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.
Start with weekly residential stops you can reach in a cluster. Add equipment repair when you can diagnose a pump without guessing. Leave resurfacing and new construction off the page until the license and the crew are real. If the metro barely has pools, do not pretend you have a fifty-stop week. In Georgia the first customers are in Atlanta. Pools exist and they are not on every street.
Georgia summers are humid, pollen is heavy, and ice storms are rare but hard on trees. Crawl spaces and red clay are common outside the newest slabs. Confirm the state licensing division and the city permit counter separately.
We could not confirm a direct filing address for Georgia. Open the SBA: state registration lookup and choose this state. We do not have a filing fee for Georgia that we are willing to print. Use the SBA lookup, choose Georgia, and read the fee on the state office's own page. 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 progressUse a name that says pools, so a green-pool call does not land on a lawn company by accident. Search the state filing office and the city. The name on the invoice, the route sheet, and the voicemail should match.
Search that name at the SBA: state registration lookup before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Atlanta.
A weekly route often starts as a sole proprietorship. An LLC makes sense when you hire, when you repair equipment under a company name, or when an HOA wants a certificate. The filing does not decide the chemical rules or the contractor license for equipment replacement. Read those separately. This page is not legal advice.
We do not have a filing fee for Georgia that we are willing to print. Use the SBA lookup, choose Georgia, and read the fee on the state office's own page. 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.
Georgia licenses residential and general contractors through the Secretary of State. We could not load that licensing page from here, so this page does not guess the address. Use the SBA lookup, then the Secretary of State licensing division, and confirm the URL before you apply.
Read the contractor board and any state pool or spa technician page. Weekly service and construction are different questions. Get the city business license. Do not advertise gas heaters, electrical bonding, or a new pool build unless you hold that classification.
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 you are on someone else's deck. Chemical spills and equipment you took apart are the claims to describe to the insurer. Commercial auto for the route vehicle. Workers' compensation before a second person is handling chemicals or a pump. A property manager will ask for the certificate.
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 Georgia.
Route payments are small and weekly. They vanish in a personal account. Deposit them, note the address, and set tax money aside every Friday. Equipment repairs are larger and should hit the same account so you can see which visits actually paid.
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 a weekly stop from the pool size, the access, and how far it sits from the rest of the route. A green-pool recovery and a pump replacement are different quotes. Write all three down: the weekly stop, the recovery, and the repair you will refer.
A long swim season and a three-month season cannot share a national monthly price. Chemicals and drive time are local. Adjust after a month of real stops, and tell a customer when the price changes for a route that got farther away.
Atlanta: humid heat, pollen season, pine debris, and ice storms that are rare but hard on trees and lines Weekly chemistry and equipment repair only if that is really the offer. In Atlanta, GA, list Decatur and Sandy Springs together only if one crew really covers both.
Google Business Profile aimed at the neighborhoods that have pools, not a downtown of apartments. Reviews should say weekly service or a repair, and the area. The website splits those offers and asks which one they need. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps the requests. It does not balance the water.
In Atlanta, 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 Georgia that we are willing to print. Use the SBA lookup, choose Georgia, and read the fee on the state office's own page. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
Georgia licenses residential and general contractors through the Secretary of State. We could not load that licensing page from here, so this page does not guess the address. Use the SBA lookup, then the Secretary of State licensing division, and confirm the URL before you apply. Read the contractor board and any state pool or spa technician page. Weekly service and construction are different questions. Get the city business license. Do not advertise gas heaters, electrical bonding, or a new pool build unless you hold that classification.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Atlanta. Intown customers want a crew that can park and protect old floors. 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 pool service business steps · Pool service website guide
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