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 Maryland the first customers are in Baltimore. Opening and closing are the calendar, with a summer of chemistry in between.
Maryland summers are humid and winters freeze, with nor'easters on the coast and a rowhouse city in Baltimore that is not the same job as the counties. A DC license does not cover Maryland.
File an LLC with the Maryland Business Express. We do not have a filing fee for Maryland that we are willing to print. The Maryland Business Express 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 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 Maryland Business Express before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Baltimore.
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 Maryland that we are willing to print. The Maryland Business Express 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 Maryland licensing page we could verify is the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. 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.
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 Maryland.
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.
Baltimore: humid summers, cold winters, nor'easters, and freeze-thaw on brick and flat roofs Weekly chemistry and equipment repair only if that is really the offer. In Baltimore, MD, list Federal Hill and Columbia 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 Baltimore, 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.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
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 Maryland that we are willing to print. The Maryland Business Express publishes it. Sole proprietors who operate under their own name often skip this filing. Confirm that on the same site.
The Maryland licensing page we could verify is the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. 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.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Baltimore. Rowhouse owners hire a crew that understands shared walls, roof access, and a street with nowhere to stage. 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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