This page provides information on doing business in Alameda County, California. Please see "Starting a Business in Alameda County" for a hardcopy guide produced by the Alameda County Library and the Alameda County Community Development Agency. The following information is only intended to assist small businesses in accessing publicly available information on the regulation and licensing of small businesses in Alameda County. For an official interpretation of legal and tax regulations regarding your business at your location, we encourage you to consult with a state licensed attorney and a certified public accountant. Most businesses in Alameda County will be required to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement. Check with the agency that issues business licenses in your municipality to verify the need for a Fictitious Business Name Statement. A fictitious business name, in the case of a sole proprietorship or partnership, is a name that does not include the full name(s) of the individual(s), or a name that suggests the existence of additional owners (e.g. Associates, and Sons, etc.).

In the case of a corporation, a fictitious business name is any name other than the full corporate name as shown in the articles of incorporation. After the fictitious business name statement has been filed with the county clerk, the statement must be published in an Alameda County newspaper of general circulation in the area where the business is to be conducted. The statement must be published once a week for four consecutive weeks with five days between each date of publication. Note that you will also need to file an affidavit of publication with the county clerk within 30 days after the completion of the publication cycle. In Alameda County, Fictitious Business Name Filing is done through the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder's Office in Oakland: Alameda County Clerk-Recorder's Office For more information, please see the Fictitious Business Name Filing page on the Alameda County Website: www.co.alameda.ca.us. If you have employees or operate your business as a corporation or partnership, you need to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN).

There is no charge to obtain the EIN. Apply for an EIN Here. More information regarding Employee Indentifcation Numbers can be found Here. In California, some businesses and occupations are required to be licensed by the state. For a breakdown of license contacts by profession, please see the Licensee Information page on the Department of Consumer Affairs Website: www.dca.ca.gov Depending on the specific type of business or manufacturing operation, some businesses may be required to obtain permits covering various construction, operating, production or disposal procedures. For "one-stop" state license information, contact the California Department of Consumer Affairs at (800) 952-5210. Their consumer service representatives can answer consumer and licensee questions in 140 different languages, assist in the filing of complaints, mail helpful publications and refer callers to the appropriate government or private agency for more assistance. NOTE: Even if you are professionally licensed by the state, local governments will also require a (municipal) business license to conduct business in their city.

Contact your county clerk and city clerk to learn about local requirements. You must obtain a seller's permit if you: The requirement to obtain a seller's permit applies to individuals as well as corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. handyman services in bay city miBoth wholesalers and retailers must apply for a permit. business for sale randwick nswThere is no cost to register for a permit.handyman services in bay city mi If you do not hold a seller's permit and will make sales during temporary periods, such as Christmas tree sales and rummage sales, you must apply for a temporary seller's permit. toolbox handyman services

Such permits are normally issued to selling operations lasting no longer than 90 days at one location. Register for a Seller's Permit Here. Find more information about Seller's Permits Here. When starting or expanding a business, it is important to verify that the facilities you use are in compliance with all laws:handyman services jackson ca Contact your county clerk and city clerk to learn about local Zoning and Building Codes and Ordinances. handyman services in chesterIn Alameda County, you can contact the County Assessor at: Alameda County Assessor's Office 1221 Oak Street, Room 145 Barrier Free Design regulations are intended to ensure that public facilities are accessible to and usable by all citizens, including elderly persons, wheelchair users and individuals with permanent or temporary conditions that reduce coordination or mobility or make walking difficult or insecure.

State law also requires that new construction be designed and built in accordance with the barrier free design requirements of the state construction code. Structures that undergo an alteration must comply to a certain degree with the barrier free requirements of the state construction code. The Alameda County Library has an excellent content section on their Website that deals with the topic of starting a business in Alameda County: Procedure for Starting a Business (in Alameda County Let us do the work! We can let you know when your search has new results.CALL PATER SCHERNTHANNER and you’re likely to catch him on a ladder. Or running a saw. Or putting together furniture from IKEA. Schernthanner is a handyman, or, in his own words, “I consider myself an expert at winging it and fiddling with things that need to be fixed or that look funny and need to be taken care of.” Growing up the son of a contractor and then working as foreman and lead carpenter for various construction companies, Oakland-based Schernthanner now works for himself as a handyman.

He’s the guy you call for jobs big and small. For instance, last week he built a driveway gate between two houses in Berkeley. This week he’s replacing window trim on a Berkeley apartment complex. A handyman, by definition, is someone you call when you don’t want to deal with a contractor. There is no handyman license in California, only a general contractor’s license, and even a handyman needs to have that license if a job is going to be more than $500. If you need something done around your house, whether it’s irrigating your garden or retiling your entryway or installing kitchen cabinets, and you want to take advantage of the skills of a handyman, one place to start looking is the Yellow Pages. Schernthanner, who does most of his advertising online on and free weekly newspapers, says the key thing to look for is experience. “You see a lot of older dudes outthere doing handyman work,” the 35-year-old Schernthanner says. “That’s a good thing.

People should also be aware that when you’re looking at an ad, if it says licensed, that’s cool. But if it says bonded, you should know that in California, it’s illegal to advertise that you’re bonded.” Bonding, in case you don’t know, is a form of insurance for contractors. The minimum bond for a contractor isNot all handymen are licensed contractors, but once they have a license, they must be bonded. You’ll see “licensed and bonded” in a lot of ads, but the Contractor State Licensing Board says that by advertising bonding, the public might be misled that a contractor has more protection than provided by the standard contractor’s bond. Advertising with the word “bonded” can get a contractor’s license suspended. For Schernthanner, who is in the process of obtaining his license, the best jobs and best clients come from referrals from other clients. “Word of mouth is important in this business because it implies trust, and to be a good handyman, working in people’s homes and around their children, trust is really important,” he says.

The first step once you’ve selected a handyman is securing an estimate. Most handymen do free estimates, but there are things you as a client can do to ensure that the estimate is accurate and that there are no surprises once the work begins. “We need as much information as possible,” Schernthanner says. “It’s a good idea for the client to do some probing. For instance, when I was working on the gate in Berkeley, when we started digging, we found a bunch of cement under the dirt that we had to remove. That added time to the job that wasn’t in the original estimate.” Once the handyman is hard at work, there’s a tendency for clients to begin thinking about other things that need to be done around the house. “Oh, since you’re here would you mind …” is a common refrain. But clients should be aware that a handyman’s livelihood depends on billable hours, so add-ons will cost you. Schernthanner, for instance, charges $40 an hour on average. Pam LaPinto, a San Francisco-based handyperson, charges $35 an hour.

“People think of extra things for you to do all the time,” LaPinto says. “Sometimes it makes sense to do things in a certain order, so before work begins, they should discuss as many of the jobs as they can think of with the handyperson. Then we can prioritize and determine, based on time and cost, how we’re going to approach it.” LaPinto, who has her MBA, was working in e-commerce. Her last job was at Oracle, and when she was laid off, she sort of fell into doing handywork. Painting a relative’s house led to another painting job, which led to her own business. “I’ve learned as I’ve gone along, worked with other people, learned from them, taken a lot of classes and done a lot of reading,” she says. “It’s a continuous learning curve, which I like.” In a field that is predominantly male, LaPinto, 48, says she has yet to encounter a client who considered her gender a liability. “Some clients specifically want a woman,” she says. “Sometimes women feel safer working with another woman or they feel like maybe they’ll be taken less advantage of.

I’ve also had male clients who don’t do home repair but maybe they’re a little embarrassed by that and would feel intimidated working with a man. With a woman, they can let their guard down a little.” LaPinto’s favorite jobs involve gardening, but she says she is mostly asked to do painting. In the four years that she has been a handyperson, LaPinto says demand has been constant and that she has no plans to head back into an office. “I enjoy helping people and knowing I make their lives a little better or help them enjoy their homes more or fix something that has been bugging them,” she says. If you don’t know anyone who can recommend a trusty handyman (or handyperson), you might feel more comfortable going with a company. Owens Corning has a three-year-old handyman division called HOMExperts that does everything from general handyman services (what they call the “honey-do” list) to major contractor work like kitchen remodels, bathroom upgrades and repairing or building decks and fences.

Frank Sette, who runs HOMExperts out of Livermore, says his company found that customers seemed to have more bad experiences than good with contractors. “In our research we saw that 81/2 out of 10 people were dissatisfied with their contractor,” Sette says. “Contractors are the second-worst in satisfaction scores behind used-car salesmen. We wanted to do something about that.” HOMExperts operates in 50 of the country’s top markets. In California, they serve the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, the Central Valley, and Southern California, from Los Angeles to San Diego. “No job is too small, but we generally like to spend a minimum of four hours in a house,” Sette says. For larger jobs, the HOMExperts come in for a free estimate. For the smaller jobs, the general hourly rate is $75. “The experience we’re trying to deliver is different from your typical handyman,” Sette explains. “We have recruited technicians from the residential construction industry and put them through our training programs.