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.
Sell the one service you can finish with the trailer you have. Weekly mowing, irrigation repair, and a one-time cleanup are three businesses that often share a truck and should not share one vague sentence. Add the next service when the first has a route. In New York the first customers are in New York. Most of New York is not a lawn route.
New York City is stacks, boilers, and the Department of Buildings. Upstate is a different winter and a different house. The state license and the city permit are both real. Do not describe the whole state as one service area.
File an LLC with the New York Department of State. The New York Department of State fee schedule lists articles of organization at $200. The same schedule lists $50 to file the publication certificate. That $50 is the department's filing fee, not the newspaper bill. Read the schedule and the articles page before you budget. 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 a homeowner can repeat to a neighbor. 'Green' plus your city is already taken in most metros. Search the state filing office, then say the name out loud once. If you stumble on the spelling, pick another. The name on the shirt, the voicemail, the invoice, and the website has to be the same name.
Search that name at the New York Department of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in New York.
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.
The New York Department of State fee schedule lists articles of organization at $200. The same schedule lists $50 to file the publication certificate. That $50 is the department's filing fee, not the newspaper bill. Read the schedule and the articles page before you budget. 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.
New York files business entities with the Department of State. Contractor and home-improvement licenses are often the city or county, not one statewide board. Check the place you will work.
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.
Most of New York City is not a mowing route. The license question is local. File the company with the Department of State, then read the city's business licensing pages for the work you will actually do: a small garden, a tree pit, or a true lawn in an outer borough. We did not find a statewide landscaper license to link.
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 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 New York.
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.
New York: cold winters, humid summers, nor'easters, and freeze-thaw that opens brick and flat roofs Small gardens, seasonal cleanups, tree-pit care, and the limited lawn work in outer-borough houses.
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.
In New York, 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 New York Department of State fee schedule lists articles of organization at $200. The same schedule lists $50 to file the publication certificate. That $50 is the department's filing fee, not the newspaper bill. Read the schedule and the articles page before you budget. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
New York files business entities with the Department of State. Contractor and home-improvement licenses are often the city or county, not one statewide board. Check the place you will work. 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 where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover New York. In the city the customer may be an owner, a super, or a co-op board. 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.
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