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.
San Diego landscaping splits at the marine layer. North Park, Hillcrest, and La Jolla are mild, dry, and full of small yards and courtyards. Chula Vista and inland lots take more heat, and Oceanside is a drive up the coast. Drought planting is the default expectation. A page of Midwest sod will look imported. If you only work one side of the county because of traffic, say that. It is a better ad than a county-wide claim you cannot keep.
stucco, some older bungalows without air conditioning, tile roofs, and a large inland stock that does need cooling a cool marine layer on the coast, real heat inland, drought, and almost no winter freeze Drought planting, small-yard maintenance, irrigation repair, and a coast-versus-inland boundary.
Start the route in North Park, Hillcrest, and La Jolla. Add Chula Vista and Oceanside when you can reach them the same day. Coast and inland customers find you with the same search terms and then reject you if the page describes the wrong climate.
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 progresslandscaper names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in North Park.
Search it at the California Secretary of State before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
A lot of mowing routes start as a sole proprietorship because the owner is the crew. That can be you, operating under your own name, with no formation filing. An LLC is a state filing and a separate company on paper. It does not license you, and it does not replace insurance. Form the LLC when you are hiring, signing HOA contracts, or buying equipment in the company name. If you are unsure which one fits, ask an accountant before you pay a filing fee. This page is not that advice.
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 Diego, 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.
Confirm whether mowing itself is on the state license list. Then check irrigation, pesticide application, and the city business license as separate questions. Advertising a service the board licenses, before you hold that license, is how a new route gets shut down.
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.
City of San Diego permits is the local counter for work in San Diego. 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 landscaper has to register before the first job in Hillcrest.
The California guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability before the mower goes onto someone else's grass. Commercial auto if a truck or trailer is part of the work, because a personal auto policy often excludes business use. If anyone rides along or runs a trimmer for you, ask about workers' compensation before they start. HOAs and realtors ask for a certificate sooner than a homeowner does. Keep a PDF you can send the same day.
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 Diego.
Open a checking account in the business name once the tax ID is real. Deposit route money there, and move a slice of every paid week into a separate savings bucket for taxes and repairs. Equipment payments and personal groceries in the same account make April miserable. A local credit union is a valid choice. So is an online business account, if you can deposit checks without driving across the metro.
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 stop, not a number you saw in a national forum. Time on the property, drive time between stops you already have, dump fees, and whether irrigation or a cleanup is included. A weekly cut on a small fenced yard and a bed rebuild are different jobs. Write three numbers before you need them: the route stop, the half-day cleanup, and the job you will refer.
Heat, watering limits, and HOA rules change how many stops fit in a day. A price copied from a mild climate under-prices a summer route. Adjust the three numbers after ten real invoices, not after one nervous conversation in a driveway.
a cool marine layer on the coast, real heat inland, drought, and almost no winter freeze stucco, some older bungalows without air conditioning, tile roofs, and a large inland stock that does need cooling That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. Drought planting, small-yard maintenance, irrigation repair, and a coast-versus-inland boundary.
Write the price you want for the common job in North Park and the price you want for a far stop in Oceanside. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Oceanside off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for San Diego, CA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list North Park, Hillcrest, and La Jolla 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 Chula Vista helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
Claim the Google Business Profile in the business name, with the hours you actually answer and a service area made of towns you drive. Ask for a review only after a clean visit, and ask the customer to name the neighborhood and the work. Publish a one-page site that splits mowing from irrigation and cleanup, and put a form on it that asks for the address and whether they want a route or a one-time rescue. ServiceBase does that page and files the requests in a list. It does not get the license or the insurance.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free landscaper site with San Diego already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace City of San Diego 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 City of San Diego permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names North Park and the jobs you want. Drought planting, small-yard maintenance, irrigation repair, and a coast-versus-inland boundary.
Confirm whether mowing itself is on the state license list. Then check irrigation, pesticide application, and the city business license as separate questions. Advertising a service the board licenses, before you hold that license, is how a new route gets shut down. Start at the California Contractors State License Board. Then ask City of San Diego permits what the city adds.
Price the stop, not a number you saw in a national forum. Time on the property, drive time between stops you already have, dump fees, and whether irrigation or a cleanup is included. A weekly cut on a small fenced yard and a bed rebuild are different jobs. Write three numbers before you need them: the route stop, the half-day cleanup, and the job you will refer. a cool marine layer on the coast, real heat inland, drought, and almost no winter freeze Time the first ten jobs in North Park and La Jolla 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 landscaper and San Diego filled in so you are not retyping them.
California filing and license · Free landscaper website in San Diego, CA · All trades in San Diego, CA
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