts in every province.