Week 1
Run the numbers before you spend anything
Customers, prices, wages and rent. If the idea can't pay for itself on paper, no permit will fix that. Do this before signing a lease.
Decide(4)
Week 1
Choose a name and register the business
File your fictitious business name if trading under one, then pick your structure. You'll need the details for every application after this.
Related rules: Fictitious Business Name (DBA) – Santa Clara County
Week 1
Check the address is allowed for your business
Zoning is checked before a licence is issued. An address that can't host your business wastes the whole deposit.
Related rules: Zoning, Use Permits & Certificate of Occupancy
Week 2
Get insurance quotes before you sign a lease
Landlords often require cover in writing, and workers' comp is a legal condition of employing anyone. Quotes tell you the real monthly cost.
Related rules: Workers' Compensation Insurance · Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Title III
Set up(6)
Week 3Waiting on: name
Get your employer identification number
Free from the IRS and takes about ten minutes online. You can't open a business bank account without it.
Related rules: IRS – EIN, Payroll & Income Taxes
Week 3Waiting on: ein
Open a business bank account
Separate money from day one — it is what makes a limited company or LLC worth having. Landlords and lenders will ask for statements.
Week 4Waiting on: ein
Apply for your city business tax certificate
The basic permission to operate in Sunnyvale. Most suppliers and landlords will want to see it.
Related rules: Sunnyvale Business License Tax
Week 4Waiting on: ein
Get a seller's permit if you sell goods
Required before you take money for anything tangible — including merchandise, prepared food and products you add to a service.
Related rules: Seller's Permit & Sales Tax (CDTFA)
Week 5Waiting on: city-licence
Apply for your industry licence
Health permit, board registration, contractor or professional licence. These take the longest of anything on the list — start them early.
Related rules: Santa Clara County Health Permit · Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) License
Week 5Waiting on: address, quotes
Sign the lease — with the right clauses
Ask for a contingency that lets you out if the city won't licence the space, and for time to do the work before rent starts.
Build(7)
Week 6Waiting on: lease
Pull the building and construction permits
Plans are reviewed before work starts. Unpermitted work has to be opened up and redone, and stops your final inspection.
Week 7Waiting on: permits
Make the space accessible while you build
Ramps, door widths, counter heights and restrooms are cheapest to fix in the plans, not after a complaint.
Related rules: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Title III · Unruh Civil Rights Act & Disabled Persons Act
Week 7Waiting on: permits
Sort fire safety and extinguishers
Extinguishers, exits and alarm access are inspected before you're allowed to open.
Related rules: Fire Inspection & Permits (Sunnyvale DPS)
Week 8Waiting on: city-licence
Order your sign with a permit
Sunnyvale approves size, position and lighting before you fabricate. An unpermitted sign can be ordered down.
Related rules: Sign Permit
Week 9Waiting on: permits
Buy and install equipment
Order anything built-to-length early, and keep every receipt — you'll need the values for insurance and tax.
Week 9Waiting on: seller
Order opening stock and supplies
Buy enough for the first weeks, not for the first year. Cash is the thing that runs out.
Related rules: FDA Food Labeling & Allergens · Proposition 65 Warnings · Sunnyvale Bag & Polystyrene Foam Bans
Week 10Waiting on: bank
Set up payments and records
Card reader, receipts, and a way to track sales and expenses from the first transaction.
Related rules: CCPA / CPRA – California Consumer Privacy · CAN‑SPAM Act & TCPA (Email and Text Marketing)
Hire(4)
Week 8Waiting on: ein, bank
Set up payroll, withholding and workers' comp
Register with the EDD, buy workers' cover, and write down your sick leave and pay rules before the first hire arrives.
Week 10Waiting on: payroll
Hire and on-board properly
I-9 paperwork is due within three days of someone starting, and every worker needs a written pay statement on day one.
Related rules: Form I‑9 Employment Eligibility · Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) · AB5 Worker Classification (ABC Test)
Week 10Waiting on: hire
Put up the required workplace notices
State and federal postings, plus the wage and hour notices your staff have to be able to see.
Week 11Waiting on: hire
Get staff their certificates and training
Food handler cards, CPR and safety training have to be in place before someone works unsupervised.
Related rules: Single‑Use Foodware & Organic Waste (AB 1276, SB 1383) · California Sexual Harassment Prevention Training (SB 1343)
Open(4)
Week 11
Publish a website you can prove
Your own photos, a privacy policy, and claims you can back up. This is where most small businesses get their first demand letter.
Week 12Waiting on: access, fire, sign, equipment
Book the final inspections
Building, fire and health all sign off before the doors open. Book early — a failed inspection pushes your opening date.
Week 12Waiting on: industry, stock, pos, website, hire
Open the doors
Everything signed off, staff trained, insurance active, licences visible. Now the marketing starts.
Week 13Waiting on: open
Put your first filings in the calendar
Sales tax and payroll returns are due on a schedule whether or not you traded. Miss one and the penalty is automatic.
Related rules: Seller's Permit & Sales Tax (CDTFA) · EDD Payroll Registration & CalSavers
20 steps are waiting on something earlier in the plan.
Before you commit to any of this
Roughly $191,900 of one-time costs for this idea, before a cushion. See the day-one cash sheet to put real numbers against it.
Twelve weeks is a typical small premises build-out. Licensed trades and food businesses routinely take longer — treat this as an order of operations, not a promise.