Short answer
Yes. Long Beach says all businesses operating in the city need a business license, including home-based and out-of-city businesses. Its application asks for a business, billing, and residence address. A business run from home also follows the city’s home occupation rules, which ban ads that show the home address.
Key takeaways
- The City of Long Beach says “All businesses operating within the City of Long Beach need to obtain a business license, including out-of-city or home-based businesses.”
- Long Beach runs its own license under Municipal Code Chapter 3.80. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder says it “does not issue business licenses” and points to the City Hall where the business is conducted.
- The city’s application has three address lines at the top: business, billing, and residence. A note on the form says “The billing address will be used for service of process, unless another address is provided below.”
- The Planning Bureau’s home occupation form says “No advertisement shall be placed in any media containing the address of the property,” and, except for microenterprise home kitchens, allows no more than two residents to work in the business.
- On October 17, 2026, the city’s public license map layer flagged 3,818 of 29,841 active licenses as home-based. Every one of those 3,818 had a site location and an owner name filled in.
Long Beach licenses its own businesses, separate from Los Angeles
Long Beach is in Los Angeles County, but it is its own city with its own business license. The license comes from the city’s Business License Division, under Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 3.80. A registration with the City of Los Angeles does not cover a business in Long Beach.
The county says the same thing from its side. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk handles fictitious business names, and its general information page says “This office does not issue business licenses. To obtain a license, contact the City Hall in the city where the business will be conducted.” For a business in Long Beach, that City Hall is at 411 W. Ocean Boulevard.
The county clerk still matters for one filing. A business name that is not your own legal name may need a fictitious business name statement, which is filed with the county. We cover that statement, its address lines, and its newspaper notice in the Los Angeles guide. If you also work inside the City of Los Angeles, that guide covers the Los Angeles registration as well.
| Filing | Who handles it | What it asks about the address |
|---|---|---|
| Long Beach business license | City of Long Beach Business License Division | Business address, billing address, residence address, and the residential addresses of principal officers, members, or partners |
| Home occupation form (home-based businesses) | City of Long Beach Planning Bureau | “Address of Home Occupation,” plus operating rules for the home |
| Fictitious business name statement (if you use a name other than your legal name) | Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk | Covered in our Los Angeles guide |
| State filings (LLC or corporation, seller’s permit) | California Secretary of State, Franchise Tax Board, CDTFA | Covered in our California guides |
Local and state filings for a home-based business in Long Beach, as described in this guide’s sources on October 17, 2026.
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Who needs a Long Beach business license
The city’s General Business License page says “All businesses operating within the City of Long Beach need to obtain a business license, including out-of-city or home-based businesses.” The same page says other city departments may need to review and approve the application first. The city’s FAQ adds that a license “is not required for those businesses that are exempt through State or federal laws.”
Running the business from your home does not remove the license. The city’s Taxes and Fees page says the city requires “all businesses, including home-based businesses and independent contractors, to pay a business license tax and any applicable fees before beginning operations.”
A business based outside Long Beach can need a license too. In the city’s public license data, 5,760 of the 29,841 active licenses on October 17, 2026 were flagged as outside the city. The city’s FAQ lists a license for 3, 6, 9, or 12 months for out-of-city contractors working in Long Beach.
Each location needs its own license. The FAQ says “a business license is required for each separate location in the City.” If you move within Long Beach, you apply again and mark “Change of Address” as the reason.
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The three address lines at the top of the Long Beach application
The city’s General Business License application has three address lines at the top. Each one asks for street, city, state, and ZIP. A fourth area lists principal officers, members, or partners with their residential addresses.
| Line on the form | What the city’s instructions say it is | What else the city says about it |
|---|---|---|
| BUSINESS ADDRESS | “the exact location where the business activity is to be conducted” | A new location in the city needs a new application |
| BILLING ADDRESS (if same write SAME) | The instructions page lists a Mailing Address after the business address and phone number, “if other than the business address” | The Taxes and Fees page says the bill is mailed to “the mailing address as indicated on your application.” The form says this address is used for service of process unless you give another address on the Street Address line on page 2 |
| RESIDENCE ADDRESS (if same write SAME) | “if other than the business address” | For a home-based business, the residence and the business location are often the same place |
| Principal officers, members, partners, and residential addresses | For a partnership or corporation, the names and residence addresses of the owners, partners, or principal officers | Asked with title and percent ownership |
Address lines on the City of Long Beach General Business License application and its instructions page, read October 17, 2026.
The billing line does more than its name suggests. A note on page 2 of the application says “The billing address will be used for service of process, unless another address is provided below.” Service of process is how legal papers in a lawsuit are delivered. Below the note, page 2 has a separate line labeled Street Address for that purpose.
The application also has a “HOME OCCUPATION” box with Y and N choices in its General Information section. The Planning Bureau’s home occupation form, in turn, asks for the business license number.
Pick the billing address on purpose
The Long Beach bill goes to the mailing address on your application. Choose a billing address where you will see the bill quickly. If you want legal papers to go to a different place, page 2 has a separate Street Address line for that. The city’s Taxes and Fees page says that if you do not receive a bill, the renewal is still your responsibility.
The home occupation rules for a business run from a home
A business run from a home in Long Beach is also subject to Section 21.51.235 of the city’s zoning regulations. The Planning Bureau sets out those requirements on its “Home Occupation Standard Rules of Operation” form. The form asks for the “Address of Home Occupation,” the business license number, and a category. Its acknowledgment section says the home occupation “must be in conjunction with a valid business license.”
The form lists five allowed categories: professional office uses, instructional services, home crafts, cottage food operations, and microenterprise home kitchen operations. For a professional office use, it says “The primary means of contact must be by phone, mail, or other electronic form of communication.”
- Workers: “No person other than a resident of the dwelling unit shall be engaged or employed in the home occupation,” and no more than two residents may work in it. A microenterprise home kitchen follows different limits.
- Visitors and deliveries: no more than two business visitors an hour and eight a day, and no more than two deliveries of products or materials a week. A microenterprise home kitchen is not subject to the visitor limits.
- Advertising: “No advertisement shall be placed in any media containing the address of the property.”
- Signs: no sign may be visible from outside the home.
- Storage: no more than 128 cubic feet of business materials, and the garage may not be used for the business.
- Moving: the approval “shall be void when that person moves from the dwelling unit or discontinues the business.”
The advertising rule is the one most tied to addresses. Your home address can be on the license, but the form says it cannot appear in an advertisement in any media. Read the form for the full list, including its 29 numbered items of prohibited home uses, such as beauty salons and automobile repair.
What the city publishes about each license
Long Beach publishes license records. The city’s “Business Licenses Public View” map layer is updated nightly from its license database. Anyone can query it without an account. Its fields include owner name, DBA, site location, ZIP code, and a Home-Based Business flag.
We counted the layer on October 17, 2026. Of 29,841 licenses with status Active, 3,818 were flagged as home-based. All 3,818 had a site location filled in, and all 3,818 had an owner name. We counted by downloading every Active record and tallying the Home-Based Business and Outside City fields with a script.
The city also posts weekly lists of new licenses on its Recent Business Licenses page. The list for September 27 to October 3, 2026 has columns for customer name, DBA, site location, ZIP code, license category, and phone number.
3,818
Active Long Beach licenses flagged as home-based
of 29,841 Active licenses in the city’s public layer, as of our October 17, 2026 count
5,760
Active Long Beach licenses flagged as outside the city
of the same 29,841 Active licenses, as of our October 17, 2026 count
How the license connects to your state filings
The city license is separate from your state filings and does not replace them. The application instructions ask for the owner’s name and, for a corporation, “the name of the corporation as registered with the Secretary of State.” The application also asks for a federal tax ID number and a state seller’s permit number, if you have one.
Each state filing has its own address lines. We cover them in the LLC Statement of Information guide and the seller’s permit address guide. An address on a state filing does not change which city license you need. The city license follows where the business operates.
Choosing addresses for a Long Beach home business
If you run the business from home, your home is the business address the instructions describe: “the exact location where the business activity is to be conducted.” That address can appear as the site location in the city’s public license data.
The billing line is a separate choice. The instructions page lists a Mailing Address after the business address and phone number, “if other than the business address.” If you want the bill to go somewhere other than your home, the billing line is where you say so. For legal papers, page 2 has a separate line labeled Street Address. Neither the form nor the instructions page says what kind of address either line accepts, so ask the Business License Division before you use an address that is not your home.
Before you use any address, you can check how USPS classifies it with our free address checker. It shows Commercial, Residential, or Unknown, plus a CMRA flag and a vacancy flag. To find out whether an address is a P.O. Box, see how to tell if an address is a P.O. Box.
save office does not offer a Long Beach address. Our Silicon Valley and Los Angeles pages describe the business addresses save office offers.
Not legal or tax advice
This guide summarizes the City of Long Beach pages and forms, the public license data, and the county page listed in its sources, as read on October 17, 2026. Forms and fees change. Check with the Business License Division at (562) 570-6211 or the Planning Bureau before you file.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
Primary sources this guide is based on.
- 1City of Long Beach Financial Management · General Business License (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 2City of Long Beach Financial Management · Business License Application Instructions (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 3City of Long Beach Financial Management · City of Long Beach Business License Application (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 4City of Long Beach Financial Management · Business License Frequently Asked Questions (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 5City of Long Beach Financial Management · Business License Taxes and Fees (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 6City of Long Beach Planning Bureau · Home Occupation Standard Rules of Operation (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 7City of Long Beach · Business Licenses Public View (accessed October 17, 2026)
- 8Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk · Fictitious Business Names: General Info (accessed October 17, 2026)
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