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.
Los Angeles glass depends on which basin you are in. Salt film near Long Beach is not the dust on a Sherman Oaks window, and a Pasadena route should not imply Santa Monica is on the way. Construction and ADU dust stick to new panes. Recurring clients want the same cadence. Say whether interior glass is included. Traffic makes a county-wide window claim a broken promise by Thursday.
stucco, some seismic bracing, ADUs tucked behind older houses, and water heaters that must be strapped a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Exterior routes and interior glass inside one part of the basin, with screens called out separately.
Start the route in Pasadena, Long Beach, and Santa Monica. Add Sherman Oaks and Silver Lake when you can reach them the same day. Distance is the objection. A page that claims the whole county without saying where the truck starts will not get the call from the far side of the basin.
The California guide has the filing office and the LLC fee we could verify ($70 to file). This page is the local version: what the first jobs are, which permit counter to call, and how to price a day here.
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 progresswindow cleaner names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Pasadena.
Search it at the California Secretary of State before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
A lot of window routes start as a sole proprietorship because the owner is the person on the pole. That can be you, under your own name, with no formation filing. An LLC is a state filing and a separate company on paper. It does not license you, and it does not replace insurance. Form the LLC when you hire, when a storefront wants the company on a certificate, or when you want the bank account in the business name. If you are unsure, ask an accountant before you pay a filing fee. This page is not that advice.
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.
If your customers are in Los Angeles, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy California. Read the filing office's rule. A neighbor's kitchen table is not always an acceptable address.
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.
Read the contractor board far enough to see whether window cleaning is on it, including any project-cost threshold printed there. Then get the city business license and the tax permit the revenue department describes. Adding pressure washing or building repairs is a second read, not a free extra.
State page: California Contractors State License Board. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
LADBS permits is the local counter for work in Los Angeles. We are naming that office, not linking a fee schedule we have not read. Call them or open the city's own site and ask what a new window cleaner has to register before the first job in Long Beach.
The California guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability before the pole goes onto someone else's glass. Tell the insurer you do ladders and, if it is true, that you step inside for interior panes. A broken pane and a soaked sill are the claims. Commercial auto if the car or van is how you move between stops, because a personal policy often excludes business use. If anyone else is on a ladder or carrying water, ask about workers' compensation before they start. Do not copy a headcount from another state. Keep a certificate you can send the same day a property manager asks.
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 Los Angeles.
Deposit route money into a business checking account the same week. Window stops pay small amounts, and those amounts vanish in a personal account. Note which address paid. Set tax money aside every Friday, before a good week feels like spending money.
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 the visit from stories, panes or a simple house size, interior versus exterior, and screens. Hard-water removal is its own line if you offer it. A ground-floor exterior and a second-story interior are different jobs. Write both numbers down before you need them in a driveway.
Pollen, salt, construction dust, and stairs change the time. A price copied from an empty suburban photo will lose money in a walk-up. Adjust the numbers after you have timed ten real stops, and tell recurring customers when the price changes.
a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water stucco, some seismic bracing, ADUs tucked behind older houses, and water heaters that must be strapped That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. Exterior routes and interior glass inside one part of the basin, with screens called out separately.
Write the price you want for the common job in Pasadena and the price you want for a far stop in Silver Lake. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Silver Lake off the service area.
Claim the Google Business Profile for Los Angeles, CA. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Pasadena, Long Beach, and Santa Monica if those are real stops, and it should leave off towns you will not drive.
Ask for a review after a clean job, and ask them to mention the neighborhood and the task. A review that says the work and Sherman Oaks helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
Claim the Google Business Profile in the business name, with hours you actually answer and a service area made of towns you drive. Ask for a review after a clean visit, and ask the customer to name the neighborhood and whether it was exterior, interior, or a storefront. Publish a one-page site that splits those services, and put a form on it that asks for stories, interior or exterior, screens, and a date. ServiceBase does that page and files the requests. It does not get the city license or the insurance.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free window cleaning site with Los Angeles already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace LADBS permits.
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Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade and city filled in. You can change every line after.
Pick the service you can finish, search the name at the California Secretary of State, get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (California Contractors State License Board), call LADBS permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Pasadena and the jobs you want. Exterior routes and interior glass inside one part of the basin, with screens called out separately.
Read the contractor board far enough to see whether window cleaning is on it, including any project-cost threshold printed there. Then get the city business license and the tax permit the revenue department describes. Adding pressure washing or building repairs is a second read, not a free extra. Start at the California Contractors State License Board. Then ask LADBS permits what the city adds.
Price the visit from stories, panes or a simple house size, interior versus exterior, and screens. Hard-water removal is its own line if you offer it. A ground-floor exterior and a second-story interior are different jobs. Write both numbers down before you need them in a driveway. a mild coast, hot valleys, drought, and wildfire weather that changes how people build and water Time the first ten jobs in Pasadena and Santa Monica before you copy a price from another city.
You can draft it. Put it in public under the name you will actually use, with the phone you answer. If the state requires the license before you advertise the work, wait. The free ServiceBase site does not file the company. Signup can open with window cleaner and Los Angeles filled in so you are not retyping them.
California filing and license · Free window cleaning website in Los Angeles, CA · All trades in Los Angeles, CA
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