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.
Austin handyman lists are drywall from a settled slab, doors that quit in the heat, TV mounts, and the punch-list items in new Pflugerville and Circle C houses. Hyde Park and South Congress add older trim. Say which licensed work you will not touch. A page of 'no job too small' attracts the panel and gas-line calls that get you in trouble.
slab homes on expansive clay, with water heaters and air handlers parked in hot attics long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes Drywall, doors, mounts, fixtures, and small carpentry, with a written line for what you refer out.
Start the route in Hyde Park, Mueller, and Circle C. Add Pflugerville and South Congress when you can reach them the same day. Owners compare a local page with a Google profile and a marketplace lead. They call the one that names the neighborhood and the failure.
The Texas guide has the filing office and the LLC fee we could verify ($300). This page is the local version: what the first jobs are, which permit counter to call, and how to price a day here.
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.
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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 progresshandyman names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Hyde Park.
Search it at the Texas Secretary of State business filings before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
Most handyman businesses start as a sole proprietorship. An LLC is reasonable once you are in other people's houses every day and want the bank account and the insurance in a company name. It does not expand the list of jobs you may legally do. If a state sets a dollar cap on unlicensed work, read the current cap on the official page. Do not rely on a number from a forum.
The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
If your customers are in Austin, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy Texas. Read the filing office's rule. A neighbor's kitchen table is not always an acceptable address.
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.
Read any handyman or small-job exemption on the contractor board, including the dollar cap and the trades it excludes. Then get the city business license. Refer panel, gas, sewer, and roof work unless you hold that license.
State page: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. TDLR licenses some trades, including electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Its program list does not include a general landscaper license. Irrigation and pesticide work have their own offices below. Cities can still require a registration.
City of Austin permits is the local counter for work in Austin. We are naming that office, not linking a fee schedule we have not read. Call them or open the city's own site and ask what a new handyman has to register before the first job in Mueller.
The Texas guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability before you drill into someone's wall. Tell the insurer you are a handyman and name the jobs, so a claim is not denied for 'contractor work' you did not disclose. Commercial auto if the truck is the business. Workers' compensation if anyone helps, even occasionally. A property manager will ask for the certificate before the first punch list.
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 Austin.
Small jobs paid in cash and checks disappear in a personal account. Deposit them into a business checking account and write the address on the deposit note. Set tax money aside weekly. The amounts feel too small to matter, which is why they become a tax problem.
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.
Price from a short list: a minimum visit, an hourly rate after that, and a flat price for the jobs you repeat, such as a drywall patch or a door that sticks. Send the price before you load the truck when the list is clear.
Occupied houses take longer than empty ones. Stairs and parking change the hour. Say so. Decline the item on the list that belongs to a licensed trade, and price the rest.
long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes slab homes on expansive clay, with water heaters and air handlers parked in hot attics That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. Drywall, doors, mounts, fixtures, and small carpentry, with a written line for what you refer out.
Write the price you want for the common job in Hyde Park and the price you want for a far stop in South Congress. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave South Congress off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for Austin, TX. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Hyde Park, Mueller, and Circle C if those are real stops, and it should leave off towns you will not drive.
Ask for a review after a clean job, and ask them to mention the neighborhood and the task. A review that says the work and Pflugerville helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
Google Business Profile with photos of finished small repairs in real rooms. Reviews should mention the task and the neighborhood. The website is a list of jobs you like and a sentence on what you refer out. The form lets them send several items. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps the list.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free handyman site with Austin already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace City of Austin permits.
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Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade and city filled in. You can change every line after.
Pick the service you can finish, search the name at the Texas Secretary of State business filings, get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation), call City of Austin permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Hyde Park and the jobs you want. Drywall, doors, mounts, fixtures, and small carpentry, with a written line for what you refer out.
Read any handyman or small-job exemption on the contractor board, including the dollar cap and the trades it excludes. Then get the city business license. Refer panel, gas, sewer, and roof work unless you hold that license. Start at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Then ask City of Austin permits what the city adds.
Price from a short list: a minimum visit, an hourly rate after that, and a flat price for the jobs you repeat, such as a drywall patch or a door that sticks. Send the price before you load the truck when the list is clear. long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes Time the first ten jobs in Hyde Park and Circle C before you copy a price from another city.
You can draft it. Put it in public under the name you will actually use, with the phone you answer. If the state requires the license before you advertise the work, wait. The free ServiceBase site does not file the company. Signup can open with handyman and Austin filled in so you are not retyping them.
Texas filing and license · Free handyman website in Austin, TX · All trades in Austin, TX
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