Business Services / Licenses
Business Licenses & Permits
Discover every federal, state, county, and city license your business needs to operate legally.
About business licenses & permits
Forming an entity does not give you permission to operate. Licensing is a separate layer, and it stacks: a federal requirement if you're in a regulated industry, a state license for your profession or product, a county health or zoning permit, and a city business tax certificate — four different agencies, four fee schedules, four renewal dates. A restaurant in one county can face a materially different list than the same restaurant twenty minutes away.
This is where new businesses get caught. Enforcement usually arrives after you've opened, in the form of a stop-work notice, a denied insurance claim, or a penalty assessed back to your first day of operation. Home-based and online businesses are not exempt: home occupation permits, seller's permits, and municipal business tax certificates commonly apply even with no storefront.
Our license research service maps the requirements to your actual business — your entity type, your industry classification, and the exact address you operate from — and returns a consolidated report identifying each required license, the issuing agency, the application form, the fee, and the renewal cycle. It's a research and identification service: it tells you precisely what you need and where to get it, so nothing is discovered late.
What's included
All four government levels checked
Federal, state, county, and municipal requirements identified for your specific business address.
Industry-specific permits
Health, professional, environmental, seller's permits, and home occupation permits where they apply.
Agency, form, and fee for each
Every requirement is returned with the issuing agency, application form, and current fee.
Renewal cycles
Each license's renewal cadence so it can be tracked instead of rediscovered at expiry.
Delivered as a written report
The completed research lands in your document vault as a PDF you can hand to a bookkeeper or franchisor.
Licenses questions, answered
Do I need a license if I work from home?
Often yes. Many cities require a home occupation permit and a business tax certificate regardless of whether customers visit, and any sales of tangible goods usually require a state seller's permit.
Is this the same as forming an LLC?
No. Formation registers your entity with the state. Licensing is permission to conduct your particular activity at your particular location, and it's issued by different agencies entirely.
Do you file the license applications for me?
The research package identifies and documents every requirement with its agency, form, and fee. Some individual filings can be handled as separate services — the report tells you exactly which ones you're facing before you commit.
How long does the research take?
Typically a few business days, depending on how many jurisdictions and regulated activities your business touches. You'll be notified in-app and by email when the report is ready.
What if I move or add a location?
License requirements are address-specific, so a new location generally needs its own review. Multi-location businesses commonly run the research once per site.