How to Open an Optical Shop in the Philippines (2026)

Updated 29 September 2026 · A step-by-step checklist for optometrists and business owners

Opening an optical shop takes the usual business registrations plus two things specific to eyewear: a licensed optometrist, and an FDA licence to sell medical devices, which many guides leave out. Here is the full checklist, the equipment you need, and how to set up your first stock order.

Step 1: Decide who owns it and who examines

You don't have to be an optometrist to own an optical shop. The Supreme Court has held that a business can own an optical shop and employ optometrists without itself practising optometry. But eye examinations and prescribing may only be done by a PRC-registered optometrist, who must display their certificate of registration in the clinic.

So there are two common models: an optometrist who owns and runs their own clinic, or an owner who hires a licensed optometrist. Either way, budget for a licensed optometrist from day one.

Step 2: Register the business

• Sole proprietor: register a business name with the DTI online. It costs ₱200 to ₱2,000 depending on territorial scope, plus ₱30 documentary stamp tax, and is valid for five years.
• Partnership or corporation: register with the SEC instead.

Step 3: Get your LGU permits

Under the Ease of Doing Business Act, your city or municipality processes these through a single Business One-Stop Shop with one application form:

• Barangay clearance
• Zoning or locational clearance
• Sanitary permit
• Building clearance or occupancy
• Fire Safety Inspection Certificate from the Bureau of Fire Protection, needed again at every renewal
• Mayor's or business permit, issued once the above are cleared

Step 4: Register with the BIR

File BIR Form 1901 for individuals or 1903 for corporations, receive your Certificate of Registration (Form 2303), and register your books of accounts and invoices. Registration can be done online. The old ₱500 annual registration fee was abolished under the Ease of Paying Taxes Act.

Step 5: Get an FDA License to Operate

Since FDA Circular 2021-021, retailers of medical devices need an FDA License to Operate, and the circular names optical shops explicitly. The key points:

• Your Qualified Person must be a licensed optometrist if you sell ophthalmic lenses, contact lenses or their solutions.
• You may only sell FDA-registered or notified products. Ask your suppliers for the registration of the lenses and solutions they sell you.
• Apply online through the FDA eServices portal. Reported fees are ₱2,000 for an initial two-year licence, but check the current FDA schedule.

Step 6: Set up the clinic properly

The PRC Board of Optometry requires eye examinations to be done in premises used exclusively for optometric practice, such as a regular clinic. In practice that means a dedicated exam room, not a table on the shop floor. Eye exams at events or from mobile units without authorisation count as unauthorised practice.

Advertising is regulated too. The optometry law prohibits misleading claims, so avoid advertising that you are "the best" or undercut everyone.

Equipment checklist

Get quotes from two or three equipment suppliers; prices vary a lot between new, refurbished and brand. Buying a secondhand auto-refractor is common for a first clinic.

What it costs

There is no reliable single figure for an independent shop, because rent and fit-out vary so much. Build your budget from these parts:

• Space: deposit, advance rent and fit-out, including the exam room.
• Equipment: exam and dispensing kit from the table above.
• Opening stock: frames, stock lenses, cases, cloths and solutions.
• Permits: DTI or SEC, LGU permits, BIR and FDA.
• People: the optometrist's salary and at least one assistant.
• Working capital: three months of running costs while you build a customer base.

Franchising is the other route. It costs more up front but comes with a brand and supply chain.

Your first stock order

Keep the first order small and broad:

• Stock lenses in the most common single-vision powers, in anti-reflective and blue-filter versions.
• Frames in three price tiers: budget metal and plastic, mid-range TR90 and acetate, and a small premium shelf. The frames guide explains which materials sell.
• Consumables: cases, microfiber cloths, nose pads and solutions.

Send prescriptions outside your stock range to a supplier's lab as processed lenses. The lens guide explains stock and processed lenses.

Why the timing is good

Commentators and the new UP Manila optometry programme both point to a shortage of practising optometrists in the Philippines, especially outside Metro Manila. Only a few hundred new optometrists pass the board exam each year: 393 in October 2025. A well-run independent clinic in an underserved town has room to grow.