How to buy a nail salon in Canada

Anyone asking "is a nail salon a good business to buy" can start with revenue and the lease. A nail salon adds a different layer: in Ontario, the Health Protection and Promotion Act defines a personal service setting to include premises offering nail services, Health Canada prohibits or restricts some ingredients found in nail products, and a safety agency has described the hazards nail technicians face. Check each of those separately from the listing. This guide covers what a buyer can confirm from government sources before closing, using Ontario’s regulation as the worked example. That regulation applies in Ontario only, so the first job is to find out which rules apply where the salon is. For the overall process, see how to buy a business in Canada; for listings, see nail salons for sale.

Find the health authority that oversees the salon

Which public-health body oversees a nail salon depends on where it is. In Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18 governs personal service settings, subject to the exclusions in its s. 2: it requires notice to the medical officer of health of the local health unit, and requires the operator to ensure that the results of any inspections by a public health inspector are posted in accordance with the inspector’s request. In British Columbia, for example, Fraser Health publishes inspection reports for personal service establishments, which it describes as places offering services such as manicures and pedicures, and a page on the process to open one. Before you rely on any of this, phone the health unit or authority for the salon’s postal code and ask what it needs when the operator changes.

Ontario’s notice rule for a new operator

Under O. Reg. 136/18, every person who intends to operate a personal service setting must give written notice of that intention to the medical officer of health of the health unit in which it will be located, at least 14 days before beginning operation. The regulation defines the operator as the person who has responsibility for and control over the setting. If you will take control on closing, ask the health unit whether your purchase triggers that notice, and build the 14 days into your timeline so that closing day is not the first day you learn of it.

Premises and equipment you inherit

The same Ontario regulation sets physical rules that attach to the space. Subject to the exceptions in s. 8 (where services are provided in part of a dwelling, for example, the rules apply only to the rooms used for them), the setting must not be a room, or part of a room, used as a dwelling, including for dining, sleeping or handling food, and there must be at least one sink used only for hand washing on the premises. Where reusable equipment is used, s. 8(3) also requires a second sink that is not the hand-wash sink; s. 8(6) exempts only a setting that provides just hairdressing or barbering and reprocesses its equipment before and after each business day. Reusable equipment must be cleaned and disinfected or sterilized as often as necessary to prevent disease transmission and, except where a single-use disposable cover is permitted, between each use, and equipment designed for a single use must be discarded immediately after it is used. Walk the salon with these in hand and ask whether the pedicure stations, tools and sinks you are paying for meet them.

Products on the shelf and in the back room

Health Canada’s Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist lists ingredients prohibited or restricted in cosmetics. Methyl methacrylate monomer appears on its list of prohibited ingredients, and for formaldehyde the Hotlist says nail hardeners must be sold with nail shields and directions for use. Ask the seller to show you the products the salon uses, read the labels against the current Hotlist, and ask what the salon would do with stock that does not comply.

Workplace hazards and the people who work there

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) describes chemical, biological and ergonomic hazards for nail technicians, along with noise and workplace violence, and notes that exposure may be more significant where ventilation is poor. It recommends a ventilated worktable or local exhaust ventilation where fumes are a risk, safety data sheets readily available to workers, and ergonomic furniture adjusted for each worker. As a buyer, look at the ventilation yourself, ask to see the safety data sheets, and ask how the technicians who work there are trained and who will stay after the sale.

What to ask the seller and the inspector

• Ask for the salon’s most recent public-health inspection results, and in British Columbia check whether the health authority publishes inspection reports for it.
• Ask which services the salon offers and whether the health unit has been told about each, because Ontario requires notice before an operator provides additional personal services.
• Ask whether the manufacturers’ instructions for equipment are kept at the setting, as Ontario requires where they are available.
• Ask for the safety data sheets and a list of the nail products in use, then compare them with the Hotlist.
• Ask whether any renovation is planned or under way, since Ontario’s O. Reg. 136/18 requires the operator to notify the medical officer of health before a reconstruction or renovation begins (in writing, at least 14 days ahead, if services will stop during the work); routine maintenance and the repair or replacement of existing equipment are not renovation.