This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Start with springs, cables, and openers if that is the skill you have. Add door sales when you can order, permit if required, and warranty the install. Say you do not free a wound spring for a customer to 'just hold.' In California the first customers are in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento. Los Angeles garage-door work depends on the lot. San Diego garage doors are a suburban and inland product more than a coastal cottage one. A lot of the core city parks on the street. A lot of the core city parks on the street. Tract housing is a garage-door market. Tract housing is a garage-door market.
California is several climates. Coastal fog, inland heat, drought rules, and earthquakes all change the work. A license from the Contractors State License Board is the state starting point. The city permit is a second step.
File an LLC with the California Secretary of State. California Government Code section 12190 sets the fee for filing articles of organization at $70, and the fee for the statement of information at $20. The Secretary of State's LLC-1 cover sheet also says an LLC may have to pay a minimum $800 tax to the Franchise Tax Board. Read the Franchise Tax Board page before you treat $70 as the whole cost. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
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
Keep the checklist on your account
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.
Use a name that says garage doors, so a stranded driver can tell you from a general contractor. Search the state records. The name on the invoice should match the name on the spring you warranty. Keep it short enough for a voicemail.
Search that name at the California Secretary of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Los Angeles.
A sole proprietorship is a common start for a one-truck door company. An LLC makes sense before you sell full door replacements and take deposits. The formation does not decide the license. Read the contractor board for a door classification. Some states treat garage-door installation as a contractor trade and treat a spring repair as service. Read the page. Ask an accountant once deposits are large enough to matter.
California Government Code section 12190 sets the fee for filing articles of organization at $70, and the fee for the statement of information at $20. The Secretary of State's LLC-1 cover sheet also says an LLC may have to pay a minimum $800 tax to the Franchise Tax Board. Read the Franchise Tax Board page before you treat $70 as the whole cost. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
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 California licensing page we could verify is the California Contractors State License Board. 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.
Look on the contractor board for a garage-door or installation classification, and for a dollar threshold a new door would cross. Spring repair may not be listed. Check the city registration too. Do not guess that 'no line on the page' means no rule.
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 that you have described as garage-door work, including springs. Those injuries are serious. Commercial auto for the truck. Workers' compensation before a second person is on a ladder with a spring. A new-door deposit should not be taken until the certificate and the license question are settled.
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 California.
Parts and door deposits go in a business account. A spring repair is a small ticket. A new door is not. Keep those deposits identifiable so a cancelled order is refundable without a scramble through a personal account. Set tax money aside when a door job pays.
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.
07Price the work California actually has
Write three prices: a spring or cable repair, an opener repair, and a new door. The first two are often same-day. The door is an estimate, an HOA approval in some suburbs, and a lead time. Say which is which.
A trapped car is a different schedule from a dented panel. Put that question on the form so you do not price them as the same visit. Include the trip in the repair price if you do not want to argue about a dispatch fee.
Los Angeles: a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Off-track doors, springs, openers, and replacements in the communities you list. San Diego: a cool marine layer on the coast, real heat inland, drought, and almost no winter freeze Springs, openers, salt-air hardware, and replacements in the communities you list. San Francisco: marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced Springs, openers, and new doors as different schedules. In San Francisco, CA, list Sunset and Daly City together only if one crew really covers both. San Jose: mild wet winters, dry warm summers, drought, earthquake risk, and wildfire smoke that sometimes sits on the valley Springs, openers, and new doors as different schedules. In San Jose, CA, list Willow Glen and Cupertino together only if one crew really covers both. Riverside: hot inland summers, Santa Ana winds, a dry year most years, and wildfire weather on the edges Springs, openers, and new doors as different schedules. In Riverside, CA, list Riverside and Rancho Cucamonga together only if one crew really covers both. Sacramento: hot dry summers, cool wet winters, valley fog, and a delta breeze that does not replace air conditioning Springs, openers, and new doors as different schedules. In Sacramento, CA, list Midtown and Roseville together only if one crew really covers both.
08Get found, then create the free site
Google Business Profile aimed at the neighborhoods that have driveways, not a downtown of street parking. Photos of doors you have hung in local subdivisions. Reviews that say spring, opener, or new door, and the area. The website separates those three and asks whether a car is trapped. ServiceBase files the request.
In Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento, 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.
California Government Code section 12190 sets the fee for filing articles of organization at $70, and the fee for the statement of information at $20. The Secretary of State's LLC-1 cover sheet also says an LLC may have to pay a minimum $800 tax to the Franchise Tax Board. Read the Franchise Tax Board page before you treat $70 as the whole cost. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
What license does a garage door need in California?
The California licensing page we could verify is the California Contractors State License Board. 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.
Where should a new garage door business start in California?
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento. Distance is the objection. A statewide claim is a weak service area.
Is the EIN free?
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.
