Running a business
Registering your business name
Trading under your own name needs no registration. Any other name means reserving it and registering within 3 months of first using it; a partnership registers within 3 months of forming. Incorporating is the alternative, and only a corporation, co-op or society gets exclusive use of its name.
- Who issues it
- BC Registries
- Cost
- Name request $30 (reserved 56 days); sole proprietorship or partnership registration $40; incorporation $350, then a $43.39 annual report.
- Forms and pages
Who needs it
Restaurants & cafésOpening or running a restaurant, café, take-out or coffee shop.BakeriesA commercial bakery, with or without a counter.Caterers & personal chefsCooking for events, offices or private clients.Food trucks & cartsSelling from a truck, trailer or cart.Delivery-only & ghost kitchensCooking for delivery and pickup only, with no dining room.Packaged food makersMaking sauces, preserves, snacks, frozen meals or other packaged food to sell.Kombucha, juice & coffee makersMaking non-alcoholic drinks, or roasting coffee.Breweries, wineries, cideries & distilleriesMaking beer, wine, cider, mead or spirits.Grocers & specialty food shopsRunning a grocery, market store, deli counter or specialty food shop.Butchers, delis & fishmongersCutting and selling meat, fish or deli foods.Farms & market gardensGrowing fruit, vegetables, grains or microgreens.Meat, poultry & egg producersRaising animals for meat, or hens for eggs.Fishers & seafood sellersCommercial fishers selling their catch. (Shellfish farms follow separate aquaculture rules this page doesn’t cover.)BeekeepersSelling honey and other bee products.
The rules behind this page
- Sole proprietorships and partnershipsGovernment of British Columbia · Page updated September 14, 2026
- Partnership Act, RSBC 1996, c. 348(ss. 81–89)Province of British Columbia (BC Laws) · Current to September 22, 2026
- Incorporated companiesGovernment of British Columbia · Page updated September 24, 2026