How to Start an Esthetics Business in North Dakota

Who regulates esthetics in North Dakota

The licensing authority is the State Board of Cosmetology, administering Century Code chapter 43-11 as amended by House Bill 1126 effective January 1, 2026. The board licenses estheticians and advanced estheticians alongside cosmetologists and manicurists, licenses the schools and establishments, and licenses independent licensees working inside them. For esthetics the board's most consequential act was legislative: before 2026 the chapter knew one skin license, and the advanced tier, its grandfather route and its device gates all arrived with House Bill 1126, which is why secondary sources printed before that date describe a shallower system than the one a new studio actually opens under.

The boundaries around the board matter as much as its licenses. Microblading and permanent makeup are cosmetic tattooing under the Department of Health and Human Services Body Art Code, never esthetics, and the microblading guide takes that framework up on its own. Work that crosses into medicine, ablative procedures and anything the chapter reserves to medical practice, sits outside the board's licenses altogether, and section 43-11-27.2 limits practice under the chapter to noninvasive care. Around the board sit the Secretary of State for the entity and trade name, the Tax Commissioner for the sales tax permit through ND TAP, Job Service North Dakota for unemployment insurance, Workforce Safety and Insurance for workers compensation, and your city for zoning and permits.

North Dakota esthetics at a glance

The esthetician and advanced esthetician licenses, step by step

The base license first. Section 43-11-16 sets the esthetician course at 600 hours in a board approved program; the applicant must be at least 16 and have completed at least a tenth grade education or its equivalent, and licensure follows the examinations under section 43-11-21 on payment of the $50 original licensure fee at section 43-11-28. The esthetics definition at section 43-11-01 is generous on the surface and strict at depth: it includes skin care, the application of cosmetics, eyelashes and eyelash extensions, and the perming, laminating, tinting or lightening of brows, lashes and other body hair, and it excludes any procedure invading living tissue below the stratum corneum, threading hair removal, and advanced esthetic procedures. A facial menu lives comfortably inside it; a treatment menu built on devices does not, which is the gap the second license exists to close.

The advanced esthetician license takes 1,100 hours of training under the same section, and the statute builds two bridges into it. The first bridge is credit: a cosmetology or esthetician student or licensee may receive up to 600 hours of credit toward the advanced esthetics requirements as allowed by rule under section 43-11-16, so an esthetician returning to school does not start from zero. The second bridge is the grandfather route at section 43-11-26.1, open until December 31, 2027, for a North Dakota cosmetologist or esthetician with at least one year of practical experience immediately preceding January 1, 2026. That applicant files with a board approved 4 hour safety and infection control training, an active OSHA bloodborne pathogens certification, an active board approved first aid and CPR certification, and one of two experience proofs: a notarized affidavit of at least 300 hours of actual service work under the direct supervision of a licensed physician, physician assistant or nurse within the prior five years, or proof of 150 hours of board approved advanced esthetics training. Anyone outside the route, including everyone licensed after the window matters, completes 500 hours of advanced esthetics training in a board approved program. The window is the planning fact of this guide: an experienced esthetician who might ever want the advanced license should price the grandfather file now, because after December 31, 2027 the same license costs a 500 hour program.

The license is not the last gate for the services that justify it. Section 43-11-26.2 requires additional board approved training and certification applications before an advanced esthetician uses microneedling pens, rollers or devices, nonablative devices, or advanced chemical peels, so each service category opens with its own approved training and application on file. Above the whole structure sits the ceiling: ablative procedures may not be performed by cosmetologists, estheticians, advanced estheticians or manicurists at all under section 43-11-01, and practice under the chapter is limited to noninvasive care by section 43-11-27.2. Both licenses expire December 31 and renew at $50 on form SFN 61745, with a $50 penalty per license paid or postmarked late, reinstatement on the section 43-11-29 ladder, the law, rules and regulations examination added after a year, and a fresh initial application after five years. The master esthetician, who supervises skin care salons, takes at least 1,000 hours of practice as an esthetician under a master cosmetologist or master esthetician under section 43-11-26. Continuing education joins the file from the 2028 renewal cycle, at least 4 board approved hours annually per licensee under Administrative Code section 32-05-01-01, with 12 hours for instructors.

The establishment license for your premises

An esthetics studio of your own takes the establishment license, $150 originally and $100 on annual renewal, expiring December 31, under section 43-11-28. The application is form SFN 11795, the original must be notarized and submitted two weeks before the opening date, and the business name must already be registered with the Secretary of State as a trade name, an LLC, an LLP, or a corporation. Section 43-11-15 allows an establishment to be owned by any person authorized to do business in the state, licensed or not, and section 43-11-37 requires each new establishment to be inspected, with routine inspections afterward and a reinspection fee capped at $75.

Supervision is written for this exact business type. Administrative Code section 32-03-01-07 requires every salon to be supervised by a master licensee present on the premises during business hours, and it assigns a salon providing only skin care to a master cosmetologist or a master esthetician, responsible for the operation, conduct and management of the salon. A solo esthetician opening her own room therefore has a credential to earn or hire before opening day, the master esthetician's 1,000 supervised hours, and the rule's companion duty helps the pipeline: salons must provide documented hours for master license applications on request. The establishment holder also carries any renters by default, answering for the safety and sanitation of the entire premises, with an unlicensed renter's room falling under the establishment license itself. Establishment licenses expire December 31 under section 43-11-29.1, reinstate within one year on the late fee plus the renewal fee, and after twelve months the establishment reapplies with late penalties of $100 per year expired.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most North Dakota esthetics businesses 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.

The annual obligation runs on a fixed statewide date rather than an anniversary. The LLC annual report costs $50 and is due November 15, and a report filed after November 15 draws a $50 late fee.

Registering your business name

North Dakota registers trading names at the state level as trade names under Century Code chapter 47-25, and the cosmetology board makes the filing a licensing step rather than a branding preference. The establishment application will not proceed on an unregistered name: the business name must be registered as a trade name, LLC, LLP, or corporation with the Secretary of State before the board licenses the premises under it.

The filing is cheap and long lived. Registration costs $25 through the FirstStop portal, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation priced at $10.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. A studio 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, and a solo practitioner uses it on wholesale and device accounts in place of a Social Security number.

Sales tax: retail yes, services no

North Dakota's sales tax is a tax on retail sales, and the distinction runs in an esthetics studio'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, and skincare retail is the profit center of this trade, which makes the split worth programming carefully. Cleansers, serums and full regimens sold to a client are taxable retail sales at the combined rate for the studio's location, so a studio with retail holds a sales and use tax permit, registers and files through ND TAP, and keeps product bought for resale separate from the back bar product consumed in treatments.

Renting a treatment room: the independent licensee

North Dakota licenses the rented treatment room directly, and for estheticians the arrangement is fully spelled out. Section 43-11-01 defines an independent licensee as a licensed individual who maintains a separate license and practices esthetics, advanced esthetics, cosmetology or manicuring at a location within, but separate from, a cosmetology establishment, bound by the same provisions of the chapter as an establishment.

The rules let an independent licensee work under a lease agreement within the establishment and at various temporary or offsite locations, subject to the board's rules for practice outside a licensed establishment under section 43-11-11. For an advanced esthetician the rental model has one extra wrinkle worth a conversation with the host before signing: the device and peel services ride on her personal license and her section 43-11-26.2 training files, while the room sits inside the host's establishment license and sanitation responsibility, so the lease should say whose equipment it is, who maintains it, and whose insurance answers for it.

Hiring estheticians: 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. Commission estheticians are employees when the studio controls their schedules, prices and clients, and the room rent section above explains the licensed marker that separates a genuine renter from a misclassified one.

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. An esthetician's book walks with her, lawfully, so studios keep their people the durable way: documented hours toward the master license, funded training toward the advanced license and its device gates, and a treatment menu and retail program that make the studio's chair worth more than a rented room across town.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

The state licenses the studio; 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, on the local calendar rather than the board calendar. 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. Studios planning device work should sequence the local conversation early, because electrical and plumbing changes for treatment rooms run through permits, and the board's establishment inspection sits at the end of that chain, not the beginning.

Premises facts carry state licensing consequences as well. The establishment license attaches to the business at its address, the board charges $20 for a business name change, and ownership changes bring the establishment back through application and inspection under section 43-11-37, so a move, a second location or a buyout is a licensing event and not just a lease event. Practice away from the premises is not forbidden: section 43-11-11 allows practice outside a licensed establishment under board rules. A home based studio is an establishment like any other for licensing purposes, inspected on the same cycle, and the local zoning answer for a residence based business is the gate most home studios actually fail, which is why the zoning call comes before the notarized application, not after it.

Insurance for a North Dakota esthetics business

Nothing in chapter 43-11 conditions the studio licenses on carrying liability insurance, so general and professional liability coverage is a business judgment rather than a licensing step, and in this trade it is the judgment that matters most after the license itself, because advanced peels and devices produce the claims. Workers compensation is the regulated exception: North Dakota 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 written for the actual menu, with the device and peel services named rather than assumed, because a policy bought for facials and read loosely at claim time is the expensive version of this lesson, and property coverage for devices, beds and retail inventory. Owners who rent rooms should require each independent licensee to carry her own professional liability policy and prove it at signing and renewal, matched to the services her license and training files actually authorize. The establishment holder answers for sanitation across the whole premises under the board's allocation, and insurance is where that responsibility becomes financial rather than theoretical.

What it costs to open a North Dakota esthetics business

The state level costs of opening are legible in North Dakota because nearly all of them sit in published schedules. On the licensing side: $50 for the esthetician license, $50 for the advanced esthetician license when you take it, $150 for the establishment license or for each independent licensee renting a room, and renewals at $50 per person and $100 for the premises level license, all landing on December 31. The grandfather route, while it lasts, is priced in hours rather than fees: a 4 hour safety and infection control training plus certifications and either the supervised service affidavit or 150 hours of approved training, against the 500 hour program that replaces it after December 31, 2027. On the formation side: $135 to file the Articles of Organization, $25 for a trade name registration if the business 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, and everything beyond the schedules, devices, beds, build out and first inventory, is market cost, priced locally and through your suppliers.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of an esthetics year in North Dakota is two December dates and a November one: the grandfather window closes December 31, 2027, every license renews each December 31, and the company reports each November 15, with quarterly filings underneath.

Official sources

• Century Code chapter 43-11: the cosmetology statute as amended by House Bill 1126, with the esthetics definitions at section 43-11-01, the 600 and 1,100 hour courses at section 43-11-16, the grandfather route at section 43-11-26.1 and the device gates at section 43-11-26.2.
• State Board of Cosmetology: the establishment application SFN 11795, the independent licensee application SFN 60681, and the renewal form SFN 61745 with the $50 per license late penalty.
• Administrative Code chapter 32-05-01: licensee renewal and the continuing education requirement of 4 hours annually from the 2028 cycle, with 12 hours for instructors.
• 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.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

North Dakota esthetics FAQ