Check with Local Licensing Authorities or Municipal Business Directories Before Choosing a Name for Your Business

Post #9: This overlooked step to verify that your new business name is not already claimed may save you big headaches in the future.

In this Substack, I will walk you through the process of starting, operating, maintaining, and — if needed — selling or closing your own small business.

Today, I’m going to cover when and how you should search local licensing authorities or municipal business directories for duplicate business names.

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👉 Subscribe to this Substack if you want to learn how to setup, operate, maintain, scale, etc… a small business. The Journey began with Post #1.

To review:

• You decided on what service or product you want to offer, and realized why you chose this one, and you made a list of ideas for potential business names [Posts 1 & 2].

• You searched for your business name ideas via web search, the Secretary of State business entity search, the US Patent and Trademark Office TESS (online search tool), DNS (for website domains), online map apps for brick and mortar business names, and social media for existing handles to ensure that your name has not already been claimed [Posts 3–8].

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💡 Tip: I covered the state-level registration process in Post #4 when I shared how to search for a business name with the Secretary of State.

This step (Post #9) is more local, focusing on County or City level registration. Some cities or counties do not require registration of a business and refer to the state-level registration, while others do.

Be sure to check with your local government to determine whether you need to proceed with this step or if you can skip it...

Local Licensing Authorities

Local licensing authorities are typically managed by your city or county government. These offices issue permits and business licenses, which means they maintain a database of businesses operating within their jurisdiction.

You will need to find the website of your city or county government to locate the appropriate department.

Common names for these departments include: