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.
Los Angeles HVAC is a split climate. Santa Monica and parts of the west side still have houses with weak cooling. Sherman Oaks and the valley do not. Pasadena and Long Beach add older ductwork. Change-outs need LADBS attention, and ADUs need their own equipment plan. A page that assumes every house has a gas furnace in a closet is wrong often enough to bounce.
stucco, some seismic bracing, ADUs tucked behind older houses, and water heaters that must be strapped a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Cooling repair, heat pumps and mini-splits, change-outs, and ADU systems where you pull permits.
Start the route in Pasadena, Long Beach, and Santa Monica. Add Sherman Oaks and Silver Lake when you can reach them the same day. Distance is the objection. A page that claims the whole county without saying where the truck starts will not get the call from the far side of the basin.
The California guide has the filing office and the LLC fee we could verify ($70 to file). 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 progressHVAC names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Pasadena.
Search it at the California Secretary of State before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
HVAC licenses are usually held by a person who qualifies the company. A sole proprietorship works when that person is you. An LLC works when the board lets the company hold the registration with you as qualifier. Read the mechanical or air-conditioning section, not a general contractor page from another trade. Form the company before the EIN if you are filing an LLC. The structure does not let you sell replacements without the license.
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.
If your customers are in Los Angeles, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy California. 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 the state mechanical or air-conditioning license, including who may handle refrigerant, and the city rule for a change-out. A maintenance visit and a system replacement are not the same credential question.
State page: California Contractors State License Board. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
LADBS permits is the local counter for work in Los Angeles. 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 HVAC has to register before the first job in Long Beach.
The California guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability that understands condensers, furnaces, and attic work. Ask about refrigerant and about damage from a condensate leak, which customers often think is a roof. Commercial auto for the van. Workers' compensation before a helper is in an attic in summer. Have the certificate ready for property managers.
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 Los Angeles.
Equipment purchases and customer deposits need a business account before the first change-out. A maintenance plan's small monthly payments are easy to lose in a personal account. Deposit them, and set tax money aside when a replacement 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.
Lead with diagnosis. A no-cool call is a diagnostic price plus the repair, not an automatic system quote. Write the diagnostic price down, including whether it is waived if they buy the repair.
Replacement prices depend on the equipment location and the ductwork, which you cannot see from a national average. Say that you quote replacement after the diagnostic. Publish the hours you answer when the house is unsafe to stay in.
a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water stucco, some seismic bracing, ADUs tucked behind older houses, and water heaters that must be strapped That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. Cooling repair, heat pumps and mini-splits, change-outs, and ADU systems where you pull permits.
Write the price you want for the common job in Pasadena and the price you want for a far stop in Silver Lake. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Silver Lake off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for Los Angeles, CA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Pasadena, Long Beach, and Santa Monica 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 Sherman Oaks helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
The Google Business Profile should say repair and replacement as separate services, and it should match the season people are actually in. Photos of equipment in local attics, closets, or roofs beat a stock condenser. The website form asks for the symptom and whether anyone in the house is at risk from the temperature. ServiceBase keeps those requests in a list you can work from the driveway.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free HVAC site with Los Angeles already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace LADBS 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 California Secretary of State, get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (California Contractors State License Board), call LADBS permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Pasadena and the jobs you want. Cooling repair, heat pumps and mini-splits, change-outs, and ADU systems where you pull permits.
Read the state mechanical or air-conditioning license, including who may handle refrigerant, and the city rule for a change-out. A maintenance visit and a system replacement are not the same credential question. Start at the California Contractors State License Board. Then ask LADBS permits what the city adds.
Lead with diagnosis. A no-cool call is a diagnostic price plus the repair, not an automatic system quote. Write the diagnostic price down, including whether it is waived if they buy the repair. a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Time the first ten jobs in Pasadena and Santa Monica 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 HVAC and Los Angeles filled in so you are not retyping them.
California filing and license · Free HVAC website in Los Angeles, CA · All trades in Los Angeles, CA
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