How to get a business license for a lawn business

January 17th, 2012 → 7:41 am @ Lawn Care Business Expert // One Comment

One simple buy necessary step for a new lawn business is to get a business license.  Here is what you need to know.  First, yes you do need a business license for every city you work in.  If you work in several cities, then you will be buying several business licenses.  For starting out a new lawn care business, I recommend become a sole-proprietorship.  This is the cheapest and easiest way to start a lawn care business.  In a sole-proprietorship, you the owner and your business are one in the eyes of the government and for tax purposes.  You will file taxes under your social security number just like you always have.  In the future, you may want to consider becoming an LLC which protects your personal assets in case of a lawsuit.  To become an LLC requires legal work that can be done for a couple hundred dollars by an attorney or you can do it yourself at legalzoom.com, but you still will have to pay the fee to become an LLC.  Again, starting out, the easiest way to be in business is to become a sole-proprietor.  Here is what you need to do.  Go to the city hall of all of the cities you will be working.  Tell them that you need to get a business license.  You need to have decided on your business name buy this point because you have to register the name of the business with the city.  You will fill out the paperwork and pay the fee to get a business license.  My fee is around $100 per year for a larger city and around $30 for a small town.  In your first year of business, you can get the license any time of the year.  After your first year in business, most cities require you to purchase the business license in January to avoid late fees.  The license then may cost more depending on the amount of money your business is making.

Application steps for getting business license.

1)      Go to the city hall of the cities you are going to be working in and fill out the paperwork and pay for your business license.

2)      Keep the original or a copy of your license in your truck in case you get stopped by the police during the year.  They will want to see proof that you are a legal, tax-paying business.

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