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.
Pick the calls you already know how to finish: drains and water heaters, or repipes, not all of them in week one. Write the referrals down. Gas, boilers, and sewer cameras can wait until they are honestly on the truck. In North Carolina the first customers are in Charlotte, Raleigh. Charlotte plumbing is a mix of older drains in Plaza Midwood and NoDa and newer slab or crawl-space houses in Matthews and Huntersville. Crawl-space leaks and water heaters in older houses sit next to slab work in the new subdivisions.
North Carolina summers are humid, winters are milder than the Northeast with ice now and then, and the Piedmont is growing quickly. Red clay and crawl spaces are common. The general-contractor threshold is not the license for every trade.
File an LLC with the North Carolina Secretary of State. We do not have a filing fee for North Carolina that we are willing to print. The North Carolina Secretary of State 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 progressThe name should sound like a plumber a neighbor would recommend. Search the state filing office and the license board, because the name on the license and the name on the invoice have to match. Spell it the way you will answer the phone at night.
Search that name at the North Carolina Secretary of State before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Charlotte.
You can start as a sole proprietor if the state lets the license sit in your own name. Form an LLC when you want the company on the license, the van, and the bank account, and when the board's qualifier rules allow it. Read those rules first. An LLC does not authorize an apprentice to pull permits. File with the state before you apply for an EIN if you are forming the company.
We do not have a filing fee for North Carolina that we are willing to print. The North Carolina Secretary of State 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 North Carolina licensing page we could verify is the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
The board says a general contractor license is required when the project cost is at or above the threshold on its site. Read that page. Other trades have their own boards.
Read the plumbing board for the exam, the hours, and who may pull a permit. Then check the city for water-heater and sewer permits. The license number belongs on the site next to the phone.
Read the North Carolina general contractor threshold only to see that it is not the plumbing license. Plumbing has its own board. Find it from the state's site, then check Mecklenburg permits if you are working in Charlotte.
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 names plumbing, including water damage. Commercial auto for the van. Workers' compensation before a second person is in a crawl space or an attic. A water-heater job can become a claim weeks later, so ask the insurer about completed operations and keep the certificate current.
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 North Carolina.
Parts houses and permit fees belong on the business account. Emergency work pays in bursts. Move tax money the day the deposit clears so a slow week does not spend it. The account name should match the name on the invoice you text the customer.
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.
Publish a service-call or diagnostic price, and quote the repair after you see it. Drains, water heaters, slab leaks, and fixtures are different visits. Say whether after-hours is a real dispatch or the next morning.
The housing decides the price more than a national rate sheet. An attic heater, a boiler, a stack in a rowhouse, and a slab leak are not one line item. Name the one you want, and refer the one you do not.
Charlotte: humid summers, mild winters, pine pollen, and storms that drop limbs and leak through flashing Leak repair, water heaters, drain cameras, and water heaters or repipes in the towns you list. Raleigh: humid summers, mild winters with the occasional ice storm, heavy pine pollen, and red clay Leak repair, water heaters, and the drain or sewer work you can finish. In Raleigh, NC, list North Hills and Holly Springs together only if one crew really covers both.
Google Business Profile with the license and the neighborhoods you will drive at night. Reviews that say 'slab leak in Meyerland' are worth more than 'great guy.' The website names the failures, and the form asks what is leaking and whether water is still moving. ServiceBase files that request so you can call it back when you are out from under a house.
In Charlotte, Raleigh, 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 North Carolina that we are willing to print. The North Carolina Secretary of State publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
The North Carolina licensing page we could verify is the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. The board says a general contractor license is required when the project cost is at or above the threshold on its site. Read that page. Other trades have their own boards.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Charlotte, Raleigh. New residents compare quotes from phones. 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 plumbing business steps · Plumbing website guide
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