Getting a Business License

I went down to the Hamilton County Clerk today to get a business license. It's located at 625 Georgia Avenue in downtown Chattanooga. I basically know where this is, so I drove down the 24 to Market Street. As you are going down Market there is a little one way street that veers off to the right. This is the beginning of Georgia Ave. So I turned on this. After a block or two I saw some big building so I found a parking spot, put three quarters into the meter and started walking. Even if this big building isn't the one I'm looking for, my building should be close by. That's what I figured anyway. But as it turns out, I was parked around 11th Street. So I had to walk up hill for five blocks to get to the courthouse. When I tried to enter I had to remove everything from my pockets. To my surprise I had a pocket knife on me. So I had to walk all the way back to my car. I decided at that point to just move the car up the hill closer to the courthouse. I did and fed another 75 cents into the meter.

Once I got into the building, getting the license was rather painless. Filled out a form, but didn't know what classification to choose for my business. The very nice and helpful person at the desk told me to choose class 3. I wasn't sure if I had to fill out a special form for a fictitious business name (also known as a DBA), but he said I could just write whatever name I wanted on this form, so I chose Demesser Cleaning Services. Actually, I had already decided to use this name and I did prior research to make sure the name was available. But I didn't have to certify that it was available. He also told me, since my business will operate inside Chattanooga city limits, that I needed to get a license from the city, and that I needed to go down to 11th Street. So after paying my $15 fee I got my license and left.

But as you may have already noticed. I had to go down the hill again back to where I had parked earlier. Since I had plenty of time left on my meter (the whole process to get the license took less than 20 minutes), I decided to walk. I had a nice walk down the street, made it to City Hall and went inside. I looked to the left and there was a security guard. I looked to the right and there were some counters with people who looked like they were waiting to assist me. So I went right and told them I needed a business license. Fifteen minutes later, and after another $15 payment, I got my business tax license, left and walked back up the hill.

That was rather painless and not too expensive.