Original reporting on the state licensing, insurance and permitting rules that decide what it costs and what it takes to run a small business — sourced directly from statutes, agency records and legislative files.
We publish here when we find something that isn’t already documented elsewhere: a requirement that changed, a rule that contradicts what’s commonly published, or a pattern across states that no single agency reports because each one only knows its own. Every claim is cited to a primary source, and every piece carries a date and a byline.
Reports
The Statehouse Licensing Index: 719 Bills Touching Small Service Businesses, Led by Illinois — and Kentucky’s Outsized Docket
We scanned every bill in every state legislature’s current session — 190,735 of them across all 50 states — and found 719 that touch the licensing, insurance, bonding, or fees of the small service businesses we track. Illinois has the most. Kentuc…
New Hampshire Makes Its Child Care Staffing Ratios — and the Waiver Around Them — Permanent
New Hampshire wrote its infant and toddler staffing ratios into state law in 2024 — along with a waiver the department cannot refuse without documented cause — and scheduled the whole arrangement to expire on December 31, 2026. It no longer expires. Cha…
Three States Now Bar Your City From Zoning Out a Home Daycare
Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire have each written home-based child care into state zoning law. All three are now in force. New Mexico’s also reaches homeowners associations.
For journalists and researchers
You are welcome to cite anything here with attribution and a link. If you need the underlying records, the statute citations in each piece link directly to the source documents. For questions or to request the working data behind a report, contact Robert Smith.
Related state-by-state references: workers’ comp requirements by state, business survival rates by state, SBA loan statistics, and official business entity search links.