Business License

So, Hey, you. It's Thursday at 10 am. You know what time it is. It's Coffee Chats with Candice! Grab a cup of coffee, which I have, or a beverage of your choice, no judgment here, and that includes your business, and let's chat about business licensing.

So for those who don't know me, my name is Candice Montgomery. I'm the founder of “Beginner's Guide to Budgeting” and “Monetize your Dream” –  it's a course to master business basics. I help new and aspiring women entrepreneurs master business basics so that they can achieve personal and financial freedom. If you're new to me, I own three businesses. The first one, my husband, and I started in 1996. And it's now in its 27th. year, we've paid off over $450,000 in seven years. And since 2022, we've been completely debt-free in our personal and business lives. I'm passionate about business and budgeting and sharing that with you.

All right, so business licenses. Business licenses can vary significantly based on your business type and your location. So, the type of business that you have, whether it's a corporation or an LLC, or the location, the city or the state. Understanding these variations is crucial because it helps ensure your legal compliance and avoid any potential legal issues or fines. So, how can they be different? Based on your business type, for example, a restaurant may need health permits. alcohol and food services, and food services licenses. While a consulting firm may require professional licenses or only certifications. Sole proprietorships, and LLC incorporation, which I've talked about before, have distinct licensing requirements, that's why it's so important to choose the right legal structure for your business when you're getting set up.

Your location, so the specific city, county, and state where your business operates, can have unique licenses and risks, unique licensing regulations and fees. These regulations are often tailored to the local business environment. Zoning laws can affect what type of businesses can be allowed in certain areas. I'm trying to think of something off the top of my head. The only thing that comes to mind is tattoo studios. Like in certain areas will not allow tattoo businesses in different areas, so you have to you have to check with your city.

Industry regulations, such as health care, construction, or financial services have highly regulated licensing requirements because they need to ensure public safety and trust. Even within a single industry, licensing can differ based on specific services offered or products offered. For example, our HVAC business requires licensing from our state for commercial and or residential. Our city also requires that we're registered with them, or cities that we work in. So, we might serve in a specific area and there might be 15 or 20 cities and they all would have different requirements, and you have to check with each one. Also, as far as being registered with them and pulling permits, so depends on the work that's being done and the location of that job. So, a lot of times when you're in the county, you don't have to pull a permit for something depending on the work.  But when you're in the city, you have to pull a permit based on their requirements. And just for a little bit of additional information, when they're pulling permits on a job, then the city will come out and inspect that job to ensure that the work has been done properly and to code. So you're limited to when you can do certain things because you might have to stop and get an inspection, and then proceed forward. So that's just a little additional information. So you just want to make sure that if you're required to have a business license, you have it, so that you're operating legally.

Also, you want to research local requirements, state requirements, and county requirements, all of that is key to be able to make sure that you are in compliance. So, failure to obtain those can cause you to be fined and can cause legal action to come against your business or you, it can result in fines, and it can also result in the closure of your business, so you don't want to have that issue going on at all.

So that's a simplified version of business licenses; much more information is available and it goes into more depth, but you want to make sure that you have checked those things out before you start your business, and that's one of the things I talk about in my course “Monetize your Dreams.” If that's something that interests you, then send me a message and we can talk about it.

As always, if you have found value in this video, please like, share, and comment on my videos so that more eyes can see my message, and it gets out to the universe. When it comes to starting a business, I've been where you are, I know how you feel, even though it's been forever ago. It can be a lonely journey, but it doesn't have to be. When we started, it was before Google and Facebook existed, and that is forever ago! Most people now are like, “What longer ago than Facebook or longer ago than Google?” Yes, we're older than that. So I know it's confusing, but I can help. If you or someone you know needs business help, send them my way. I do one-on-one coaching, and I've been talking about launching a new group program, and I've been excited to share that. Now that I can officially share it with you, I'm going to be offering a group coaching program, and that will be available soon. And I'll be launching it, and I'm excited about that because it'll create a group of new businesses, women, or men that want to start a business or that have already started a business and they've been working in it, and there are things that they haven't set up in their business. I'm excited, and I think the community will be great! You'll be able to bounce ideas off of others, and it's a safe place for you to be able to discuss your business and the things you need. A lot of times you don't have that with family or friends because they don't understand the position that you're in. So, anyway, thank you for taking time out of your day today to be here with me or catching the replay. I hope you have a fabulous Thursday and a fabulous weekend. I'll see you next week. Same time. Same place for Coffee Chats with Candice.