How to Start a Barbershop in South Carolina

Who licenses barbershops in South Carolina

Barbershops answer to the Board of Barber Examiners, inside the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, under Title 40 Chapter 7 of the South Carolina Code, with the complete fee schedule published in Regulation 10-6. The board registers registered barbers, Master Hair Care Specialists, barber assistants, barber instructors, barbershops, mobile barbershops and barber colleges, and it also runs the hair braider registration covered in the braiding guide in this cluster. Registration is the statute's own word, and this guide keeps it, because the apprentice structure below only makes sense in the board's own vocabulary.

The split from cosmetology is total. The Board of Cosmetology, one floor of the same department, licenses hair salons under Chapter 13 on a March 10 practitioner calendar, while barber registrations renew on a biennial June 30 cycle. A shop owner who hires across the line, a cosmetologist cutting in a barbershop or a barber working a salon chair, is dealing with two credentials, two fee schedules and two renewal dates, plus the crossover rules the practitioner section describes.

South Carolina barbershop at a glance

The registered barber credential, step by step

South Carolina offers three roads into the barber chair, and the board's licensure page prices the entrance to all of them the same way: a student permit application at $35, on a ninth grade education. The school route is 1,500 hours in an approved barber college. The high school route is 1,540 hours in a board approved high school program. The shop route is 1,920 hours of on-the-job training in a licensed barbershop under a licensed barber instructor, the longest route and the one that builds the apprenticeship logic below into the training itself. All three end at the NIC theory and practical examinations, with a passing score of 70 percent.

Passing is not the finish. Under Section 40-7-230, the board first issues a certificate of registration as a registered barber apprentice, and the apprentice practices for 12 months under the direct supervision of a registered barber before the unrestricted license issues, with the on-the-job hours proven by affidavit. Regulation 10-6 prices the step up: $80 to move from apprentice to Registered Barber, $100 to move to Master Hair Care Specialist. Renewals then run on the board's biennial cycle, due June 30, at $125 for a registered barber, $150 for a Master Hair Care Specialist and $140 for an instructor on the board's current renewal application, and applications postmarked after the deadline carry an added reinstatement charge per license.

Two neighboring credentials complete the staffing picture. The Master Hair Care Specialist is the chemical credential: under Section 40-7-260, only a licensed specialist may use chemicals to wave, relax, straighten or bleach hair in a barbershop. A registered barber reaches it by passing written and practical exams on chemical services, and a cosmetologist reaches it three ways, including meeting the board's education requirements with a board exam, or bringing two or more years of cosmetology experience to a practical exam that includes a basic tapered haircut. The Barber Assistant is the support credential: age 16 or older, a $35 student permit, 240 hours of training in shampooing and manicures, the Barber Assistant exam at a $90 application fee, and work only under the direct supervision of a licensed registered barber. An instructor, for shops that train, needs three years licensed as a registered barber or specialist, the apprenticeship year excluded, plus the NIC instructor exams.

The barbershop permit and the designated manager

The barbershop permit is the premises credential, and Regulation 10-6 prices it at a $250 application fee with renewal at $125 on the biennial cycle, the same price for a mobile barbershop. The board's licensure page adds the two attachments owners forget: documented proof of the shop's federal tax ID, the EIN, and a designated manager. The manager must be a licensed registered barber, Master Hair Care Specialist or barber instructor, and that person carries responsibility for the shop's compliance with Chapter 7. The license issues on a satisfactory inspection of the premises.

Changes are priced like a second licensing system in miniature. A change of barbershop owner costs $250 and a change of location costs $250, the full application fee again, while a change of name and a change of manager cost $10 each. The practical reading for buyers: purchasing an existing barbershop does not transfer its permit at a discount, and relocating one is a new permit event, so both transactions belong in the purchase budget beside the lease. Reinstatement of a lapsed shop permit runs $150 under the same regulation, which makes the June 30 renewal the cheapest date on the shop's calendar.

Forming your business entity

Most South Carolina barbershops form as a limited liability company under Title 33 Chapter 44. Articles of Organization are filed with the Secretary of State, online through Business Entities Online or on paper, and the filing fee set by Section 33-44-1204 is $110. The articles name the company, its registered office and its registered agent, and the name must carry a limited liability company designator. Note the order of operations the barbershop permit imposes: the permit application wants documented proof of the shop's federal tax ID, so the entity and the EIN come before the shop paperwork, not after the lease is decorated.

A standard South Carolina LLC then files nothing annual. Chapter 44 contains no annual report provision, so there is no yearly report and no yearly fee to the Secretary of State. The exception is an LLC that elects to be taxed as a corporation, which reports to the Department of Revenue instead: an initial report on Form CL-1 for $25 and an annual license fee with its corporate return, with a statutory minimum of $25. A sole proprietor barber files nothing with the Secretary of State at all, and the names section below explains what that means for the shop's trading name.

Business names in a state with no DBA filing

South Carolina has no DBA filing to make. The Secretary of State's business entities FAQ answers the question directly: the Secretary of State's Office does not register DBA or trade names. There is no statewide registration for a sole proprietor, a partnership, an LLC or a corporation, and no county office takes the filing instead. The only assumed name filing at the Secretary of State belongs to limited partnerships under Section 33-42-45.

The same FAQ separates the neighboring licenses: the Secretary of State does not issue retail licenses, which come from the Department of Revenue, or business licenses, which are issued at the city and county level. A barbershop's trading name therefore lives in the records that do exist: the trade name line on the federal EIN application, which the barbershop permit application then asks you to document, the Act 176 local business license, and the Department of Revenue accounts. Keep the name identical across the permit, the EIN paperwork, the local license and the signage, because each of those offices compares the name in front of it against a different record.

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. For a barbershop the EIN is not just a tax formality: the barbershop permit application requires documented proof of the federal tax ID, so the number has to exist, in the entity's exact legal name, before the shop permit can be completed.

Open the business bank account as soon as the entity and the EIN exist, and run every fee, product order, chair rent receipt and tax deposit through it. Quarterly unemployment wage reports, sales tax returns on the retail shelf, the biennial shop renewal and the spring local license all assume the shop 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

South Carolina taxes retail sales of tangible personal property and only a short statutory list of services, and barbering is not on the list. A haircut, a shave and a beard trim are not taxable sales, so no sales tax is collected on the service ticket. The statewide rate is 6 percent, with local option taxes added by counties and cities on the sales that are taxable.

The retail shelf is the taxable side of the shop. Pomade, shampoo and other take home products you sell are retail sales at 6 percent plus the local taxes at your address, and selling them requires a retail license from the Department of Revenue: $50 for each permanent retail location, non-refundable, and it does not expire. Apply through the Business Tax Application on MyDORWAY, and the same registration supports your withholding account when you hire. Buy resale inventory without paying tax under the retail license, and expect the mirror rule on your own purchases: clippers, shop supplies and the products the shop consumes are taxable purchases, because nothing about them is resold. Keep services and products on separate lines at the register.

Chair rent in a South Carolina barbershop

Chair rent in a barbershop runs on the shop permit rather than beside it. Chapter 7's credential list has no booth renter license, that credential belongs to the cosmetology board, so a barber renting a chair needs their own current registration at the right level, registered barber for cuts, Master Hair Care Specialist for chemical work, and the shop's permit covers the premises they work in. The designated manager's compliance responsibility covers everyone cutting in the room, renters included, which is why a South Carolina barbershop keeps a copy of every chair renter's registration with the shop's own permit file.

The apprenticeship rule reaches into the rental market too. A barber still in the 12 month apprentice year practices under the direct supervision of a registered barber, so an apprentice cannot be handed a rented chair and a key as an independent operator; the supervision has to be real and present in the shop. The tax classification question runs on control, as it does everywhere in this series: a renter who sets their own prices, keeps their own book and pays a set rent reads as a tenant, and the written agreement should match that reality. A renter who instead wants their own door and their own storefront identity has left the permit's shelter, and the salon suite guide in this cluster explains the premises license that structure needs on the cosmetology side.

Hiring employees in South Carolina

Your first hire registers the shop as a South Carolina employer on two tracks. The Department of Employment and Workforce takes the employer registration through its SUITS portal, on the Employer Status Report, Form UCE-151, and the Department of Revenue takes the withholding registration. Unemployment insurance runs on the first $14,000 of each employee's wages, and for 2026 a new employer is assigned rate class 30: a 1.00 percent base rate plus the 0.06 percent Departmental Administrative Contingency Assessment, a 1.06 percent total, until the business has 12 months of liability and becomes experience rated. Experienced employer total rates for 2026 run from 0.06 percent to 5.46 percent.

South Carolina sets no state minimum wage, so the federal floor governs: $7.25 an hour, with the federal tipped cash wage of $2.13 an hour where tips bring the total to $7.25, and a 2017 state law preempts any higher local wage ordinance. Pay practice is regulated under the state Payment of Wages Act, Title 41 Chapter 10, administered by LLR. The barber specific hiring fact sits above the payroll paperwork: a new graduate's first year is the supervised apprenticeship, so a shop hiring fresh talent is also supplying the registered barber supervision the credential requires, and staffing the schedule around that is a licensing decision, not just a rota.

Local rules for a South Carolina barbershop

Act 176 of 2020, the Business License Tax Standardization Act at Sections 6-1-400 through 6-1-420, standardized the local business license across South Carolina. Every city and town, and every county for unincorporated areas, that levies a business license tax must use the standard application, and the license year runs May 1 to April 30 everywhere, with every license expiring April 30. The tax is computed on the business's gross income for the preceding calendar year, projected or estimated for a new shop.

What the Act left local is the price: jurisdictions adopt the Standardized Business License Class Schedule by ordinance and set their own rates inside it, so no statewide dollar figure exists and the honest answer is the ordinance for your address. A shop owes a separate license in each jurisdiction where it operates, and the renewal lands every spring on the same date statewide. Zoning, occupancy and sign rules sit underneath: barbershops are a visible, walk in retail use, and the shop permit's inspection assumes a premises the city has already cleared for the use. Get the zoning answer in writing before the lease is signed, because a change of location costs a fresh $250 permit on the state side as well.

Insurance for a South Carolina barbershop

Chapter 7 does not write an insurance floor into the barbershop permit, so the shop's coverage is set by risk and by contract. Professional liability is the core policy for a room built on razors, clippers and, in specialist shops, chemical services, and the chair rent structure makes the roster question concrete: the shop's policy, each renter's own coverage and the permit's manager responsibility describe overlapping people, so the names on the policies should match the registrations on the wall.

General liability for the premises and property coverage for chairs, tools and retail stock complete the standard stack, and landlords routinely name their own limits and additional insured requirements in the lease. Keep the certificates filed beside the shop permit and the manager designation, so an inspector or a new manager can see the whole compliance picture in one folder.

Your South Carolina renewal calendar

Official sources

• Board of Barber Examiners: licensure routes, shop permits and manager requirements
• Board of Cosmetology: the separate Chapter 13 board, for crossover comparison
• Secretary of State: business entities FAQ, including the trade name and licensing answers
• Department of Revenue: the retail license, $50 per location
• Department of Employment and Workforce: 2026 tax rates and the $14,000 wage base
• South Carolina Code Title 6 Chapter 1: business license tax standardization, Act 176

South Carolina barbershop FAQ