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 repair and maintenance if that is the skill, and add replacement when you can pull the permit and warrant the install. Say which fuels and which brands you will not touch. A page that only sells new systems attracts an argument you may not want yet. In Texas the first customers are in Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Austin HVAC is an attic problem. Houston air conditioners run most of the year in humidity that grows biological mess in the cabinet and the drain. Dallas–Fort Worth HVAC has to heat and cool, and the equipment often sits in an attic over clay-soil slabs from Plano and Frisco to Arlington. San Antonio HVAC is attic heat for a very long season. Rio Grande Valley air conditioning is not seasonal.
Texas is several markets: Gulf humidity, north-Texas hail, a short freeze that still breaks pipes, and a Valley that almost never freezes. The license depends on the trade. City permits sit on top. Do not use one city page for the whole state.
File an LLC with the Texas Secretary of State business filings. 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.
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 progressUse a name you can say when someone is standing in a hot hallway. Search the license board and the state filing office together. The qualifier's name and the company name both end up on the record in many states. Match them on the van.
Search that name at the Texas Secretary of State business filings before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Austin.
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.
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.
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 Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
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.
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.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation licenses air-conditioning contractors. Read that program before you quote a change-out. Refrigerant handling has its own federal credential. City permits sit on top of the state license for many replacements.
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 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 Texas.
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.
Austin: long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes No-cool diagnosis, attic system repair, change-outs, and duct repairs. Houston: Gulf humidity, hurricane season, and street flooding that reaches houses the maps called safe No-cool repair, drain and coil cleaning, attic change-outs, and a straight answer on flooded equipment. Dallas–Fort Worth: hail season, tornado warnings, 100°F summers, and the occasional ice storm No-cool and no-heat repair, attic change-outs, and tune-ups that are not a bait for a replacement. San Antonio: long heat, limestone and clay, sudden rain, and watering rules tied to the Edwards Aquifer No-cool repair, attic change-outs, duct repairs, and a defined service map. McAllen–Edinburg: extreme heat, a mild winter, irrigation culture, and tropical wind and rain No-cool repair, change-outs, and maintenance for systems that run most of the year.
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.
In Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg, 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.
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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.
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.
The Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. 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.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Owners compare a local page with a Google profile and a marketplace lead. 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 HVAC business steps · HVAC website guide
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