How to Start a Barbershop in North Dakota

Who regulates barbershops in North Dakota

The licensing authority is the Board of Barber Examiners, a board of at least three members appointed by the governor from a list of five names submitted by the state barber association, each member a registered barber with at least five years of barbering in North Dakota. The board administers Century Code chapter 43-04, which licenses barbers in four categories, permits barber schools, licenses barbershops, registers mobile barbershops, and sets the fee schedule at section 43-04-42. Nothing about a barbershop runs through the State Board of Cosmetology, and the two systems touch at exactly one point: section 43-04-03 exempts licensed cosmetologists from the barber chapter, while forbidding an exempt person from advertising or holding out as a barber, which is the rule that decides how a hybrid shop may market itself.

The rest of the setup sits outside the board. The Secretary of State takes the Articles of Organization, the annual report, and trade name registrations through the FirstStop portal. The Office of State Tax Commissioner issues the sales and use tax permit and the withholding account through ND TAP. Job Service North Dakota runs unemployment insurance, and Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful source of workers compensation coverage in the state. Your city holds zoning, building and signage permits, and any local business license, on its own calendar.

North Dakota barbershop at a glance

The barber license, step by step

Section 43-04-01 defines the practice of barbering as shaving or trimming the beard or cutting the hair, facial and scalp massage and treatments, singeing, shampooing and dyeing the hair, applying hair tonics, and applying cosmetic preparations to the scalp, face, neck or upper body, when done for payment. Section 43-04-31 sets the personal qualifications: at least 18 years old, of good moral character and temperate habits, and a satisfactory examination. Section 43-04-32 then sets the two doors into that examination. An applicant qualifies by holding an active barber license in another state for at least one year, or by completing a minimum of 1,100 hours of training in sanitation, safety, laws and rules, including completion of hours at a licensed barbering school or a barbering program in a public school system. A barber school itself operates on a board permit at $125 a year under section 43-04-42.

One figure in this chapter traps applicants who read the wrong section, so this guide keeps it prominent. The endorsement waiver at section 43-04-38.1, which lets the board waive the examination for an experienced out of state barber, still speaks of graduation from an approved school requiring not less than 1,550 hours of instruction, with each year of later barbering experience counting as 200 hours toward that total, plus three years of full time practice and a $175 certificate fee. That 1,550 belongs to the waiver route only. A new North Dakota student takes the 1,100 hour route to the examination, and quoting 1,550 to a prospective student overstates the requirement by more than a third of a school year. Examinations run at least four times a year under section 43-04-33 and include a practical demonstration and written and oral tests; a failed applicant waits an additional three months before re-examination under section 43-04-35, and after a third failed attempt the board may require additional training. The fee schedule prices the examination and issuance of the master barber certificate together at $100.

The chapter's side categories solve staffing problems the standard license does not. A temporary barber license under section 43-04-31.3 runs at most three months from the verified graduation or training completion date and may be exercised only under a licensed barber's supervision until examination results arrive, which lets a new graduate start behind a chair instead of waiting at home. A restricted barber under section 43-04-31.2 works in a licensed host shop, may not own or operate a shop, and qualifies through a restricted barber course or a recent out of state license plus the written laws and rules examination. A retired barber license under section 43-04-31.4 serves a barber who is at least 65 or has practiced at least 20 years, capped at five working days a month, which is the category a founder uses to keep cutting two days a week after selling the shop. The board may also build continuing education into renewal: section 43-04-30.1 authorizes rules requiring barbers and instructors to complete at least six hours every two years, met before the August 1 deadline. Every certificate is displayed in a conspicuous place adjacent to or near the work chair under section 43-04-37.

The barbershop license for your premises

The shop holds an annual barbershop license priced at $50, paid by each shop owner in advance, under the fee schedule at section 43-04-42. The opening carries one extra charge that the renewal does not: each application to open or establish a barbershop must include a $100 fee covering inspection expenses. Restoration of an expired barbershop license costs a $20 penalty plus the annual license fee. Board members and inspectors may enter and inspect any barbershop, mobile barbershop or barber school at any time during business hours under section 43-04-44, so the license runs on an inspect at any time footing rather than an appointment cycle.

The premises rule at section 43-04-43 is old law with daily consequences: no room used for barbering may also be used for residential purposes or for another business purpose outside the retail items the section lists for a barbershop, unless a substantial partition extending to the ceiling separates the uses. The same section names the classic exceptions, and a barbershop may operate in conjunction with a beauty shop, a shoe shining parlor or a laundry reception agency without the partition. That beauty shop exception is the provision a combined salon and barbershop builds on, read together with the cosmetology exemption: the two licenses can share a room, but the marketing may not blur them, and section 43-04-49 adds the symbol to the rule, because a person who is not authorized to practice barbering, or to employ or lease space to a barber, may neither advertise as a barber nor place a barber pole where it would suggest the business is a barbershop.

The mobile route is statutory rather than improvised. Section 43-04-43.1 permits a mobile barbershop operated by a licensed barber and registered with the board, in a vehicle or trailer that is self-contained, self-supporting and enclosed and at least 16 feet long, with the shop name and registration number displayed on a conspicuous exterior surface. Registration costs $150 initially and $100 on renewal. For an owner weighing a second location against a truck, the comparison the statute draws is $150 plus $100 a year for the registered vehicle against $50 a year and a lease for the fixed shop, with the same barber licenses behind the chairs in both.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most North Dakota barbershops form a limited liability company under Century Code chapter 10-32.1, and formation is a single filing: Articles of Organization submitted to the Secretary of State through the FirstStop portal for $135. The articles name the company and its registered agent and office in the state.

A corporation is the main alternative at $100 for Articles of Incorporation and a $25 annual report due August 1, and sole proprietors file no annual report at all. The LLC remains the default for a shop with a lease, employees and retail inventory, because it separates the owner's personal assets from the business at a $135 entry price and a $50 yearly keep, and because the entity, not the owner personally, is the shop owner that pays the barbershop license in advance each year.

Registering your shop name

North Dakota registers trading names at the state level as trade names under Century Code chapter 47-25. A business using a name other than the name registered with the Secretary of State must file a Trade Name Registration, which covers the shop that forms an LLC under one name and trades under a shorter storefront name, as well as the sole proprietor cutting under a shop name of his own. An LLC or corporation trading under its exact registered name needs no second filing, because that name is already on file with the Secretary of State.

Registration costs $25 through the FirstStop portal, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation at $10. Keep the name identical across the trade name registration, the barbershop license, the sales tax permit and the bank account.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. A shop with employees needs one before the first payroll, because federal withholding, the Job Service unemployment account, Workforce Safety and Insurance coverage, and new hire reporting all key off the business identity it anchors.

Sales tax: retail yes, services no

North Dakota's sales tax is a tax on retail sales, and the distinction runs in a barbershop's favor. The Office of State Tax Commissioner imposes sales tax on retail sales at a 5 percent state rate for most sales, plus city and county taxes where they apply, paid by the purchaser and collected by the seller.

The retail shelf is the other half of the rule. Pomade, tonics and any other tangible personal property sold to a client are taxable retail sales at the combined rate for the shop's location, which is why a shop with retail holds a sales and use tax permit and registers and files through ND TAP, the Tax Commissioner's Taxpayer Access Point.

Chair rent in North Dakota: no barber booth license

The barber chapter has no booth or renter license, and the contrast with the cosmetology system across the same street is the point worth learning. A cosmetology chair renter in North Dakota holds a $150 independent licensee license from the cosmetology board; a barber renting a chair holds his barber certificate, displays it by his work chair under section 43-04-37, and works inside the host shop's barbershop license.

Classification therefore turns on the general law rather than a board credential. Whether a chair arrangement is a genuine rental or employment in substance follows the working facts, who sets the schedule, the prices and the client relationship, who supplies the tools and products, and how the money moves.

Hiring barbers: wages, unemployment and reporting

The North Dakota minimum wage is $7.25 an hour under section 34-06-22, unchanged since July 24, 2009 and equal to the federal rate, with a tipped cash wage of $4.86 an hour for employees who receive tips. Overtime runs at one and one half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek. Most shop barbers are paid by commission or chair rent rather than by the hour, but the wage floor governs any hourly arrangement and the classification analysis in the chair rent section governs which side of the line a barber sits on.

The payroll number that surprises out of state owners is the unemployment insurance wage base. Job Service North Dakota sets the taxable wage base at 70 percent of the statewide average wage, which produces $46,600 per employee for 2026, among the highest bases in the country. The rate on that base starts low: a new non-construction employer pays 1.00 percent with a positive balance, before experience rating moves it within a published range of 0.07 percent to 9.67 percent.

One employment habit North Dakota forbids outright is the noncompete. Section 9-08-06 provides that a contract by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void, and its only exceptions are a covenant tied to the sale of the goodwill of a business and covenants among partners, members or shareholders on a dissolution or ownership split. A departing barber takes his hands and his clientele lawfully, so a shop's retention has to be built from chair economics, walk-in flow, retail commission and the book building support that makes staying worth more than leaving.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

The state licenses the shop; the city decides where it can be. Zoning approval for a personal services use, any city business license your locality requires, building and signage permits, and occupancy inspections run through the city or county where the premises sit. The local sales tax add-on that applies to your retail sales is also set locally, so the combined rate programmed into the register is a fact about your address. Treat the local layer as a set of calls to make in the specific town before signing a lease, because a permitted use letter costs nothing before the lease and a variance fight costs the opening after it.

Premises facts carry state licensing consequences as well. The partition rule at section 43-04-43 decides what may share your room, and it is a state inspector, entering at any time during business hours under section 43-04-44, who reads the room against it. A shop that adds a residence, a retail line outside the listed barbershop items, or an unrelated business inside the same room needs the ceiling height partition or a different floor plan. The beauty shop exception is the one planned combination that needs no partition, which is why combined salon and barbershop builds in North Dakota start from that sentence of the statute and work outward with both boards' applications in hand.

Insurance for a North Dakota barbershop

Nothing in chapter 43-04 conditions the barber or barbershop licenses on carrying liability insurance, so general and professional liability coverage is a business judgment rather than a licensing step. Workers compensation is the exception, and North Dakota runs it unlike almost anywhere else: the state is a monopolistic state fund state, Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful seller of workers compensation coverage, private carriers cannot write the policy, and the employer account must be opened before employees start. WSI coverage does not include employer liability protection, so the standard completion is a stop gap endorsement added to the general liability policy.

The voluntary stack around that core is general liability for the premises, professional liability matched to barbering services including razor work, and property coverage for chairs, equipment and retail inventory. Owners using the chair rent model should require each renter to carry his own professional liability policy and prove it at signing and renewal, because the renter works inside the host shop's license and premises, and a claim arising from his chair will arrive addressed to the shop as readily as to the barber. A renter can also seek a Workforce Safety and Insurance determination of independent contractor status through its verification application, which runs one year at a time and settles the coverage question for that renter in writing.

What it costs to open a North Dakota barbershop

The state level costs of opening are legible in North Dakota because the barber chapter prints its whole price list at section 43-04-42. On the licensing side: $100 for each barber's examination and master barber certificate, $50 a year for the barbershop license, and a one time $100 inspection fee with the application to open the shop. On the formation side: $135 to file the Articles of Organization, $25 for a trade name registration if the shop trades under a name beyond its legal entity name, and nothing for the EIN or the sales tax permit application itself. Recurring state costs run on the calendar in the next section: barber renewals at $100 a head each July 1, the $50 shop license, the $50 LLC annual report each November 15, and the sales tax the register collects on retail sales only. A mobile build substitutes the $150 registration and $100 renewal for the shop license while keeping every other figure. Everything beyond the schedules, build out, chairs, equipment and deposits, is market cost, priced locally.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of a North Dakota barbershop year is a summer and a fall: July 1 carries every barber and the shop, November 15 carries the company, and the quarterly payroll and sales tax filings run underneath both.

Official sources

• Century Code chapter 43-04: the barbering statute, with the practice definition at section 43-04-01, examination eligibility at section 43-04-32, renewal at section 43-04-39, and the fee schedule at section 43-04-42.
• Century Code chapter 43-11: the cosmetology statute, for the exemption of licensed cosmetologists under chapter 43-04 and the separate cosmetology system next door.
• Secretary of State, limited liability companies: the $135 Articles of Organization fee, the $50 annual report and the November 15 deadline.
• Office of State Tax Commissioner, tax types: the 5 percent state sales tax on retail sales, use tax, and ND TAP registration.
• Job Service North Dakota, 2026 tax rate schedules: the $46,600 taxable wage base and the 1.00 percent new employer rate.
• Century Code section 9-08-06: the statute voiding contracts in restraint of a lawful profession, trade or business, with its sale of business and dissolution exceptions.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

North Dakota barbershop FAQ