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.
A lot of older houses still have weak cooling or none. Inland and valley neighborhoods in the same metro can be a different climate. Do not promise a fog-city story to a hot inland tract, or the reverse. In San Francisco, the housing decides the visit: Victorians and multi-unit buildings on hills, soft stories, small garages, and a lot of houses that still treat central air as optional. The weather on the truck is marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced. Sunset, Noe Valley, and Richmond District are worth naming only when they are real stops. Oakland and Daly City are a different drive until you can reach them the same day. San Francisco Department of Building Inspection permits is the local counter to ask when the job needs a permit or a city registration. This page names that office. It does not invent a fee. Oakland and Daly City are not San Francisco permits. Hills, parking, and stairs are part of the price. Write the cities you will actually drive, and do not describe a suburban garage-door route as the default job. Access is the objection. A page that claims the whole Bay without saying which bridge you cross will not get the call from the far side.
Victorians and multi-unit buildings on hills, soft stories, small garages, and a lot of houses that still treat central air as optional marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced No-cool or no-heat diagnosis, the repair, and a replacement only after you have seen the equipment. In San Francisco, CA, list Sunset and Daly City together only if one crew really covers both.
Start the route in Sunset, Noe Valley, and Richmond District. Add Oakland and Daly City when you can reach them the same day. Access is the objection. A page that claims the whole Bay without saying which bridge you cross will not get the call from the far side.
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 Sunset.
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 San Francisco, 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.
San Francisco Department of Building Inspection permits is the local counter for work in San Francisco. 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 Noe Valley.
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 San Francisco.
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.
marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced Victorians and multi-unit buildings on hills, soft stories, small garages, and a lot of houses that still treat central air as optional That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. No-cool or no-heat diagnosis, the repair, and a replacement only after you have seen the equipment. In San Francisco, CA, list Sunset and Daly City together only if one crew really covers both.
Write the price you want for the common job in Sunset and the price you want for a far stop in Daly City. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Daly City off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for San Francisco, CA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Sunset, Noe Valley, and Richmond District 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 Oakland 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 San Francisco already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace San Francisco Department of Building Inspection 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 San Francisco Department of Building Inspection permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Sunset and the jobs you want. No-cool or no-heat diagnosis, the repair, and a replacement only after you have seen the equipment.
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 San Francisco Department of Building Inspection 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. marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced Time the first ten jobs in Sunset and Richmond District 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 San Francisco filled in so you are not retyping them.
California filing and license · Free HVAC website in San Francisco, CA · All trades in San Francisco, CA
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