Running the Business · Module 1
Case: three applicants, three delays. What held each one up
Three new C-36 licensees do everything the pass letter told them to do, and each one loses weeks, and in one case a job, to a rule that was never on the checklist. One buys a bond in the wrong name. One forms an LLC with a partner and files a workers' compensation exemption the company is not allowed to claim. One takes a friend's offer to be his RMO and finds out what "one license at a time" means. This case lesson walks each delay back to the rule that caused it, and gives the order of operations that would have avoided all three.
What the full lesson covers
- The bond must be issued in the exact name and entity on the license. A bond in a trade name only, or in an entity name that does not match, is rejected, and the clock keeps running.
- An LLC qualified by an RME has an employee by definition and cannot file the workers' compensation exemption. Get the policy before the license issues, not after CSLB rejects the exemption.
- Qualifying a second company requires the statutory exception (20 percent common ownership, subsidiary or joint venture, or same majority of officers). A friend's company that you do not own 20 percent of is not eligible, and the RMO paperwork will fail.
- The order of operations that avoids all three: settle the name and entity first, then the qualifier and any qualifier bond, then the contractor's bond and insurance in that exact name, then send everything in together.
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More lessons in From Pass Letter to License Number
- 1What happens after you pass: the 90-day clock and the six things CSLB needs
- 2The $25,000 bond: what it protects, what it does not, and how it quietly disappears
- 3Workers' compensation: what a C-36 must carry today, and what changes in 2027 and 2028
- 4Who qualifies the license: sole owner, RMO, RME, and why lending your license ends careers
- 5