registering, licensing - Please Help!!

so ive got the truck and equipment, just cut my buddies lawn as a trial run and everything went great. im so excited to start passing out fliers, knocking on doors, etc. but i was thinking, what name do i put on the fliers and business cards? i would like to use 'a cut above the rest lawn maintenance' or 'a cut above lawn maintenance'. i search yellowpages.com and theres nothing for a cut above the rest, but ive seen a trailer in town with just that on it. and theres listings for 'a cut above LAWN CARE', does that mean i can get away with using 'a cut above lawn MAINTENANCE'???? how do i find out what names i can/cant use? should i get licensed before i make my first dollar, or can i wait til the first of the year when hopefully ill have a clientele? everythings set to go, i just want to put a name on the business card/flier but i dont want anybody breathing down my neck because of a copyright, license issue. can i get away with just having my name and a list of services on the business card? maybe im over analyzing but, please please help! im very lost here. thank you in advance!

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Last edited by RKTaylor; 09-03-2009 at 05:21 AM.

[jasonw]

Lawn care business tips

Honestly, I would get the license now. It costs less than your first service and is the law for working in your city, assuming its an incorporated city. Most places will require a license for insurance, bank accounts and other accounts. If you get caught without one the fines are many many times the cost to get the license "mine was $30 and took 3 days to approve" And the most important part. It gives you such a huge since of accomplishment being about to write "Lic#XXXXXX" on your adds. All that being said I opporated for several months before I got mine. Most of the time you have to be licensed in each individual city you work in. There are still a couple of cities I have to talk to to fine out if I need licenses there. Check with your county. In my county I can work in any unincorporated area without a license.

__________________
White Company

[Steve]

how do i find out what names i can/cant use?

When you register your business name with the county you have to look up in their list if there is another business using that name. If there is, you can't use it unless you buy it from the owner.

should i get licensed before i make my first dollar, or can i wait til the first of the year when hopefully ill have a clientele?

You may or may not need a business license in your area. Do you have any friends in the area that have a business you can ask? If not, contact your local town hall and they will let you know.

can i get away with just having my name and a list of services on the business card?

That is the easiest way to get started and you don't even have to register a business name them.

RK Taylor Lawn Care or whatever and have the checks made out to RK Taylor.

Keep us posted.

[headsup]

to go 1 step further... if you plan to incorporate as I did, the first 3 words can not be the same as someone else unless they are clearly different industries or you get written permission from EACH of the other companies with similar names.

[Steve]

Hi headsup,

Welcome to our forum!

Thanks for sharing with us your insight.

I just checked out your site and it is very interesting. How did you initially come up with that idea?

[headsup]

Originally Posted by Steve

I just checked out your site and it is very interesting. How did you initially come up with that idea?

LONG STORY
A buddy and I are Real Estate Appraisers and starting May 1, 2009 new gov't regulations have essentially stripped most of our business relationships we have gathered over the years. Instead of a Mortgage Loan Officer hiring me directly they are no longer able to select the Appraiser so most have used a "middle man" Appraisal Management Company. Too many of those AMC's keep 30-50% of the fee so we started thinking of alternate sources of income. Our entire family is the real estate business is various ways many of which are realtors. We have always heard about their complaints and as Appraisers we see houses that look so bad, and with just a little sweat would show better which should yield the seller a higher price. That combined with the fact that our area is predominantly made up of retirees and waterfront 2nd homes. (there are 4 lakes and 2 rivers that have waterfront homes) With so many lakes the running joke out here is everybody is on "lake time" because so many people are flayky, no show, work slow etc. Well, to be honest the market is FLOODED with people who mow lawns. How can we seperate ourselves from the pack?

First and formost show up! Second, we listened to the market there is a need for handy man services. The ederly just can't change those light bulbs, fix the disposal, replace the light fixture etc and the actually trades man are too expensive on small jobs. Third, as licensed Appraisers we have this huge network already in place it just seemed logical to merge it all together.

I hope that wasn't too long of a reply. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

David

[Steve]

I think that is fantastic and creative!

How does this business differ from property management? We were talking about property management in another post and it seemed there were a lot of hoops to jump through to get that license. Is this something that would be interesting as well to get involved?

[headsup]

We deal with owners and agents who's goal is profit! No tenants to deal with, no tenants rights etc. Property managers get the headaches. No thanks.

[Steve]

Ah that makes sense.

With what you are doing now, I bet you could scale that service out across the country. We got a lot of business owners here from all over, who knows maybe we will find you creating a franchise business concept that lawn care business owners can add on to get extra income from.