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 Texas the first customers are in Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Austin plumbing is slab leaks on clay and water heaters dying in attics that hit brutal summer temperatures. Houston plumbing is slab leaks, sewer backflow after heavy rain, and pier-and-beam leaks in The Heights that a slab specialist may not want. Dallas–Fort Worth plumbing follows the clay. San Antonio plumbing is attic heat, slab leaks, and older houses in King William and Alamo Heights that do not match a Stone Oak tract. Valley plumbing is heat on water heaters and slab leaks in houses that almost never freeze.
Texas is several markets: Gulf humidity, north-Texas hail, a short freeze that still breaks pipes, and a Valley that almost never freezes. The license depends on the trade. City permits sit on top. Do not use one city page for the whole state.
File an LLC with the Texas Secretary of State business filings. The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. 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 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 Texas Secretary of State business filings before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Austin.
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.
The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. 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 Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
TDLR licenses some trades, including electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Its program list does not include a general landscaper license. Irrigation and pesticide work have their own offices below. Cities can still require a registration.
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.
The TDLR description we verified names electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Open the agency's program list and read the plumbing entry on that site before you assume the electrician page is yours. City permits for water heaters and sewer work are a separate phone call.
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 Texas.
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.
Austin: long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes Slab leaks, attic water heaters, drain cleaning, and permitted sewer repairs. Houston: Gulf humidity, hurricane season, and street flooding that reaches houses the maps called safe Slab leaks, sewer backflow, water heaters, and crawlspace or pier-and-beam leaks if you actually do them. Dallas–Fort Worth: hail season, tornado warnings, 100°F summers, and the occasional ice storm Slab leak location, water heaters, drain and sewer service, and repipes where the line is actually finished. San Antonio: long heat, limestone and clay, sudden rain, and watering rules tied to the Edwards Aquifer Slab leaks, attic water heaters, drain cleaning, and repipes on a defined map. McAllen–Edinburg: extreme heat, a mild winter, irrigation culture, and tropical wind and rain Water heaters, slab leaks, drain and sewer service, and a Valley town list.
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 Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg, 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.
Texas plumbing is a license question and a city question, and they are not the same desk. The TDLR note we could verify on this site names electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Open TDLR's own program list and read the plumbing entry before you assume the electrician page is yours. City permits for water heaters and sewer work are a second phone call. Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Austin customers will ask which of those cities you actually reach. Pick one metro for the first month.
The first useful jobs are the ones you can finish: a water heater, a drain you understand, a leak you can isolate. A repipe and a slab diagnosis can wait until you have timed the smaller visits. Price those with your own overhead in the job pricing calculator. Do not copy a forum rate from another state. Insurance is a quote. The Form 205 instructions listed a $300 certificate-of-formation fee when we read them. Confirm it before you pay, and remember you can start as a sole proprietor if an LLC is not the structure you want yet.
Publish a page that names the cities and the failures, then put that URL on the Google listing. A website does not create the license. It gives the person who will not hire from a shared lead a place to check the towns and send the address. Keep the requests in one list so the callback is not a text you see on Sunday.
The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
The Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. TDLR licenses some trades, including electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Its program list does not include a general landscaper license. Irrigation and pesticide work have their own offices below. Cities can still require a registration.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Owners compare a local page with a Google profile and a marketplace lead. 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.
Do not guess from the electrician page. The TDLR description verified for this site names electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Open the agency's program list and read the plumbing entry on that site, then ask the city about permits for water heaters and sewer work.
One metro you can reach in a day. Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Austin are different drives and different housing. A statewide service area fills the calendar with estimates you will decline.
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