Legal, Licenses & Insurance
The universal setup framework for any business: the entity decision as a cost/benefit call, the method for finding your state's license and permit answer, the insurance stack and what each policy actually covers, and the bright lines where universal advice ends and your jurisdiction begins.
This module has one job: you finish it knowing exactly which questions to ask your state, your county, and your insurer, whatever business you choose. The entity decision, the license hunt, the insurance stack. The questions are the same for every business in the country. The answers are local, and this module teaches you how to pull each answer for your address instead of trusting a blogger who has never seen your county.
Everything here is honest about what it is. This is not legal advice, and I will not pretend a number I cannot source. Every figure carries its source, every price range is labeled as a range, and anything that varies by state is taught as varying by state. Where the honest answer is "call and ask," the module hands you the phone script. Where the answer is universal, it says so plainly and shows you why.
What this module is not: a rulebook for any specific trade. Notary law, cottage food rules, drone certification, cosmetology boards, contractor licensing thresholds: those belong to the business courses in our catalog, and this module routes you to them rather than half-teaching their rules. This is the shared framework every one of those courses applies. You bring the business. You leave with your setup map, your question list, and a weekend plan to finish it.
The legal layer
The entity decision is a cost/benefit call
Sole prop versus LLC, priced honestly: what the shield actually covers, what it costs in your state every year, when the S-corp election matters, and the trigger list for upgrading.
The license hunt: finding your state's answer
No universal license list exists. The method that works everywhere: EIN, then the three registries, state, county, city, with a phone script, a NAICS note, and the traps that cost money for free things.
The protection layer
The insurance stack
What general liability, a BOP, professional liability, workers' compensation, commercial auto, inland marine, cyber, and umbrella actually cover, with honest price anchors and the exclusions that surprise people.
Buying insurance without getting played
How to actually buy the stack: broker or direct, three competing quotes, the question script that exposes exclusions before you pay, certificates of insurance, and the year-end premium audit.