LA Launches Open Source Business Portal

Los Angeles has launched LA Business Portal to help entrepreneurs and business owners more easily find the federal, state and local licensing and permitting information they need. The mobile-friendly multilingual site features a startup guide in which entrepreneurs answer a series of questions about their prospective businesses, and the site generates a step-by-step registration checklist to complete the applications necessary to register the business. Starter kits provide checklists for popular business types, such as restaurants, nail salons, retail outlet and e-commerce sites.

The startup guide cuts the process of registering a business from several days to about 20 minutes by combining the process for local, state and federal registration into one place, according to Nathalie Destandau, the chief strategist at Tomorrow Partners, the design group helped build the portal. Besides information on starting a business, the LA Business Portal includes information on how to manage and grow a startup, as well as links to relevant city agencies and information about key dates and deadlines.

With small businesses a key component of economic development, cities and states around the country have been working to streamline the administrative processes required for startups.  After Maryland completed a similar project, it outlined some ways others could  successfully implement it. A focus on mobile was important, as was setting several smaller milestones rather than chasing after one gigantic goal. Maryland decided to tackle business registration first (the largest percentage of filings), with the goal of adding new functionalities each quarter to keep the initiative on track...