The Challenge for the Hotel Industry

What is a hotel? It may seem like a simple question, but from the business license perspective, the answer is surprisingly complicated. The problem is that a hotel is not merely a hotel. It may also be a restaurant. It may also be a bar. It may also be an exercise room. It may also be a swimming pool. It may also be a spa. It may also be a collection of vending machines. It is of course always a business. All of which is to say that hotels, especially high-end boutiques and four or five star chains, frequently require more governmental license to legally operate than any other industry (even supermarkets).

It’s hard to overstate the risk associated with allowing even one license or permit to slip because your research process is incomplete or your renewal workflow is insufficiently detailed. Keeping on top of everything is quite a challenge and busy tax departments should therefore always be cognizant of what might happen if, for instance, their pool is forced to close. It may mean a significant impact on the location’s revenue when they suddenly have to issue refunds to frustrated group events or answer tough questions from corporate headquarters. They’re going to wish that they had partnered with business license experts who know how to prevent mishaps from ever happening in the first place.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for Hotels?

We Alleviate Staffing & Training Issues — Staffing and training issues persist across all major organizations and your company is likely no exception. There is significant ongoing cost inherent in identifying, training, and retaining qualified license-processing personnel. Just as each license carries a varying amount of risk, it also carries varying degrees of preparation difficulty. Having the right people in place at all times to deal with the licensing needs during expansion periods is a never-ending challenge. That’s why outsourcing this responsibility is an appropriate strategy to ensure full compliance for a vast business license portfolio.

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The Challenge for the Supermarket Industry

A supermarket is not merely a retail store. It is also a liquor store which has its own unique compliance challenges. But it is also a bakery. And it is also a nursery. And it is a pharmacy. And it is a warehouse. And so on.

Whereas a typical retail store may require one or two business licenses to legally operate in a municipality and a restaurant may require four or five, a supermarket can require up to 20 licenses and permits. It’s a tall order for overworked tax departments, especially since many of the products that they sell — such as alcohol, lottery, tobacco, and WIC — are among the most scrutinized products in distribution. Given all the interaction that’s necessary with licensing authorities, alcohol boards, agriculture departments*, health inspectors, and SNAP boards, it’s no wonder that so many supermarket chains opt for dedicated software and outside assistance or some combination of the two. The job is that complex.

(* You are planning to sell eggs, aren’t you?)

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for Supermarkets?

We Manage Risk — Due to changing compliance regulations, internal staffing changes, acquisitions, and organic expansion, your company is exposed to risk in the form of fines, penalties, and potential closures. While each new licensing activity carries with it a discernible amount of risk, partnership with a “soup-to-nuts” research and licensing company can help you make great strides in limiting risk by having the right licenses from the start. You will appreciate the reassurance that no license requirements are slipping through the cracks and creating a transparent financial risk for your company.

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The Challenge for the Disaster Relief Industry

Disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes were a fact of life in the last century and in this century and they will be a fact of life well into future centuries as well. There is a growing awareness among local municipalities that the disaster relief industry will continue to grow and that much of it will be a “for profit” industry. That means licensing authorities will have a significant role creating regulations, taxing the work performed within its municipal borders (regardless of whether or not the company’s headquarters are physically located there), and enforcing business license compliance for every player in the industry.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Disaster Relief Industry?

We Will Keep You Compliant — If you are in this industry, then your footprint is probably enormous. Even without physical warehouses in a municipality, you will need to maintain your compliance there even if you send trucks over to repair a broken pipeline or fix a damaged rooftop. The geocoding and workflow capabilities in BLMS are an ideal way to manage the sprawling nature of your compliance challenges.

We Will Make Sure You Aren’t Over Licensed — This is a perennial challenge for industries that move into a municipality to perform work and then leave when the job is finished. If you don’t have a strategy for closing out the licenses that you no longer need, your company will be paying unnecessary fees for a long time to come.

We Will Verify Your Workforce — Your technicians, maintenance crews, and even your drivers all need to be properly licensed with personal contractor credentials. Our software is the solution for many busy tax departments that choose to proactively check on the credentials of their workforce, remind them when their expiration dates are fast approaching, and keep the department aware of their progress. It’s the best solution to ensure that you never accidentally send a technician with an expired license to perform a heavily-regulated job.

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The Challenge for Second-Hand Dealers

People have been known to serve jail time when they fail to properly license their pawn shops and conform to all the rules and regulations that govern their second-hand dealerships. The fact is that anytime a business collects goods from the public, they are potentially accessories to a crime if those goods turn out to be stolen. Second-hand dealers must therefore register their businesses with the local authorities and navigate through the thick rule books to be certain that they haven’t run afoul of any arcane ordinance that may put their business (and their livelihoods) in jeopardy.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for Second-Hand Dealers?

We Will Let You Know if You Are a Second-Hand Dealer — It’s not as easy as you think. Many business models that accept goods from the public don’t typically self-identify as pawn shops. (Think about cell phone recycling, for instance.) Our research and legal consultants will analyze your business model and review all the ordinances wherever you do business to determine whether or not your business must register for second-hand dealing.

We Offer a Flexible Workflow — If you license software to bring your businesses up to compliance, then you’d better be certain that the workflow tools are flexible enough to handle your unique use case. Fingerprint submissions and law enforcement inspections aren’t typically part of a business license workflow in most industries, but they are very common in the draconian universe of second-hand dealing. BLMS empowers you to modify your workflow, keep it structured, and keep your entire department on the same page.

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The Challenge for the Urgent Care Industry

The urgent care industry has a problem. They have expanded so fast and with such disruptive potential that licensing authorities have frequently struggled just to keep pace. If your department works overtime to obtain business licenses, schedule building inspections, and acquire all the specialized permits that your facilities need (did you remember that many municipalities have a separate biohazard waste removal permit?), then you probably can relate. You’re better off with structure that keeps all the requirements in a tight workflow and your urgent care facilities in compliance.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Urgent Care Industry?

If You Opt for BLMS… — If you prefer to keep the work in-house, then you will soon discover the difference that our software will make to your departments’ workflow. The business license requirements for your facilities can be quickly uncovered, the applications for your permits can be easily submitted, the extra workflow steps common to your industry can be freely programmed, and the documents and/or certificates that must be displayed at each site can be distributed and then conveniently stored for posterity.

If You Opt for Our Managed Services… — If you’d rather partner with our filing and renewal teams to take the burden off your busy department, then you’ll enjoy the peace of mind that comes with employing a dedicated business license team that has extensive experience with this unique business vertical.

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The Challenge for the Convenience Store Industry

When you consider the wide assortment of products that convenience stores typically sell, it’s no wonder that the industry is perhaps the most regulated sector of the American economy. A typical roadside store sells dry foods, perishable foods, lottery tickets, cigarettes, alcohol, and fuel. The potential for public health calamities alone keeps this industry at the forefront of every licensing authority’s agenda. That means the rules are strict and the consequences of non-compliance are severe.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Convenience Store Industry?

Our Software Fosters Teamwork — It’s common in this industry to partition members of the business license team. For instance, many departments like to have one person handle alcohol licenses exclusively while another works only with fuel/gas licenses and yet another oversees food licenses. This delegation of responsibility can work, but it means that each team member can potentially develop tunnel vision, unaware of how one permit acquisition can influence another. The workflow and team communication features of BLMS ensure that everybody is working toward the same goal even while their unique workload remains under their responsibility.

We Know the Authorities — Given that so many convenience stores are located in remote areas of the country and far away from any easily-defined metropolis, getting to know the licensing authority that has jurisdiction over your stores can be taxing to say the least. Business Licenses, LLC has developed relationships with municipal authorities all across the country and that has enabled us to handle the business license workload of convenience store owners better than they could ever do themselves.

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The Challenge for the Banking Industry

The good news is that federally chartered banks are often exempt from business licenses, but that doesn’t mean the banking industry doesn’t have to wrestle with governmental license compliance. It is still a top concern for tax departments that have to manage a growing portfolio of brick & mortar locations, not to mention a plethora of ATM machines, billboards, awnings, signs, and other “hidden locations” that require licenses and permits.

Some of our customers opt to subscribe to our software solutions, while others trust our filing and renewal departments to manage their entire portfolio of locations on their behalf, essentially acting as an extension of their tax department. Yet others ask our research department to do a comprehensive examination of their entire portfolio to identify both potential non-compliance and even over-compliance as well.

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The Challenge for the Gaming Industry

Gaming licenses are typically issued at the state level. In fact, most states employ special agencies to control boards to monitor the smooth operation of the gaming industry. This is a very highly regulated area of the economy due to concerns about social responsibility, industrial integrity, and money laundering. Like other highly regulated industries, that also means that there is a lot of variability in each state’s rules and regulations.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Gaming Industry?

We Will Obtain Licenses on Your Behalf — We have extensive experience with in-depth investigations, timely fees, and bonding requirements which are all quite common in this environment. Our clients frequently rely on our staff to research and obtain all the licenses and permits that their locations require.

We Prioritize Alcohol Licenses — Alcoholic beverages are a big component of most casinos. Each state has a special board or commission that governs the sale of liquor. In order to control sales of alcoholic beverages, many authorities limit the number of licenses that can be issued by using a quota system. They also require compliance with numerous regulations related to the business as well as the employees. A dedicated team of liquor license professionals is often crucial in this industry. That’s what Business Licenses, LLC provides to many of its customers.

We Have Software Solutions Too — Business Licenses, LLC has many clients that manage both their gaming licenses and their liquor licenses on our proprietary software. It’s an excellent solution when you have the right workforce, but you lack the right workflow.

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The Challenge for the Automotive Industry

All over North America, automotive repair and maintenance is a highly-regulated business. Industry professionals must become accustomed to maintaining a vast business license portfolio that contains expected licenses (such as oil disposal), but also less expected ones (such as environmental permits). Licensing authorities are known to crack down hard on automotive locations and they are quick to levy fines and administer even more severe punishments.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Automotive Industry?

Our Software Makes a True Workflow Possible — Tax and legal professionals who use BLMS to manage their business license portfolio (including their vehicle licenses) are able to track down license and permit applications from the authorities and process both their initial filings and their renewals with ease thanks to a rigorously engineered workflow that is native to the system.

Our Renewal Department Can Maintain it All — Our internal renewal department already manages business license portfolios for some of the largest automotive companies in North America and they are always ready to bring dedicated expertise to new projects.

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The Challenge for the Telemedicine Industry

Before COVID-19 there were about 49 states that required physicians engaging in telemedicine to be licensed in the state in which the patient was located. 12 states also issued a special purpose license that allowed for the practice of medicine across state lines. And six state boards required physicians to register if they wished to practice across state lines.

COVID-19 altered this landscape. Now 25 or so states have enacted emergency rules that have relaxed all of those requirements. Each state’s rules are still different and it’s up to the physicians or other practitioners to make sure that they’re being compliant, but at this point doctors in 35 states and the District of Columbia now use telehealth to treat patients in other states without an out-of-state license. These are emergency orders and they are temporary. Only true practitioners of business license compliance can really guess what’s going to happen next.

What Can Business Licenses, LLC Do for the Telemedicine Industry?

We Remove the Guesswork — Our staff of legal experts, accountants, and business license compliance professionals can help you expand your medical practice into all 50 states by researching the complex rules and local ordinances that will have an impact on your emerging business model.

We Keep Everything Tidy — Whether you are taking advantage of our service offerings or licensing our software, we can maintain your business license portfolio indefinitely.

We Cut Down on Your Interactions with Authorities — When it comes to emerging business models and disruptive technologies, many licensing authorities at the local and state level have a hard time keeping track of their own regulations, let alone conveying those rules to businesses far away. Business Licenses, LLC can do all the negotiations on your behalf.

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