How to Start an Esthetics Business in Minnesota

Who licenses esthetics in Minnesota

Esthetics answers to the Board of Cosmetology under Minnesota Statutes chapter 155A and Minnesota Rules chapter 2105. Rule 2105.0145 defines the two licenses by their work. The esthetician performs cosmetic care of the skin of the face, neck, arms, hands, legs and feet. The advanced practice esthetician performs a list of advanced services the rule names: advanced skin care treatments, chemical exfoliation, advanced extractions, advanced facial treatments, and advanced facial treatments using electrical energy, including light, direct current and indirect current, among the services listed there. Knowing which rung a service sits on is the first compliance question of every esthetics menu in Minnesota, because the AP services require the AP license, not experience alone.

The premises side mirrors the practitioner side. The Board licenses an esthetician salon and an advanced practice esthetician salon as separate types, alongside the cosmetology, nail and eyelash extension salon licenses. Under section 155A.29, services for compensation may be offered only by a licensee in a licensed salon, and the salon license types have to cover the services actually sold in the room. A studio that grows from facials into advanced treatments adds the AP salon license type the same way it adds the AP practitioner license: by application, before the service goes on the menu.

Minnesota esthetics at a glance

The esthetician and AP esthetician licenses, step by step

The esthetician route requires you to be at least 17 and to complete 600 hours at a Minnesota licensed school, split between preclinical instruction and clinical instruction, then pass three board approved tests: a general theory test, a written practical test, and a test on Minnesota laws and rules. The license costs $195 for three years and expires on the last day of your birth month in the year it falls due. Renewal is $115 with 8 hours of continuing education under section 155A.271, four core hours of law and health, safety and infection control plus four hours of professional practice. Estheticians also pick up lashes for free in licensing terms: Rule 2105.0145 states that a licensed esthetician is not required to hold a separate eyelash technician license, which is why so many Minnesota lash studios are esthetician led.

The advanced practice route starts where the first license ends. Under Rule 2105.0145, an applicant for the AP esthetician license completes 500 hours of advanced practice esthetician training at a licensed school, on top of the 600 esthetician hours or an equivalent esthetician license, and passes the board approved general theory and written practical tests for advanced practice estheticians. The rule adds a sentence worth planning around: when the AP license is issued, it supersedes the esthetician license. You hold one license at the higher rung, not two licenses side by side, and renewals, fees and continuing education follow the AP license from then on.

The decision between the rungs is a menu decision. A studio selling facials, waxing and lashes runs cleanly on the esthetician license. A studio whose price list leans on chemical exfoliation, advanced extractions and device based treatments needs AP licenses on the team performing them, and the AP salon license type on the wall. Price the training into the opening plan either way: 500 additional hours is a semester, not a weekend course, and Minnesota does not grandfather experience into the AP rung.

The esthetician salon license and the designated manager

The studio's license is the esthetician salon license under section 155A.29, and a studio offering advanced practice services adds the advanced practice esthetician salon license type. Each salon license costs $350 initially, a $250 license fee plus a $100 application fee, and $225 to renew, for three years, expiring on the last day of the month of initial licensure. The conditions are the standard four: compliance with local and state infection control, health and safety law; appointment of a manager; evidence of workers compensation compliance where it applies; and evidence of continued professional liability insurance of at least $25,000 per claim and $50,000 per policy year for each practitioner.

The manager is the Designated Licensed Salon Manager, appointed by the owner and registered with the Board under a notarized acknowledgment. The pairing follows the ladder: an esthetician salon registers an esthetician salon manager, and the Board's application allows an advanced practice esthetician salon manager to serve as DLSM for either an esthetician salon or an AP esthetician salon, so one AP manager can cover a studio holding both license types. A cosmetologist salon manager can also manage an esthetician salon under the Board's exceptions. The owner and the DLSM share responsibility for the salon at all times, including for independent contractors, and a DLSM departure means written notice to the Board within 10 business days and a replacement registered within 60 days.

The manager license is earned on top of the practitioner license: an active esthetician, AP esthetician or cosmetologist operator license, plus passing salon manager test results no more than a year old, at $195 initial and $145 renewal. Solo practitioners take the manager license and register as their own DLSM, which keeps the structure honest at the smallest scale: one person, three licenses counting the salon's, and no gaps for an inspector to find.

Forming your business entity

Most Minnesota esthetics businesses form as a limited liability company under chapter 322C of the Minnesota Statutes, and Minnesota prices the filing by channel in a way that surprises people: Articles of Organization filed by mail cost $135, while the same filing online or in person costs $155. The filing is made with the Secretary of State and takes effect when accepted. Your Articles name the LLC, its registered office and agent, and the organizer, and the name must carry a limited liability company designator.

Every Minnesota LLC then files an Annual Renewal with the Secretary of State each calendar year, due by December 31, and the renewal itself is free: the fee schedule lists it at $0. Free is not the same as optional. An LLC that skips the renewal is administratively terminated, and bringing it back costs a reinstatement fee of $65 by mail or $85 online or in person, and the Secretary of State prints one more limit on the schedule: an entity inactive for more than six years cannot be reinstated online. Put the renewal on the same December calendar as your own year end close, and it never becomes a reinstatement.

Business names and the assumed name certificate

Minnesota's name filing is the Certificate of Assumed Name under chapter 333, and it is filed with the Secretary of State, not at a county office. Under section 333.01, no one may carry on a commercial business under a name that does not set forth the true name of every person interested in the business unless a certificate is on file, so a sole proprietor trading as a studio brand and an LLC whose storefront name differs from its legal name both file. The certificate costs $30 by mail or $50 online or in person on the Secretary of State's fee schedule, and the name on it may not borrow a designator like corporation or limited liability company unless the filer is authorized to use it.

Then comes the step Minnesota owners miss: publication. Section 333.01 requires the certificate to be published after it has been filed, in a qualified newspaper in the county in which you have your principal or registered office, for two successive issues, and section 333.02 requires the filing and the publication before you commence business under the name. The certificate also has to be kept alive: section 333.055 holds it in effect only while an annual renewal is filed in each calendar year after the filing year. The renewal is free, and an expired certificate can be reinstated at $65 by mail or $85 online. Keep the names consistent across the stack anyway: Secretary of State filings, the salon license, the sales tax account and your signage should tell one story.

Federal tax ID and business banking

Apply for an Employer Identification Number on IRS.gov. It is free, it issues online in one session, and any site charging you for an EIN is selling you a form you can file yourself. Minnesota keys its registrations to the federal number: the Department of Revenue issues your Minnesota tax ID when you register the business for sales tax and withholding, and your unemployment insurance employer account with the Department of Employment and Economic Development runs on the same identity.

Open the business bank account as soon as the entity and the EIN exist, and run every fee, product order, rent payment and tax deposit through it. The quarterly unemployment wage reports, sales tax returns, renewals and Board fees all assume the studio can show its own books, and a clean, separate account is the cheapest compliance tool in this guide.

Sales tax through the Department of Revenue

Minnesota taxes retail sales and a short statutory list of services, and skin care services are not on the list. The Department of Revenue's Personal Services guidance lists the spa services that are not taxable: aromatherapy baths, body scrubs, polishes and wraps, facials, and manicures and pedicures. A facial, an advanced treatment and a waxing appointment all ride on the service side of the line, and no sales tax is collected on the ticket.

The retail shelf is the opposite. Beauty and cosmetic product sales are taxable: the cleansers, serums and sunscreens you send home with a client are retail sales at the 6.875 percent state rate plus the local taxes that apply at your address. Buy that inventory without paying tax by giving your supplier a completed Form ST3, Certificate of Exemption, claiming the resale exemption, and owe the tax only when you sell. The mirror image catches new owners: the products you consume while providing services, and your tools and equipment, from treatment beds to towels, are taxable purchases because they are not resold; the Department of Revenue's guidance names cosmetics and similar service consumables as taxable to the business. Register for a Minnesota tax ID before your first taxable sale; the same registration opens your withholding account when you hire.

Room rent in a Minnesota esthetics studio

Room rent inside a licensed studio runs inside the salon license rather than beside it. An esthetician renting a treatment room in your esthetician salon works in a licensed salon, so no second salon license attaches to the room and the renter files no premises paperwork of their own. What they need is their own active esthetician, AP esthetician or cosmetologist license matched to the services they sell, displayed in the salon. Your side of the arrangement is defined by Rule 2105.0390: the owner and the DLSM must ensure that all practitioners, including nonemployees, comply with chapter 155A and the rules, and the salon keeps the work time records of each licensed practitioner on the premises as section 177.30 requires.

The boundary is the one that runs through this cluster. A renter whose operation the public experiences as its own studio, a lockable suite with its own name, prices and door, is running a salon in Minnesota's structure and needs its own salon license of the right type and its own designated manager, which is the subject of the salon suite guide in this cluster. The AP rung sharpens the point: advanced services in a rented room still require the AP practitioner license and premises licensed for advanced practice work. The tax classification question is separate and runs on control, not on the label in the lease: paper a real tenancy like a tenancy, with written terms, set rent, and the renter's own clients, products and booking.

Hiring employees in Minnesota

Your first hire makes you a Minnesota employer on several tracks at once. Register with the Department of Revenue for wage withholding, and with the unemployment insurance program administered by the Department of Employment and Economic Development. New employers are assigned a tax rate based on the average for their industry; for 2026 the published new employer rates run from 1 percent up to the 8.9 percent maximum, paid quarterly on each employee's wages up to the 2026 taxable wage base of $44,000. The 2026 rate stack adds a 0.40 percent base tax rate and a 14 percent additional assessment on the tax due, and the quarterly wage detail report is due whether or not any tax is owed. Workers compensation coverage belongs on the same checklist, and for a licensed salon it is a licensing document as well: section 155A.29 asks for evidence of compliance with the workers compensation law where it applies.

Minnesota sets its own wage floor and allows no tip credit against it. From January 1, 2026, the state minimum wage is $11.41 an hour for every employer, and tipped estheticians are owed the full rate before tips. A training wage of $9.31 an hour may be paid to employees under 20 for their first 90 consecutive days of employment. Cities layer on top where they have set their own rates: Minneapolis requires $16.37 an hour in 2026 for all employers, and St. Paul phases by employer size, with small employers reaching $16.37 on July 1, 2026, so the wage floor is a property of the address where the work happens.

Local rules for a Minnesota esthetics studio

The local layer sits underneath every state filing in this guide. Zoning controls whether an esthetics studio can operate at the address you choose, and cities add occupancy approvals, sign rules and, in many places, a local business license on top of the state layer. Two state rules shape the site search itself: a salon may not be located in a room used for residential purposes, and a salon in the practitioner's residence must be completely partitioned off from the living quarters, under section 155A.29. A mobile salon is possible but carries its own conditions, a permanent business address and advance notice to the Board of its locations and schedule of operation.

Get the zoning answer in writing before the lease is signed. The salon license belongs to the location and the owner named on the application, so a change of address or ownership means a new application rather than an edit, and the sales tax account, the insurance evidence and the DLSM registration all have to describe the same room. Rent on a space the city will not clear for salon use is the most expensive mistake in this guide.

Insurance for a Minnesota esthetics studio

Minnesota writes an insurance floor into the salon license itself. Section 155A.29 makes evidence of continued professional liability insurance a condition of the salon license: at least $25,000 for each claim and $50,000 total coverage for each policy year, for each practitioner. That floor covers everyone working under the license, employees and room renters alike, which is one more reason the salon's policy and its roster of practitioners need to match on paper.

Treat the statutory floor as a floor, not a target. Chemical exfoliation and device based treatments are the services professional liability is priced for at the AP rung, and most landlords will name higher limits in the lease than the statute names. General liability for the premises and property coverage for treatment equipment and retail stock complete the standard stack.

Your Minnesota renewal calendar

Official sources

• Board of Cosmetology: licensing, salon applications and license lookup
• Minnesota Rules 2105.0145: esthetician and AP esthetician hours, tests and the ladder between them
• Minnesota Statutes 155A.25: license fees, penalties and expiration dates
• Minnesota Statutes 155A.29: salon licensing conditions, insurance floor and salon types
• Minnesota Statutes 155A.271: continuing education, 4 core hours plus 4 practice hours
• Board of Cosmetology: salon license application and the DLSM acknowledgment
• Secretary of State: business filing and certification fee schedule
• Minnesota Statutes 333.01 and 333.02: the assumed name certificate and publication
• Department of Employment and Economic Development: unemployment tax rates for 2026
• Department of Labor and Industry: 2026 minimum wage, state and city rates

Minnesota esthetics FAQ