According to www.cagold.ca.gov, it appears business licenses are required for service-only businesses; however, I may be mistaken in that they did not list our industry specifically as a choice in the "wizard" form. While they did not have our industry listed, I did chose other service-only businesses, like janitorial services, and marketing consulting. Also, someone cited s reference that said that piano technicians did not need a license or permits. http://education-portal.com/piano_technician_training.html "Licenses and Certifications Piano technicians are not required to be licensed. The PTG offers the industry's only regulated credentials, available to its members. Qualified piano technicians who pass three technical exams can obtain Registered Piano Technician (RPT) credentials. Although RPT certification is not required, it is typically an important selling point for self-employed piano technicians pursuing clients." Are you sure that reference wasn't talking about professional licensing and permitting, such as taxi cab drivers, medical doctors, massage therapists, lawyers, construction contractors, etc. instead of your standard business operation license? My understanding is our industry is not regulated by federal / state / local governments, like taxi cab drivers, medical doctors, etc. are. So, that is why we don't need a professional license / permit. However, I do not believe they are referring to your standard business (operation) license. So, from what I know, in California piano technicians, even if they keep their businesses limited to service-only businesses (no retail selling of piano benches, used pianos, etc.) still must have a valid business license to legally operate. I am not an attorney by any stretch of the imagination, so I could be quite wrong, but that is just my understanding of what is or isn't required by law. But like others have said, there appears to be so many differences between the various states, counties, and cities across the U.S. that it is enough to leave most people scratching their heads. I also know that a lot of the time the staff who answer the phones when you call the various departments to find out about business licenses do not have a clue of what is and isn't required-even though they sure pretend they do. For example, I emailed a business counselor at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) commenting about how I was told it would be $415 for just my business license (not the home business permit, fictitious name permit, etc.). He told me that fee seemed extremely high. He said it should be closer to $100. The same government worker who told me my business license would be $415 was the same person who told me I couldn't operate my business from where I'm living. So, I guess the only way to find out-hopefully-is to go down to the government office in person and talk to someone who is actually the one who approves or disapproves of business licensing & home-business permits in my county. It doesn't help that my county doesn't list the various fees, etc. on their Website. Based on what I've learned and the feedback I've received from this list, it appears I have a few realistic options to legally be able to start my business if we decide to remain where we are currently located: - I can contact a nearby piano technician who doesn't have the same head-scratching land-use restrictions I have and see if I can possibly "rent" shop space from them; - Sign up for space at a small business "incubator" location which will allow the performance of small repair work that I will likely come across (about $50 per month); - Subcontract those few jobs out to another technician; - or, just do the work on-site, even if it takes several trips (probably the option I would go for as a last result.but that's me <grin>) Alternatively, I just wait until we move to another location without the restrictions. But then, hopefully what I was told by that one government worker was incorrect. Thank you everyone for all your suggestions! I know this is a complicated topic-what is and is not required by law for us to operate our businesses. Warmly, Hy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100718/d7bb2c5e/attachment.htm>
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