Guide Cluster
Licenses & Certifications
Registration tells the government your business exists. Licenses tell it you're allowed to do the specific thing you're doing — and most businesses need several at once, not just one.
What comes after registration?
Registration is one step in a longer sequence — here's the order that avoids rework.
Business Registered
Licenses build on a registered entity — start here if you haven't yet.
Identify Which Licenses Apply
Food, physical premises, packaged goods, employees — each maps to a specific license.
Shop & Establishment Act
The near-universal starting point for any physical premises.
Trade License
Municipal approval for your specific business activity and location.
FSSAI (if food business)
Tier depends on scale — get it right before applying.
Legal Metrology (if packaged goods)
Package declarations, checked independently of FSSAI.
GST Registration
Once licensed and operating, GST is the next layer.
Start Operating
Licensed, registered, and ready — the compliance foundation is complete.
Not sure where to start? Tell us what you're trying to do.
All Guides
Which Licenses Does Your Business Actually Need?
It depends entirely on what your business does, not how it's structured. A food business needs FSSAI, a physic…
→Shop & Establishment Act Registration: Do You Need It?
If you operate from a physical premises — a shop, office, warehouse, or any commercial establishment — yes, al…
→Trade License Explained: When Municipal Approval Is Required
If you're running a shop, restaurant, warehouse, or manufacturing unit from a specific physical location, your…
→Professional Tax Registration: What Employers Need to Know
If you employ staff in a state that levies professional tax — most major states do, with a few notable excepti…
→FSSAI License: Which Tier Do You Actually Need?
Every food business needs some form of FSSAI license — Basic, State, or Central, based on turnover and scale. …
→ISO Certification: Is It Worth Getting Early?
Not usually, for an early-stage business — ISO certification pays off once you're pursuing government tenders,…
→Legal Metrology Registration for Pre-Packaged Goods
If you sell any pre-packaged product with a declared quantity — weight, volume, or count — you need Legal Metr…
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