This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Book the kind of job you can prep well with the tools you have. Interiors in occupied houses are a different calendar from empty move-outs and from exteriors. Pick one for the first month and write the other as a waitlist. In California the first customers are in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento. Los Angeles painting is stucco, sun, and a long exterior season with fire-zone and color questions in some hills. San Diego stucco takes sun inland and salt toward La Jolla and Oceanside. Stucco and sun on one side of the metro, fog and older wood on the other. Stucco and sun on one side of the metro, fog and older wood on the other. Heat and sun on stucco are the exterior story. Heat and sun on stucco are the exterior story.
California is several climates. Coastal fog, inland heat, drought rules, and earthquakes all change the work. A license from the Contractors State License Board is the state starting point. The city permit is a second step.
File an LLC with the California Secretary of State. 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.
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.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
Keep the checklist on your account
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.
Choose a name that fits on a proposal and a shirt. Search the state and the city. Interior and exterior can live under one name if you are honest about which one you are booking this month. The voicemail should say it.
Search that name at the California Secretary of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Los Angeles.
Painters often start as sole proprietors and form an LLC when the jobs get larger than a few rooms or when a general contractor wants a company on the certificate. Either is a real start. The LLC filing does not decide whether a city wants a home-improvement registration. Read that separately. Ask an accountant if you are hiring painters as employees and still thinking of them as subcontractors.
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.
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 California licensing page we could verify is the California Contractors State License Board. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Check the contractor or home-improvement board for painting, and read any project-cost threshold on that site. Exterior repairs that go past paint can be a different license. Ask the city about a business license either way.
Read the painting classification at the Contractors State License Board, and read how much work you can do before that license applies. The board publishes the rule. Lead-safe work is an additional federal requirement in older houses. Los Angeles permits matter when the job is more than paint.
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 overspray, floors, and a ladder falling the wrong way. If you spray, say so to the insurer. Commercial auto when the van carries ladders and paint as the business. Workers' compensation before a second painter is on a ladder. A certificate is a normal request from a contractor who hired you for the interior.
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 California.
Deposits on paint and the final check should hit a business account. Material stores will put the company name on the receipt if the card matches. Keep the deposit schedule on the proposal so you are not funding a whole interior on a personal card.
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.
07Price the work California actually has
Price interior and exterior separately. Rooms or elevation, occupied or empty, and what prep includes: caulk, patch, sand, primer. Color advice is optional. Prep is the job. Cabinets are their own price.
Climate decides when exterior paint will fail and when you can apply it. Build dry time into the schedule. Do not quote a whole exterior from photos without asking about the surface: stucco, wood, brick, or previously painted siding.
Los Angeles: a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Stucco exteriors, interior repaints, and a basin you can reach. San Diego: a cool marine layer on the coast, real heat inland, drought, and almost no winter freeze Stucco exteriors, interior repaints, and a coastal or inland limit. San Francisco: marine fog, a mild wet winter, dry summers, almost no freeze, and earthquakes that changed how houses are braced Interior and exterior as different seasons, with the prep named. In San Francisco, CA, list Sunset and Daly City together only if one crew really covers both. San Jose: mild wet winters, dry warm summers, drought, earthquake risk, and wildfire smoke that sometimes sits on the valley Interior and exterior as different seasons, with the prep named. In San Jose, CA, list Willow Glen and Cupertino together only if one crew really covers both. Riverside: hot inland summers, Santa Ana winds, a dry year most years, and wildfire weather on the edges Interior and exterior as different seasons, with the prep named. In Riverside, CA, list Riverside and Rancho Cucamonga together only if one crew really covers both. Sacramento: hot dry summers, cool wet winters, valley fog, and a delta breeze that does not replace air conditioning Interior and exterior as different seasons, with the prep named. In Sacramento, CA, list Midtown and Roseville together only if one crew really covers both.
08Get found, then create the free site
Google Business Profile with photos of your own edges and the neighborhoods you work. Reviews should say interior or exterior and the area. The website splits those services and the form asks for rooms or elevation and timing. ServiceBase turns that into a public page and a list of requests.
In Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento, 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.
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.
What license does a painter need in California?
The California licensing page we could verify is the California Contractors State License Board. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Where should a new painting business start in California?
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside, Sacramento. Distance is the objection. A statewide claim is a weak service area.
Is the EIN free?
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.
