Do I need a license to run an Airbnb? What if I don't have a license? What
happens if I don't get a license? What happens? Oh, my gosh. I don't know. Yes, I do.
Okay, I'm going to tell you in this episode. Let's go.
At the end of this video, you are going to know for sure for your situation if
you need a business license. Yes or no, that's what I'm going to tell you. So, let's
start off by talking about what Airbnb is. Because you need to kind of know and
understand that before we talk about the license part. Because it really does
matter. So, let's quickly just go through this. So, Airbnb of course is a platform
that allows you, regular person be regular person to list our
properties on this home-sharing site, this app in regular normal people can
come and book our places and we can make money doing so. So, it's for normal people
that want to stay in someone's home or stay with someone in their home, maybe
just a room or maybe their guest house or their pool house, whatever the
situation may be. So, Airbnb has opened up the world to so many people, okay? Because
many people don't want to stay in a hotel or they truly want an experience
of being in a property that is like the area that they're in. For example, it's
really awesome to go to Europe but if you want to go to Europe you could stay
at a hotel or you could stay in someone's home and get the true feeling
of a European home. And that is what Airbnb has opened up for so many people.
So, there's kind of a blurred line between if you need a business license
or not. Because like I said, these are normal people's homes and these are
normal guests just renting the property. So, let's kind of talk through what that
means. So, to run an Airbnb business, you basically have lots of properties,
usually possibly more than one. But let's just say you just have one Airbnb
property. Say, you have a house and you decided now I'm going to move out
of this house and I'm gonna put it on Airbnb and start making some money.
Well, what would go into that? Well, you're going to make sure that you either left the
furniture there. You cleared out all of your personal items or you got furniture
that was you know appropriate for the Airbnb. And then you fully stock the
property with plates, pots, pans, towels and all of the other necessary items
that people need when they're traveling. And so when you've prepared your
property for Airbnb, it comes down to if you are going to be doing this as a
business or if this is something that you just want to do where you have just
one or 2 properties. Well, when I first kind
of got into it I... Funny, I got into Airbnb in the craziest way. So, I literally had
one of my students a young kid. He was like 18 or 19 years old. We went into a
joint venture agreement where I gave him a few thousand dollars and he rented
some apartments. You know, some studio apartments and some one-bedroom
apartments. And he started making about $1,000 to $1,500 a month profit on every
single one of those properties. Okay. So, you do the math of that. A thousand to
$1,500 profit on 5 properties. I was sold. I immediately knew
that Airbnb was a great business to be in. And I needed to make a decision. But
there was things that went into running that business and so we had to talk
about if we wanted to do it as a business or not. So, let's kind of go
through that part. In my specific case, we have 5 properties when we started out.
So, my young student, did he have a business license or not it's probably
your question. And the question is yes, he did.
So, if you're going to just be doing this and you just want one property and you
really feel like this is just a way for you to earn a little bit of extra money,
then maybe you don't need a business license. But if you're doing a situation
where I knew that wait a minute is this makes money and I find this to be
profitable, I'm going to keep doing this. If that's your motive like mine was then I
definitely think that you probably should get a business license and we're
going to talk about what the benefits of that. Are so, some of the reasons why you
want a business license is because you're going to have some protections. So
obviously if you go to the state. You know you register your business with the
Secretary of State you get either an LLC or an S corp or C Corp. You know, you
register your business. Then you're going to have that extra protection, okay? So, again,
I'm not going to advise you on what type of business structure you should get. Go
ahead and contact your tax advisor or your attorney and let them
tell you. But in our case, we got an LLC or he got an LLC. And he was putting his
businesses in the apartments and the businesses name so that he could get
multiple units really quickly. That was one reason. Another reason. Then we were
able to write off the business expenses, okay? It is so important that you have
your tax write-off and that you are maximizing the tax system that you live
in to get the most benefits so that you pay the least amount of taxes and that
you get the biggest refunds or whatever you want to call it. And in any case,
getting a business license is going to be key to doing this, okay? You don't
necessarily want to be out here trying to write different things off apply for
business funding, get business loans. You know, if you don't have a business
license. So, there's some really great benefits to go ahead and registering
that business and doing this as a business. But again, do you have to get
the business license? No. But are there some awesome benefits, yes there are. And
last but not least, when you're answering this question as to whether or not you
should get a business license, this last question is for you. What is your
commitment level to this? Okay? If this is something that you're just dabbling in
that you do not think that you're going to be doing for a very long time or
you're not really committed to it, then you might not want to spend the money
getting the business registered. But if you are committed to it and you feel
like this is something that you could do, then go ahead and make sure that you get
that business registered. Take the money, take the time and go ahead and do that
and enjoy those benefits. So, there you have it. Do you need a business license?
Hopefully, I've told you your answer as to whether or not you need it. So, go
ahead and take this opportunity we go ahead and like this video. Make sure you
subscribe to my channel make sure you click that little notification bell so
that you do not miss an episode. Additionally, I want you to go ahead and
please watch the next video in this. I have a suggested video for you on how to
run an Airbnb business remotely. So, this is a great video that I think is in a
really complement this one so you totally understand where we're going
with this and how awesome this is. So, I'm giving you free information a free
course right here. I want you to be successful. To your success.
you