Starting a business here

Most people who want to start something are not short of money or of will. They are short of knowing which office issues what. This says who issues it, and where to ask.

This is not legal or tax advice. Every requirement below names the office that issues it and links to that office's own page, with the date we last checked. Rules change — check the page before you rely on it.

The four steps every business takes

Decide whether you need to form a company. If you will trade under your own legal name as a sole proprietor, you register nothing here. If you want an LLC or a corporation, or want to trade under a different name, that is filed with the Secretary of State.
Ohio Secretary of State
Ohio has no state business licence to buy or renew. If you have been told to get one, you have been told about another state. What Ohio has instead is the vendor's license in step three and the city income tax in step four, and neither is what people mean by a business licence.
Open the official page ↗
Get an EIN — the federal tax number for the business. It is free, it is online, and it usually takes minutes.
Internal Revenue Service
Free
Open the official page ↗
If you will make taxable sales, get a vendor's license. In Ohio this IS your sales tax account — there is no separate sales tax permit. It costs $50, it comes from the county auditor where your location sits, and you need one for each fixed location.
Franklin County Auditor
$50
The fee rose from $25 to $50 in April 2025, so older advice and older relatives are wrong about the number. And do not assume a service business is exempt: Ohio taxes fewer services than goods, but landscaping and lawn care, building maintenance and janitorial work, and employment services are all taxable here — trades this community works in.
Open the official page ↗
Work the city income tax into your prices before you quote anybody. Columbus charges 2.5% on the net profit of a business operating in the city, and every suburb charges its own at its own rate.
City of Columbus Income Tax Division
This is the step people from Nevada skip entirely. Ohio has a state income tax and a city income tax on top of it. If you live in Whitehall and work in Columbus you will file two municipal returns, not one. Finding this out in April, after a year of pricing as though it did not exist, is the expensive way to learn it.
Open the official page ↗

Where people here have started

← All trades

Auto repair and mobile mechanic

Some setup

Brakes, oil, starters and diagnostics — in a shop, or out of a van in the car park where the car already is. Half this community drives for a living, so the customers are on this board.

$3,000 – $25,000rough, to open the doors — not counting what you live on until it pays

What you need

Online application only. You need verified local zoning, space under roof to display at least one vehicle and to service at least one, a permanent sign with letters at least six inches high, a business telephone answered in the dealership's name, and background checks on all owners.
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles — Dealer Licensing
The roofed space for both display and service is what kills home-based and open-lot plans that would work in another state. Check the zoning and the roofed-space rule before you sign a lease.
Open the official page ↗
There is no county general business licence in Ohio and no Columbus general business licence either. The county auditor issues only four licences — kennel, junk yard, retail cigarette dealer, and vendor's license. Columbus licenses trade by trade.
Franklin County Auditor — and the City of Columbus Income Tax Division
What replaces the licence fee, and what a Nevada reader will miss entirely, is the municipal income tax. Columbus takes 2.5% of business net profits and requires an annual return from anyone conducting business in the city. Whitehall, Reynoldsburg and Gahanna each levy their own at their own rate. Working in one city and living in another means two returns. This, not a licence, is the real recurring local cost.
Open the official page ↗

What to buy

Hand tools and a torque wrench
A diagnostic scanner
Floor jacks and stands
A van, if you go to the car rather than the car coming to you
Somewhere lawful to put the waste oil

Checked September 3, 2026

Or look at another trade:

People here who do this work

Members of this board who file these forms for a living. Sefer has not checked their credentials — ask them directly.

Already running one? List it