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 household cleanouts you can finish in one stop: furniture, bagged junk, and appliances the landfill will take. Add storm debris when you know where it goes. Leave demolition and anything hazardous off the page until the rules and the insurance both say you do that work. In Massachusetts the first customers are in Boston. Basement cleanouts and a winter when the curb rules change.
Massachusetts has nor'easters, ice dams, a long heating season, and strict trade licensing. Triple-deckers and boilers are ordinary in the urban core. Customers look the license up. Towns add their own permits.
File an LLC with the Massachusetts Corporations Division. We do not have a filing fee for Massachusetts that we are willing to print. The Massachusetts Corporations Division publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
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 progressPick a plain name a customer can text. Search the state records and the city. 'Hauling' and your city is enough. The name on the truck, the invoice, and the voicemail should match, because the customer is letting you into a garage full of their things.
Search that name at the Massachusetts Corporations Division before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Boston.
A lot of one-truck hauling businesses start as a sole proprietorship. Form an LLC when you are hiring, taking larger cleanout deposits, or putting the insurance in a company name. The filing does not decide what the landfill will accept. Read the city and the disposal site separately. Ask an accountant before you treat helpers as a favor. This page is not legal advice.
We do not have a filing fee for Massachusetts that we are willing to print. The Massachusetts Corporations Division publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
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 Massachusetts licensing page we could verify is the Massachusetts construction supervisor licensing. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
A construction supervisor license is not the only registration. Home improvement work can have a separate requirement. Read the page, then check the city.
Read the contractor board for a hauling or demolition line and any dollar threshold. Get the city business license. Read the local disposal rules before you promise to take paint, chemicals, or appliances. Do not invent a statewide junk-removal license if the official list does not name one.
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 for damage inside a house and for a load that shifts. Tell the insurer you haul from homes. Commercial auto for the truck, because a personal policy often excludes business use. Workers' compensation before anyone else is lifting. A property manager will ask for the certificate before the first cleanout.
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 Massachusetts.
Dump fees and the customer's payment should run through a business account. A load that cost more to dump than you charged is obvious only if both numbers hit the same account. Set tax money aside on the larger cleanouts. The small garage jobs disappear if you cash them into a personal wallet.
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 the volume, the stairs, the carry to the truck, and the dump fee. A garage you can back up to and a third-floor walk-up are different jobs. Write both numbers down. Publish the items you will not take so you are not arguing about paint in the driveway.
Storm debris and a household cleanout are different days. Do not use one flat 'truckload' price for both until you have timed them. Adjust after ten real loads, and tell the customer when a mattress or a piano changes the number.
Boston: nor'easters, ice dams, a long heating season, and summers humid enough to need real cooling The load you will take, the items you refuse, and where it legally goes. In Boston, MA, list Jamaica Plain and Quincy together only if one crew really covers both.
Google Business Profile with photos of empty garages and trucks you actually own, and a service area made of towns you drive. Reviews should name the neighborhood and the kind of load. The website lists what you refuse and asks for a photo. ServiceBase publishes that page and keeps the requests. It does not make a prohibited load legal.
In Boston, 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.
We do not have a filing fee for Massachusetts that we are willing to print. The Massachusetts Corporations Division publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
The Massachusetts licensing page we could verify is the Massachusetts construction supervisor licensing. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. A construction supervisor license is not the only registration. Home improvement work can have a separate requirement. Read the page, then check the city.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Boston. Customers ask about license class and whether you have worked in a triple-decker before they ask about a discount. 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 junk removal business steps · Junk removal website guide
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