Resources

This is a road map for opening a business in the state of Washington. There are eight steps in the road map but not all of them will apply to your business. We recommend you read through all steps in this road map before applying for your business license. You can download the Road Map as a PDF file if you prefer that format.

Here are the 8 steps:

1. Research and make a plan;
2. Register your business with the Secretary of State (SOS);
3. License your business with the Department of Revenue (DOR);
4. Report your new employees to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS);
5. Apply for a Reseller Permit with the Department of Revenue (DOR);
6. Register as a contractor with Department of Labor & Industries (L&I);
7. Contact your local health department for food handling requirements; and
8. Check with your City and/or County for their requirements.

Start here to see what's involved in each step

Get Verified to do Business with VA

Get verified through the Vets First Verification Program to participate in the Veterans First Contracting Program for VA set-asides and sole-source contracts for SDVOSBs and VOSBs.

The Small Business Guides provides helpful information, links to valuable resources, and outlines the steps for starting and operating a business in Washington state. The Small Business Guide is available in English, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese.

The Business Guide includes sections that will help you plan, run, grow, or close a business in Washington State.

The Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises is charged with certifying small, minority and women-owned businesses to facilitate their participation in public contracting and procurement. This is accomplished through a comprehensive certification process and education. The outcome - successful small businesses led by minorities, women and veterans help make our economy and our families more resilient, strengthening our communities and improving the quality of life for all Washingtonians.

No cost, confidential, one-on-one technical assistance in all aspects of selling to federal, state, and local governments.

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The Veteran Business Outreach Program is designed to provide entrepreneurial development services such as business training, counseling and resource partner referrals to transitioning service members, veterans, National Guard & Reserve members and military spouses interested in starting or growing a small business. The SBA has 22 organizations participating in this cooperative agreement and serving as Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC).

The Veteran’s Incubator for Better Entrepreneurship (VIBE) provides military veterans, and military spouses the education, resources, and supportive environment to use their natural inclinations and skills to innovate and create their own professional lanes through entrepreneurship. VIBE, taps into several Washington regional assets—motivated veterans, a supportive community, a university setting—with the goal of supporting students as they learn about entrepreneurship and turn their ideas into viable businesses.

No cost, confidential, one-on-one technical assistance in all aspects of selling to federal, state, and local governments.

Subscribe to Newsletter

The Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises is charged with certifying small, minority and women-owned businesses to facilitate their participation in public contracting and procurement. This is accomplished through a comprehensive certification process and education. The outcome - successful small businesses led by minorities, women and veterans help make our economy and our families more resilient, strengthening our communities and improving the quality of life for all Washingtonians.

The Veteran Business Outreach Program is designed to provide entrepreneurial development services such as business training, counseling and resource partner referrals to transitioning service members, veterans, National Guard & Reserve members and military spouses interested in starting or growing a small business. The SBA has 22 organizations participating in this cooperative agreement and serving as Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC).

The Veteran’s Incubator for Better Entrepreneurship (VIBE) provides military veterans, and military spouses the education, resources, and supportive environment to use their natural inclinations and skills to innovate and create their own professional lanes through entrepreneurship. VIBE, taps into several Washington regional assets—motivated veterans, a supportive community, a university setting—with the goal of supporting students as they learn about entrepreneurship and turn their ideas into viable businesses.

Bunker Labs was built by military veteran entrepreneurs to empower other military veterans as leaders in innovation. The organization provides educational programming, mentors, events and thriving local networks to help military veterans start and grow businesses.

The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations.

This is a road map for opening a business in the state of Washington. There are eight steps in the road map but not all of them will apply to your business. We recommend you read through all steps in this road map before applying for your business license. You can download the Road Map as a PDF file if you prefer that format.

Here are the 8 steps:

1. Research and make a plan;
2. Register your business with the Secretary of State (SOS);
3. License your business with the Department of Revenue (DOR);
4. Report your new employees to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS);
5. Apply for a Reseller Permit with the Department of Revenue (DOR);
6. Register as a contractor with Department of Labor & Industries (L&I);
7. Contact your local health department for food handling requirements; and
8. Check with your City and/or County for their requirements.

Start here to see what's involved in each step

Get Verified to do Business with VA

Get verified through the Vets First Verification Program to participate in the Veterans First Contracting Program for VA set-asides and sole-source contracts for SDVOSBs and VOSBs.

The Small Business Guides provides helpful information, links to valuable resources, and outlines the steps for starting and operating a business in Washington state. The Small Business Guide is available in English, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese.

The Business Guide includes sections that will help you plan, run, grow, or close a business in Washington State.

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs helps connect veterans and their family members to the benefits and services they earned through their military service. 

Our Central Office is located in Olympia and includes a Veterans Service Center as well as administrative support for all agency programs.

WDVA offers long-term care in our four State Veteran Homes (the Washington Soldiers Home, the Washington Veterans Home, the Spokane Veterans Home, and the Walla Walla Veterans Home) for honorably discharged veterans, and in some cases, their spouses. 

The Veterans Services and Counseling and Wellness Divisions provide claims assistance as well as counseling services for veterans and their family members.  And our State Veterans Cemetery honors veterans in their final resting place.

The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) is a nine-member council supported by a cabinet-level state agency. By statute, the Council provides strategic planning, oversight, advocacy, and program administration to support increased student success and higher levels of educational attainment in Washington.

The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) is a nine-member council supported by a cabinet-level state agency. By statute, the Council provides strategic planning, oversight, advocacy, and program administration to support increased student success and higher levels of educational attainment in Washington.

I am a licensed mental health counselor in Washington state, where I have practiced for over 30 years, both clinically and in private practice. During this time I co-created and worked with The Center for Individual and Family Counseling for 11 years. I have worked with ages 3 -98 years old.  A large portion of my work has focused on assisting clients with issues such as relationship conflict, and communication, parenting, life transitions, anxiety, depression, stress management, trauma PTSD, and Grief. Currently my therapy practice is focused on individuals and couples who are ready to heal the past by learning to live fully in the present moment.

Methods and Techniques
Finding the courage to accept, tolerate and negotiate the unknown, unpleasant and unwanted takes a kind of radical acceptance.   Happily the causes and conditions necessary to achieve healing- presence are absolutely innate and always within your reach.  However, ones own wisdom and compassion, although present from the start, are often buried beneath a lifetime of pain, then deeply covered by an elaborate system of coping and defense.   Re- Connecting to your own true and vital nature is both a process and a practice.  Your success depends upon our mutual interest in discerning the difference between what happened to you, how you coped, the meaning you made, and who you actually are.  
Since our problems so easily get mistaken for ourselves all methods and techniques are oriented toward uncovering, discovering and reconnecting you to the person who has lived through these problems without ever becoming them.  My counseling methods include cognitive-emotive therapy, intra-psychic mapping, psycho-education, family of origin, mindfulness, EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) ETT (emotional transformative therapy), EFT (emotional freedom technique) and most importantly, Humor.



Specialties
Stress Management
Anxiety
Relationship/intimacy issues, GLBTQ, non-binary
Trauma and abuse
Self esteem

PTSD
Life Transitions 
Grief/Loss
Parenting

 
PHONE 
VIDEO/ZOOM

IN PERSON

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs helps connect veterans and their family members to the benefits and services they earned through their military service. 

Our Central Office is located in Olympia and includes a Veterans Service Center as well as administrative support for all agency programs.

WDVA offers long-term care in our four State Veteran Homes (the Washington Soldiers Home, the Washington Veterans Home, the Spokane Veterans Home, and the Walla Walla Veterans Home) for honorably discharged veterans, and in some cases, their spouses. 

The Veterans Services and Counseling and Wellness Divisions provide claims assistance as well as counseling services for veterans and their family members.  And our State Veterans Cemetery honors veterans in their final resting place.

Kaali T.M. Sill is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Substance Use Disorder Professional in Washington.  She completed her B.A. at Western Washington University and graduated with her Masters of Social Work from Walla Walla University.  She provides individual counseling to adults, children and teens as well as group therapy

Clark D. Ashworth, Ph.D.  Dr. Ashworth is a psychologist licensed in Washington. After a tour in the U.S. Navy (1967 – 72) he completed his education including a doctoral program at the University of Washington. He supervises staff at NorthEast Washington Family Counseling and provides individual, family, and group therapy as well as disability and forensic evaluations.

Ronald E. Graham, LICSWA. Ron is a clinical social worker licensed in Washington. Ron retired from the US Army in 2017 after 25 years and is a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He completed his graduate program at Eastern Washington University and provides clinical individual, family, and group therapy.

Louis J. DiConti, M.S., is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate in Washington. Following service in the Marine Corps Reserve 2004-2012, including two combat tours to Iraq, he completed his education at Eastern Washington University earning his Master of Science in Applied Psychology with an emphasis in Counseling. Louis provides individual and couples therapy at NorthEast Washington Family Counseling. Louis is a person-centered therapist with a passion for assisting individuals achieve a greater sense of empowerment and overall wellbeing. Louis specializes in veteran readjustment.

Kaali T.M. Sill is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Substance Use Disorder Professional in Washington.  She completed her B.A. at Western Washington University and graduated with her Masters of Social Work from Walla Walla University.  She provides individual counseling to adults, children and teens as well as group therapy

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs helps connect veterans and their family members to the benefits and services they earned through their military service. 

Our Central Office is located in Olympia and includes a Veterans Service Center as well as administrative support for all agency programs.

WDVA offers long-term care in our four State Veteran Homes (the Washington Soldiers Home, the Washington Veterans Home, the Spokane Veterans Home, and the Walla Walla Veterans Home) for honorably discharged veterans, and in some cases, their spouses. 

The Veterans Services and Counseling and Wellness Divisions provide claims assistance as well as counseling services for veterans and their family members.  And our State Veterans Cemetery honors veterans in their final resting place.

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs helps connect veterans and their family members to the benefits and services they earned through their military service. 

Our Central Office is located in Olympia and includes a Veterans Service Center as well as administrative support for all agency programs.

WDVA offers long-term care in our four State Veteran Homes (the Washington Soldiers Home, the Washington Veterans Home, the Spokane Veterans Home, and the Walla Walla Veterans Home) for honorably discharged veterans, and in some cases, their spouses. 

The Veterans Services and Counseling and Wellness Divisions provide claims assistance as well as counseling services for veterans and their family members.  And our State Veterans Cemetery honors veterans in their final resting place.