Step by step. Official links included.
This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Start with troubleshooting and small circuits if that is the work you have already done under someone else's license. Add panel changes when you can pull the permit in your own name. Say, in one line, whether you do solar or utility-side work. The calls you decline are part of the business. In Alabama the first customers are in Huntsville. Huntsville electrical demand is the arsenal boom meeting older houses.
Alabama summers are long and humid, winters are mild, and tornado season is part of the roof and tree calendar. Crawl spaces and termites are common. An ice week is uncommon and still real when it hits the north of the state.
File an LLC with the Alabama Secretary of State. We do not have a filing fee for Alabama that we are willing to print. The Alabama Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
Some boxes are labeled Partner. ServiceBase has not joined those programs. The links go to each company's own homepage, not a tracking link. If a program later approves us, the address will change and we may earn a commission. You can file, insure, and bank anywhere. Official government links are not partner links. Nothing on this page is a discount code.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
The guide stays public. An account saves your state, city, and trade, and lets you mark each filing as you go. The advertising credit is reserved when you register. It can be spent after the free website is live.
Create a free account to track your progressPut your last name or a plain word in the name, and skip 'solutions.' Customers search the failure, then check the license. The company name has to match the name on the license application and the name on the truck, or the careful customer will think you are hiding a subcontractor.
Search that name at the Alabama Secretary of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Huntsville.
Electrical work is a licensed trade in most states, and the license is often held by a person, not by the LLC. You can be a sole proprietor under that license, or you can form an LLC and list the licensed qualifier the board requires. Read the board's page for 'qualifier,' 'responsible managing employee,' or the local equivalent before you file. An LLC does not let an unlicensed owner pull permits. If the application is still pending, do not advertise electrical work the board says requires the license.
We do not have a filing fee for Alabama that we are willing to print. The Alabama Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
An employer identification number is the business tax ID. The IRS issues it online at no charge and says you never have to pay a company to get one. If you form an LLC, file with the state first. The IRS says an EIN application can stall when the state filing is not done. A sole proprietor can often start with a Social Security number and get an EIN when a bank or a hire requires it.
Apply on the IRS page if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner beside this step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero either way.
The Alabama licensing page we could verify is the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Treat the electrical license and the permit as two steps. Read the state board for the exam and the qualifier, then the city permit counter for panel changes, chargers, and new circuits. Put the license number where a customer can check it.
Alabama's Licensing Board for General Contractors is the page we could verify. Read whether electrical work is there or on a separate electrical board. Huntsville and Madison have their own permit habits. The general contractor page is the start, not the end of the reading.
A city or county can require its own registration even when the state page is quiet. The city guides name the local permit counter. Call that office and write down what they say. Do not pay a third party that promises a license until you have read the official page.
General liability with the electrical classification the insurer understands, not a generic handyman policy. Ask whether completed operations are included. Commercial auto for the van. Workers' compensation before a helper is on a ladder or in an attic. A property manager will ask for the certificate and the license number in the same email.
Workers' compensation is a state program. Before anyone works with you, including a friend, ask an insurer and the state labor office whether you must carry it. This guide does not quote a headcount, because those rules differ and the state page is the source. The SBA page describes the common policies. It does not sell them. Buy the policy before you work in a house in Alabama.
Keep permit fees, material houses, and customer deposits in the business account. A supply house will want a card or a check that matches the company name. Set tax money aside on the day you deposit a panel job, because those invoices are lumpy and the tax is not.
The bank will usually ask for your ID, the EIN or your Social Security number, and the formation papers if you filed an LLC. A checking account and a habit of setting tax money aside are enough at the start.
Separate a service call from a panel change. The service call covers diagnosis and a small repair. The panel, the charger, and the new circuit are quoted after you have seen the equipment, with the permit named in the quote. Write the service-call price down. Improvising it on the porch trains customers to argue.
Do not publish a statewide 'from' price for a panel. Housing age changes the job. Say that you diagnose first and that the permit is part of the work when the city requires one.
Huntsville: humid heat, tornado season, and the occasional ice storm on top of a mild winter Service upgrades, EV and workshop circuits, generator inlets, and troubleshooting in older in-town houses.
The Google Business Profile should list the license and the cities where you pull permits. Photos of panels you have opened beat a stock breaker. The website names the failures you want: partial power, a warm panel, an EV charger, a generator inlet. The quote form asks what stopped working. ServiceBase keeps those requests in one list so a Sunday-night charger question is not stuck in a text thread.
In Huntsville, the profile, the reviews, and the site should name the neighborhoods you actually drive. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps quote requests in a list on your account. No card. It does not file the LLC, get the EIN, or buy the insurance.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade filled in. You can change every line after.
We do not have a filing fee for Alabama that we are willing to print. The Alabama Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
The Alabama licensing page we could verify is the Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Huntsville. Engineers new to Madison County compare websites. A statewide claim is a weak service area.
Yes. Use the IRS link in the steps if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner on the EIN step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero.
All electrical business steps · Electrical website guide
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