Business License Search – Find Permits & Licenses for Your LLC


Steve Bennett
Steve Bennett
Business Formation Expert
Steve runs LLCBuddy, helping entrepreneurs set up their LLCs easily. He offers clear guides, articles, and FAQs to simplify the process. His team keeps everything accurate and current, focusing on state rules, registered agents, and compliance. Steve’s passion for helping businesses grow makes LLCBuddy a go-to resource for starting and managing an LLC.

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Business License Search: If you are about to start a Limited Liability Company, you must be aware of business licenses and other permits. When it comes to forming an LLC, it is necessary to check on many things beforehand. One of the most important things to do is a business license search through which we get details of registered businesses in the state.

The business license database has every detail of all the registered businesses in a state. Hence, before forming your LLC, you must check if the same business is registered with the State SOS. If the desired name of your LLC is already taken and registered, you need to find an alternative and available name for your LLC. In this article, we share various ways to run a license search to verify whether the planned liability company can be established in the said state.

Types of Business License Search

Several times, licenses are needed to establish the office properly in a given state, along with Limited Liability partnerships between the members. So kindly note that we have explained the major search types using which you can check whether proper licenses for your business plan are available or not.

Search by Address

Recording your physical business address in the business license database is mandatory. So, before choosing a location permanently for the Limited Liability Company – LLC, your job will be to search the business licenses based on the address. This search will provide all the companies’ names at the given address. You can easily request to use top consultants’ search tools like LegalZoom to learn more about the search by address process.

Search by City and Country

With this search request, you will be able to look into all the companies, both foreign and domestic LLCs, that are present in the city or the country. Every liability corporation adopts a broader approach to understanding the market in a specific city.

Search by Business Type

Before moving onto the process of business filings, you need to ensure whether a license is available for your LLC plan. For this, you need to search the entity names of the LLCs which match your business type, which can be a retail LLC, a full-time LLC company, and so on. LegalZoom is one of the top LLC consultants who will help you to search the business types efficiently.

Search by Territory

For executive name searches to get the business license, you need to filter the database based on the territory where you want to establish the company. Depending on the type of license documents you want to have, you can either search by state or country to get a clear idea about the LLC business.

Search by Purpose

Lastly, every person who is a designated member of a new LLC should run a business license search by purpose. Here, you will have to input the purpose of your LLC and check whether the limited partnerships of the company match the search results or not.

F.A.Qs

Why is a business license search necessary?

With the business license search database, you can understand what the available licenses are your business needs for making different Liability Company statements.

Why is a license essential for an LLC?

A business license is a legal note or permission by a state to any business. Without any legal license, your LLC will be invalid and illegal in the eyes of state laws. So, to function swiftly and comply with the legal rules, you must get a business license as soon as possible.

How to Search for Business License With EIN

To locate a business license for a given Employer Identification Number (EIN), I follow a systematic procedure that forms the skeleton of my search. My search commences with collection of relevant data that comprises the EIN. This number is crucial as it separates the business entity in question from other business entities. I always make it a point to verify the number’s accuracy because a slip-up in even the smallest details could forfeit my chances of successfully locating an EIN.

Now, I shall describe the logical workflow that I follow. A significant number of states maintain a business licensing database that is open to the general public over the internet. My next step is to go to the designated state agency website, often a Secretary of State office or equivalent, where I need to go to perform my license verification. The first thing I do is type the EIN into the search field. Then I go through the filters and ensure that I have chosen the right ones such as type of business or license and category sub-filters. It saves me so much time on filtering that I would accomplish on results.

Sometimes I do not find what I was looking in that place and I try other possibilities. Some local governments like county clerks or town halls have their databases and they some times hold their own licensing records. These could be in the reach of other county officials. Or, I may simply call the agency and ask them directly.

Concerning the license verification process, a rep can typically clear the matters in question or deal with specific problems.

In relation to my search on EIN, I pay attention to how the license updates are done because they can shift and having the most recent information is useful to ensure that I am not overlooking something important.

I also keep a written record of the names of the agencies, the dates of verifications, and any other necessary follow-up actions that may need to be taken.

In Conclusion

A Business license is a mandatory document required to run a business. It is legal permission from the state authority for every business to operate within the state territory. Failing to obtain the proper license may lead to heavy penalties and the dissolution of your business forever. Before you start your business, decide which business license you need for your business.

Search for it and get that license once you form your business. This page has every possible way to search for a business license.

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