How to open a nail salon

This guide takes a nail technician or investor from license to first clients: training hours and salon licenses in California, Texas, Florida and New York, pedicure sanitation, ventilation, chemicals, staffing and marketing. The most useful finding is that the pedicure cleaning log is a legal record: California and Florida require one for every tub, California lets clients ask to see it, and the rule exists because of a 2000 outbreak of skin boils traced to salon footspas.

By Niomi AscotUpdated October 3, 202615 min read

Technician training: 400 hours in California, 600 in Texas, 180 in Florida
Salon license: California $50 to apply; Texas specialty establishment $78; New York $60 for four years
Pedicure logs: Required after every client in California and Florida; a Texas form in three languages
California 2025 ban: Added DBP and formaldehyde barred from cosmetics; toluene is not on the list
Renting stations: California's manicurist exemption from the ABC test ends January 1, 2029
Local Services Ads: Nail Salon listed for California and Florida only; no Verified badge

What a nail salon is, and the formats people open

Census defines NAICS 812113 as “establishments primarily engaged in providing nail care services, such as manicures, pedicures, and nail extensions” (Census, 2022 NAICS descriptions). Within that, the formats we see:

A full-service salon with pedicure chairs and manicure tables, walk-ins and bookings, and technicians on commission or hourly pay.
A booked studio built around gel, extensions and nail art, usually one to three technicians.
A suite or station rental. Texas licenses a rented suite as a “Mini-Establishment” inside a licensed shop (TDLR mini-establishment FAQ), while California issues “Only one establishment license” per address, to the owner (California BBC FAQs).
Express and mobile service. BLS ties growth to “mini-sessions (quick manicures at a low cost) and mobile manicures and pedicures” (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). Florida licenses mobile salons under its salon statute (Florida Statutes 477.025).

Most nail businesses are very small. County Business Patterns for 2023 counts 34,417 nail salons with paid employees, 148,059 employees between them, and 66% with fewer than five (Census CBP 2023). Another 295,977 nail businesses had no paid employees at all, roughly 8.6 for every salon with staff (Census Nonemployer Statistics 2023).

The outlook for nail technicians

BLS figures published through O*NET for Manicurists and Pedicurists (O*NET 39-5092.00):

Measure	Figure
Employed, 2024	210,100
Median pay, 2025	$17.19 an hour, $35,760 a year
Projected growth, 2024 to 2034	Much faster than average (7% or higher)
Projected openings, 2024 to 2034	24,800

The Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 201,800 jobs in 2025 and projects 9% growth from 2025 to 2035, with 23% of technicians self-employed and 76% working in personal care services. Its explanation for the demand: “Considered a low-cost luxury service, manicures and pedicures will continue to be in demand by individuals at all income levels” (BLS).

Licensing: the technician and the salon

Rules that apply everywhere

States license the people. BLS: “Manicurists and pedicurists must complete a state-approved cosmetology or nail technician program and then pass a state exam for licensure.” Most states license the salon separately.

The FDA covers products only. “While FDA regulates the nail products intended for use at home and in salons, state and local authorities regulate the operation of nail salons and the licensing of manicurists and nail technicians” (FDA nail care products). Under the 2022 cosmetics law a salon is not a registered “facility” unless it “manufactures or processes cosmetic products at that location” (21 U.S.C. 364).

Methyl methacrylate. In the 1970s the FDA received “complaints of injury associated with the use of artificial nails containing methyl methacrylate monomer.” Today “No regulation specifically prohibits the use of methyl methacrylate monomer in cosmetic products,” and it “is still used occasionally in some artificial nail products” (FDA). Some states ban it in salons, New York among them (below); check your own board’s rules before buying acrylic liquid.

Four states side by side

State	Agency	Technician license and salon license	Key requirements, as the agency states them
California	Board of Barbering and Cosmetology	Manicurist, 400 hours; establishment license $50, renewal $40	Footspa cleaned after each client and logged; five liners per tub if liners are used; one establishment license per address
Texas	Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation	Manicurist, 600 hours; specialty establishment $78 for two years	Autoclave, dry heat sterilizer or UV sanitizer for nail services; ventilation with fresh air; foot spa cleaning record
Florida	Department of Business and Professional Regulation	Nail specialist registration, 180 hours; specialty salon license	Separate ventilated area for enhancements; pedicure log kept in the pedicure area; weekly bleach soak
New York	Department of State	Nail specialty license, $40; appearance enhancement business license, $60 for four years	Bond or liability insurance; gloves and facemasks provided; no MMA

Fees here are as of October 2026.

California: logs, liners and the owner’s license

A manicurist trains “400 hours” before the exam, and working before licensure “can subject you to a citation and fine” (California BBC FAQs). The establishment license goes only to the owner, is tied to the address, costs “$50” to apply and “$40” to renew, and its application quotes the law that makes hiring an unlicensed technician a misdemeanor (California BBC establishment application). Inspections are random, and an unlicensed shop “carries a $1,000 fine.”

The footspa rules are the core of a California inspection. “After use upon each client, each whirlpool footspa or air-jet basin shall be cleaned and disinfected in the following sequential manner”: drain, scrub, rinse, refill, then circulate an “EPA-registered hospital-liquid disinfectant that is labeled as a bactericide, fungicide and virucide” for “at least 10 minutes,” drain and dry, and “Record this procedure in the pedicure equipment-cleaning log.” A separate procedure runs at the end of each day, and “At least once each week” disinfectant stays in the unit overnight (16 CCR 980.1). Liners “shall be disposed of immediately after each use,” the log “shall be made available upon request by either a client or a board representative,” and a salon using liners keeps “five (5) liners per foot tub basin” on hand (16 CCR 980.4).

The board explains why in its consumer fact sheet: “In October 2000, county health officials in California received complaints about a large outbreak of skin boils from customers who soaked their feet in footspas” (California BBC footspa fact sheet). Among its common citations are tool disinfection, fined “$100.00 - $500.00,” and failing to discard single-use items such as “buffers, pumice stone, wax sticks, toe separators, gloves, cotton pads, sponges, emery boards” (California BBC common violations).

Texas: 600 hours and a sterilizer on the floor

A Texas manicurist completes “a Manicurist course consisting of 600 hours of instruction” and passes written and practical exams, and a combined manicurist and esthetician license needs “an 800 hour Manicurist/Esthetician course” (TDLR Manicurist). The salon holds a specialty establishment license at “$78,” “valid for two years from the date of issue” (TDLR establishment license).

Every Texas shop offering nail services needs “an autoclave, dry heat sterilizer or ultraviolet sanitizer” and ventilation with “input of fresh air to keep chemical fumes away from the public area,” and each manicurist needs a “Manicure station with sufficient lighting” and a client chair (TDLR equipment). TDLR publishes “Cleaning procedures after each client” with a downloadable “foot spa cleaning record” in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, citing rule 83.108 for liners and non-whirlpool basins (TDLR foot spa cleaning). Its ten most frequent violations include failing “to prepare fresh disinfectant daily” and products not labeled “in compliance with OSHA requirements” (TDLR common violations).

Florida: a short registration and a strict salon rule

Florida registers nail specialists after “One hundred and eighty hours of training,” focused “primarily on sanitation and safety” (Florida Statutes 477.0201). A “Specialty salon” is any place where one or more specialties are practiced (Florida Statutes 477.013), and none may operate “without a license issued by the department” (Florida Statutes 477.025). DBPR says nail services “must be performed in a licensed salon” (Florida Board of Cosmetology), which limits house calls.

The salon rule sets the floor plan. Nail extension and sculpting work must happen “in a separate area which is adequately ventilated for the safe dispersion of all fumes”; a specialty salon “need not have a shampoo bowl, but must have a sink or lavatory equipped with hot and cold running water”; pedicure equipment is disinfected “After each client” for “at least ten (10) minutes,” cleaned at day’s end, and soaked “Once each week” with “one teaspoon of 5.25% bleach for each gallon of water”; and “A record or log book containing the dates and times of all pedicure cleaning and disinfection procedures must be documented and kept in the pedicure area” (Florida rule 61G5-20.002).

New York: two licenses, a bond and no MMA

“No person shall engage in the practice of nail specialty … without having received a license,” and no one may run “an appearance enhancement business without having received a license for such business” (GBL 401). The business keeps “evidence of a bond or liability insurance” on file for the license term (GBL 405). The individual license is “forty dollars,” the business license “sixty dollars initially and sixty dollars for each renewal,” each for “the license period of four years” (GBL 409).

New York also writes the owner’s duties into statute. No owner may knowingly “sell, use or apply to any person monomeric methyl methacrylate”; a first violation carries “a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars” and later ones are “a class B misdemeanor” (GBL 404-A). Owners “shall make available for use, gloves and facemasks” for technicians and trainees (GBL 404-B), and must post a UV lamp notice if the health commissioner finds a hazard (GBL 404-C).

Setting up the business

Entity, EIN and zoning. The SBA notes zoning is “typically controlled at the local level” and “can restrict or entirely ban specific kinds of businesses” (SBA, launch your business). Form the entity before requesting the EIN, or the “EIN application may be delayed” (IRS EIN).

Tips. Manicurists and pedicurists appear on the IRS list of customarily tipped occupations (IRS tipped occupations), and the worker’s No Tax on Tips deduction caps at $25,000 a year (IRS). Employees report tips to the owner “by the 10th of the month after the month that the tips are received,” per Publication 4902, which the IRS wrote for “the Cosmetology & Barber Industry” in 2011 (IRS Pub 4902). Build tip handling into the point of sale from day one.

Insurance. General and professional liability are what Google asks nail salons to show for its local ads, and New York requires a bond or liability insurance for the business license. Workers’ compensation is required in California “even if they have only one employee” (California DWC), is optional for most Texas employers (Texas Department of Insurance), and in Florida starts at “four or more employees” outside construction (Florida Statutes 440.02).

Stations, ventilation and the pedicure area

OSHA is blunt: “Ventilation is the best way to lower the level of chemicals in a salon!” NIOSH tests “indicate that exhaust ventilation systems may reduce worker chemical exposure in nail salons by at least 50%.” Without an exhaust system, OSHA says to keep the HVAC fan “in the ‘on’ position (not ‘auto’),” replace filters “at least once a year,” and “Consider using portable ventilation machines to remove dust and chemicals directly from the work area” (OSHA chemical hazards). Texas and Florida already require ventilation by rule.

In the build-outs we see, ventilation ductwork and pedicure plumbing are the costs founders most often underestimate, and a lease should be signed only after both are quoted. Pipeless or liner-ready pedicure chairs shorten the between-client cleaning, and ventilated manicure tables pull dust and vapor from where the technician breathes. Keep an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant, the product named in the California and Florida rules, on every station.

Chemicals, and what California banned in 2025

The toxic trio. OSHA lists toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and methacrylates among nail product chemicals, and says “Toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate are sometimes referred to in the industry as the ‘toxic trio’” (OSHA).

Employer duties. Manufacturers supply “a safety data sheet (SDS) for each product used in the salon that may contain a hazardous chemical at 1% or more (or at 0.1% or more for chemicals that may cause cancer),” and employers “must also make the SDSs available to their workers,” “provide information and training to all workers who use the product,” and “follow up on reports of health problems from workers.” OSHA adds that “nitrile gloves protect against many chemicals used in nail salon products, but latex or vinyl gloves are appropriate when handling acetone,” and that N95s help with filing dust but “do not protect workers from vapors or gases.” Where respirators are required, the employer “must implement a respiratory protection program” with “fit testing, medical evaluations, and training” (OSHA chemical hazards).

Labels are not proof. OSHA cites a California study in which “a limited number of nail salon products claiming to be free of one or more of the toxic trio tested positive for the chemicals of which they claimed to be free.”

California’s list. Since “January 1, 2025, a person or entity shall not manufacture, sell, deliver, hold, or offer for sale in commerce any cosmetic product that contains” intentionally added ingredients including dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde, methylene glycol and mercury. A second list, including styrene and vinyl acetate, applies from “January 1, 2027” (California Health and Safety Code 108980). Toluene, the third chemical of the trio, does not appear on either list. “Held for sale” covers your shelf, so a California salon should check its backbar and retail stock against both lists.

Staff, renters and California’s 2029 deadline

OSHA’s guide to worker status: renting your station, buying your own supplies, keeping “your own customers,” setting “your own rate,” being “paid by customers directly” and holding “your own business license” point toward contractor status, while an owner or receptionist who “makes the appointments for all workers” or an owner who “sets the rates” points the other way. “Salons sometimes misclassify the employment status of their workers to bypass taking protective safety and health measures and also to deny benefits,” and “Employees also have rights to a minimum wage, workers’ compensation, and other benefits. Independent contractors do not” (OSHA).

California sets a date on the rental model. Labor Code 2778 lets a licensed manicurist work as a contractor only if they set their own rates and are “paid directly by clients,” keep “their own book of business and schedules their own appointments,” and maintain “their own business license.” That exemption “shall become inoperative, with respect to licensed manicurists, on January 1, 2029,” and the state was due to report manicurist misclassification data “by June 1, 2026” (Labor Code 2778). After that date manicurists fall under the ABC test (Labor Code 2775). A California salon opening now on a rental model should budget for an employee model before 2029. The California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative offers owners a budget tool “to compare FOUR different employment models for your nail salon business” (California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative).

Training resources help with hiring across languages: Texas publishes its foot spa record in Vietnamese and Spanish, and O*NET lists a registered apprenticeship title, “Manicurist.”

Healthy Nail Salon programs

OSHA: “several counties and cities are implementing Healthy Nail Salon Recognition Programs that recognize salons that use less toxic polishes and other nail salon products, improve ventilation, and participate in trainings” (OSHA chemical hazards). California’s AB 2125 in 2016 directed the state to publish guidelines for programs “voluntarily implemented by local cities and counties” (California AB 2125).

San Francisco’s is a model. “Launched in early 2012,” it “is a free program which is open to all nail salons in San Francisco,” and asks for “Use of safer nail products,” “Use of gloves by all technicians,” “Installation of localized ventilation” and “Training for all employees,” with a free 45-minute session “in the language(s) that salon employees speak.” Recognized salons “receive a plaque, a window decal, and certificates for all employees” (SF Environment). Ask your city or county whether a program exists before you choose products and ventilation, since meeting it from the start is easier than retrofitting.

Pricing and money

No source with a stated method gives a nail salon startup cost, so this guide quotes none; price the SBA’s cost categories from real quotes. Menus in the salons we work with price by service, with acrylic full sets and fills, gel and dip separate, and art by the nail or by time.

Square defines a regular as “a customer who has purchased from the same business on at least four separate days within a one-year period” and found “6X annual revenue per regular compared to transient customers,” using a full nail salon as its example (Square Local Economy Report). It calls January and February “traditionally slower times” for beauty (Square). Marketplaces charge for new clients; Fresha, for one, charges “a one-time Marketplace new client fee” (Fresha).

Finding the first clients

Google Business Profile. A virtual office “isn’t eligible.” In a building with several technicians, “The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner” (Google guidelines). Verification can run by video, phone, text or email (Google verification), and a booking provider appears “within a week” of connecting (Google bookings). Our Google Business Profile service handles that setup.

Local Services Ads. “Nail salons provide manicures and pedicures” sits under “Beauty (currently available in California and Florida only),” with “General liability insurance” and “Professional liability insurance” required (Google LSA requirements), and “The Google Verified badge is currently unavailable for verticals in the auto, beauty, and dining categories” (Google LSA categories).

Reviews. Google bans incentives “in exchange for posting any review” and merchants who “Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews” (Google review policy); the FTC rule has applied since “October 21, 2024” (FTC rule Q&A). BrightLocal found “74% only care about reviews written in the last three months” (BrightLocal 2026), so a steady review routine matters from the first week.

Show the sanitation. California’s board tells clients “You have the right to ask to view the footspa cleaning logs.” The openings we have seen go better when the log, the liners and the ventilation are visible before anyone asks, and when the menu names the products rather than claiming “non-toxic.” The nail salon marketing page covers what comes next.

What trips up new owners

Treating the pedicure log as optional. In California and Florida it is a legal record, per client, per day and per week.
Assuming liners end the paperwork. California still wants the log and five liners per tub.
Ordering MMA liquid. It is illegal to use in New York salons.
Saying California banned everything harmful. Formaldehyde and DBP, yes; toluene, no.
Building a California rental model without a 2029 plan. The manicurist exemption ends that year.
Leaving ventilation to the HVAC thermostat. OSHA wants the fan on, not on auto.

Questions founders ask about opening a nail salon

What license does a nail technician need?

A state license or registration after approved training: 400 hours for a California manicurist, 600 for a Texas manicurist, 180 for a Florida nail specialist, and a nail specialty license in New York.

Does the salon need its own license?

Yes in all four states covered here: a California establishment license, a Texas specialty establishment license, a Florida specialty salon license and a New York appearance enhancement business license.

How often must pedicure tubs be cleaned?

After every client, at the end of every day and once a week, with each cleaning logged, in California and Florida; Texas publishes a per-client procedure and record form.

Can my technicians rent stations as contractors?

Only if they truly control their prices, schedule and clients, and in California the manicurist exemption that allows it ends on January 1, 2029.

Which nail products are banned?

California has barred cosmetics with intentionally added DBP, formaldehyde, methylene glycol and others since January 1, 2025, with more from 2027, and New York bans MMA in salons; there is no federal MMA ban.

What ventilation do I need?

At minimum what your state requires, such as fresh-air ventilation in Texas and a separate ventilated area for enhancements in Florida; OSHA recommends exhaust ventilation, which NIOSH found may cut exposure by at least 50%.

What is a Healthy Nail Salon?

A voluntary local recognition program; San Francisco’s is free and asks for safer products, gloves, local ventilation and staff training.

Can a nail salon run Google Local Services Ads?

Only in California and Florida, according to Google’s requirements page, with general and professional liability insurance and without the Google Verified badge.

Confirm every rule and fee with the issuing board before you sign a lease.

Sources

Checked on October 3, 2026. Rules and fees change, and many are set state by state or city by city: confirm the current requirements with the agency that issues them before you apply.

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