Starting a company without license

[kwired]

You're welcome. No body told me how to do it. I had to figure it all out on my own. It's shrouded in mystery here in IL., esp. Chicago, because we're a big union city. They don't want us independents to be able to figure it out. Working class solidarity my ass, lol.

If the union could assume 100% control of who was able to take an exam here they would. That's one reason I oppose them and chose the independent route. They think they own the rights to being an electrician and I think one should have the freedom to choose either the independent route or the union route.

Apparently there is no statewide requirements in IL?

Here licensing is handled by the state. There are cities/counties that have their own inspection departments, they don't issue licenses though, you must have a state license (written into state laws). They can and usually do charge you a "registration fee" if you want to work in their city/county though and of course needs renewed every two years when you renew your state license.

 

[Jerramundi]

Apparently there is no statewide requirements in IL?

Here licensing is handled by the state. There are cities/counties that have their own inspection departments, they don't issue licenses though, you must have a state license (written into state laws). They can and usually do charge you a "registration fee" if you want to work in their city/county though and of course needs renewed every two years when you renew your state license.

Nope. Here it's per municipality and only a few municipalities actually offer testing for licenses. The rest just accept a license from a testing municipality and issue you a local license number.

We have "contractor registration fees" too where you gotta pay anywhere for $50.00 - $150.00 to register in each village that you want to work in. All are 12 month periods, some extend the full 12 months from date of registration, and some end on December 31st no matter when you registered. so you can end up with this hodgepodge of renewal dates that can be difficult to keep track of.

Few people do it unless they are pulling permits in said village or have a significant amount of work in said village, but technically it's supposed to be done in each village you perform ANY work in, even for maintenance and repair. Technically it's a criminal act to not do it.

I do it because I'm too new a business to not do it and I don't wanna give anyone any ammunition, but it can get expensive quick... and that doesn't include the cost to your insurance company for the license and permit bond as well as the permit fee itself.

I've lost many jobs because the total administrative costs were upwards of $300.00 for installing a couple recessed lights. I completely understand why people would circumvent it. I support the idea of third party verification / registration, but argue that it needs to be financially accessible.

I balance it out by splitting the costs with the customer. For example, if I'm registering 6 months into the year to do a job your village, we split the registration fee 50/50. Works out most of the time.