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Licenses

Track business licenses, renewals, and associated costs

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Do You Need a Music License to Play Spotify in Your Store? A 2026 Small Business Guide to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the Section 110(5) Exemption

A personal Spotify plan is not a public-performance license. Playing it for customers exposes a business to statutory damages of $750–$30,000 per song ($150,000 if willful), while blanket licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR run roughly $500–$2,000 a year and business music services cost $17–$60 a month per location. The Section 110(5) exemption covers only over-the-air radio and TV in establishments under 2,000 square feet (3,750 for food and drink), never streaming.

mike

small-businesscompliancelicenses

Security Camera and CCTV Installation Business Bookkeeping: Job Costing, Monitoring Revenue, and Truck Stock

A security camera installer runs three businesses out of one bank account — installs, monitoring contracts, and truck stock. This guide covers job-costing installs as separate equipment and labor buckets, booking monitoring fees as deferred revenue, cycle-counting truck inventory, budgeting licensing and certifications, and the eight monthly KPIs that decide what the company is worth.

mike

small-businessbookkeepingjob-costing

Selling Seeds Legally: Federal Seed Act Labels, the Five-Month Germination Clock, and State Permits

Seed is only sellable if the label behind it is compliant — the Federal Seed Act requires kind, variety, lot number, germination percentage and test date, allows no more than five calendar months between the germination test month and interstate shipment (24 months for hermetically sealed containers), and demands three years of lot records. Most states add a labeler permit and their own sell-by limits on top.

mike

agriculturecompliancesmall-business

New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor Licensing: What Changed and How to Stay Compliant

New Jersey is converting home improvement contracting from registration to licensure under P.L.2023 c.237, with licensing provisions effective February 1, 2026. Registration still costs $110 a year, requires $500,000 in general liability coverage and a displayed 13VH number, and any contract over $500 must be written — violations are automatic Consumer Fraud Act unlawful practices carrying treble damages plus attorney's fees, while unregistered contractors generally cannot sue to collect payment.

mike

constructionlicensescompliance

Austin's New STR Rules Put Your Listing on a 10-Day Clock: A Host's Compliance and Bookkeeping Guide

Since July 1, 2026, Airbnb and Vrbo must verify Austin STR license numbers, refuse unlicensed bookings, and remove flagged listings within 10 days of city notice, with fines up to $500 per day. Here are the license costs ($836.30 new, $385.30 renewal, two-year term), the 17% occupancy-tax stack, the quarterly filings platform collection does not cover, and the per-property books that keep it provable.

mike

real-estateproperty-managementtax-compliance

31 States, One Playbook: What the Money Transmission Modernization Act Means for Your Money-Transfer Business

Thirty-one states have adopted the Money Transmission Modernization Act, harmonizing money transmitter licensing around three financial pillars — tangible net worth on a 3%/2%/0.5% sliding scale, a surety bond equal to 100% of average daily transmission liability between a $100,000 floor and a $500,000 cap, and permissible investments backing every outstanding customer obligation — plus one shared NMLS application process.

mike

money-transmittermsbcompliance

Polygraph Examiner Bookkeeping: Training Costs, Per-Exam Pricing, and EPPA Record Retention

A private polygraph exam bills $400–$1,150, the 400-hour APA-accredited examiner course runs $5,000–$8,000, and a computerized instrument costs $5,000–$12,000 — while EPPA requires a $50,000 bond, three-year record retention, and caps examiners at five tests per day. Here is how to structure revenue lines, deposit liabilities, and compliance costs for a polygraph practice.

mike

small-businessbookkeepingcompliance

Delaware's 4.5% Short-Term Rental Lodging Tax: A Host's Guide to the License and Monthly Filing

Delaware taxes short-term rental stays at 4.5% of rent for agreements entered on or after January 1, 2025. Who collects depends on the booking channel — platforms remit for platform bookings, but direct-booking hosts need the $25 accommodations intermediary license and must file monthly by the 15th, even for zero-income periods. Cleaning fees, linens, and deposits are excluded from the tax base.

mike

tax-compliancereal-estateproperty-management

Georgia Rewrote Its Specialty Contractor Licensing Law: What Your Shop Must Fix Before the Next Job

Georgia's SB 553 (Act 472) rewrote Chapter 14 contractor licensing effective July 1, 2026 — one year of experience now means 2,000 documented hours, license lending is explicit grounds for discipline, and advertising regulated trade services without a license counts as evidence of unlicensed practice. A record-keeping checklist for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, low-voltage, and utility shops.

mike

licensespermitscompliance

California SB 779 Raises Unlicensed Contracting Fines to a $1,500 Minimum: A Compliance and Bookkeeping Checklist for Contractors

California's SB 779, effective July 1, 2026, raised the minimum civil penalty for unlicensed contracting from $200 to $1,500 per violation, with a $15,000 cap, $30,000 for aiding unlicensed work, and inflation adjustments every five years. This guide explains the full penalty stack, including B&P Code 7031 disgorgement that lets clients recover every dollar paid, and gives contractors an eight-step compliance and bookkeeping checklist covering license verification, expiration calendars, subcontractor credential files and nondeductible fine accounting.

mike

constructioncompliancelicenses

Flipping Cars as a Side Hustle: Dealer License Limits, Curbstoning Laws, and the Books That Keep You Legal

How many used cars you can flip before your state calls you an unlicensed dealer (Illinois 4, Michigan 3, California no safe harbor, FTC Used Car Rule at 6), why title jumping is illegal everywhere, what curbstoning fines and dealer bonds cost, and how to keep per-VIN books that treat flips as Schedule C inventory subject to 15.3% self-employment tax.

mike

side-hustlelicensesbookkeeping
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