Companion to "The license hunt."
There is no national list of the licenses your business needs. The licenses and permits you need from the state, county, or city depend on your business activities and your location. Find the answer with this grid, one layer at a time, and write down who told you what, when.
1. EIN (free, from the IRS, online, minutes; the ID every other form asks for). 2. State layer. 3. County call. 4. City call. 5. Trade layer (your occupation's own board; your business course owns that answer). Each step feeds the next.
| Layer | What is required | Cost | Renewal date | Who you talked to | Date called |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State (Secretary of State + revenue/taxation) | Entity registration ☐; sales tax / seller's permit ☐; employer account ☐ | $ | |||
| County (clerk's office) | General business license ☐; assumed name ☐; health rules ☐ | $ | |||
| City (city hall / finance) | Local business license or tax ☐; home occupation permit ☐ (signage, traffic, equipment conditions noted) | $ | |||
| Trade board (if one exists) | $ |
"Hi, I'm starting a one-person business operating from my home in [your city], doing [plain-English description of the work, for example residential cleaning or lawn care]. What does the county require: a general business license, an assumed name filing, or anything else? What does each cost, and does it renew annually?"
Then the follow-up that catches the gap every time: "Is there anyone else I should be asking, at the city or the state?"
| Filing-service trap: a $300 package around a $40 filing, a $100 registered-agent renewal, a "compliance dashboard" for tasks you can do yourself in an hour a year. Fine if you know the price of what is delegated; a trap if you believed you had to | ☐ Avoided |
| Lookalike sites charging $50 to $100 for the free EIN form; the URL belongs to irs.gov or it belongs in the trash | ☐ Avoided |
| Calendar trap: some licenses expire after a set period. One recurring calendar reminder per renewal date, set the day the license arrives | ☐ Set for every row above |
NAICS: registration and tax forms ask for an industry classification code. It is a statistics number, not a permission. Pick the closest match, take the code, move on.