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Business Licensing Service and local licensing

Streamline licensing for your city businesses

Did you know more than 90 percent of businesses apply for and renew their licenses online?

The state Business Licensing Service (BLS) offers a "one-stop" local licensing solution to relieve the workload of license renewals. The free service works for more than 200 cities and towns.

Connected and convenient for business

Support your city staff and business community

Partnership with BLS supports your city staff and business community by removing roadblocks. This saves your local businesses time when they apply for and renew city and state licenses. Your staff, meanwhile, get fast turnaround, detailed reporting and increased compliance – with no added cost.

Our revenues increased 15 percent in the first year. With BLS, we are able to identify our businesses and their employees more easily.

~ Carrie Lewellen, Treasurer, City of Vancouver

Benefits for city staff

Benefits include:

  • No mailings or collections.
  • Licenses renewed annually by BLS.
  • Payments managed by BLS.
  • GIS integration requires licensing in city limits.
  • Tax account discovery increases compliance and revenue.
  • Local regulatory control.
Benefits for businesses

Benefits include:

  • Intuitive licensing "wizard" for applicants.
  • Dedicated licensing customer service phone line.
  • No trip to city hall.
  • On-demand license printing.

Cities retain local control & sign up for free

As a BLS partner

As a BLS partner, you will continue to:

  • Approve or deny local licenses.
  • Close city business endorsements that are out of compliance.

BLS provides its service at no charge to all local governments.

Types of licenses available with BLS

Available types of licenses include:

  • General business.
  • Employee range.
  • Head count (FTE).
  • Nonprofit.
  • Home occupation.
  • Fee exempt.
  • Rentals.
  • Non-resident (out-of-city businesses).
  • Square footage.

BLS does not manage local regulatory licenses such as peddler’s licenses and temporary licenses.

Questions?

To sign up or learn more about the benefits of partnership, call 360-705-6777,

For questions about how to add a license, see Grow a business or call 360-705-6741.