Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics > Business
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 03-17-2014, 06:48 PM
 
2,209 posts, read 2,318,746 times
Reputation: 3428

Advertisements

Hello,

I am a freelance writer who has been offering pet sitting/house sitting services for the past three years as a side business in both San Francisco and in So. Cal. It is something that I really enjoy, and my goal is to turn it into an actual business (sole proprietorship) to make everything official and above board (tax-wise). I am bonded and insured, and as of this coming Saturday, I will be certified in dog and cat first aid. But I am confused about a few things:

I currently live in So. Cal (Cerritos), and most of my clients are in my local area (Los Angeles County). I do, however, accept long-term house sitting/pet sitting assignments in San Francisco; I did two separate assignments in SF last year; one at Park Merced, the other in Bernal Heights. This is something that I would like to continue to do (my ultimate goal is to relocate to SF in the next year or two, but that's only tentative at this point). My question revolves around getting a business license for this business. Since I live in Los Angeles County (Cerritos), but plan on doing business in both my area and in San Francisco, do I need two separate business licenses? Is there a way to get licensed for the whole state?

All of my local clients live in Los Angeles County, but they live in different cities; only a few of them live in my city of Cerritos. I'm unsure of which type of business license I would need if my goal is to work in different cities, and in the case of San Francisco, a different city and different county?

I can't seem to get a straight answer from any agency I have called. I called the SBA and the Treasury Dept., but everyone I have talked to just said to try this or that number or try talking to such and such agency or department. I keep getting put on hold, bounced around to different numbers, and getting hung up on while on hold. Frustrating!
House sitting and pet sitting seem to be the types of businesses that are hard for the state/county to define or place in a delineated bracket.

I would appreciate input from anyone who might be able to offer any assistance.

Thank you
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics > Business
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:53 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top