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Guides

From scratch to online.

Eight walkthroughs for the businesses that actually open here. Each one follows the same path: decide what the business is, register it, satisfy the agencies, get paid, get found, and get the day running on something better than paper.

General guidance, not legal or tax advice · Last reviewed July 2026

01 Opening a coffee shop Small footprint, early hours, and a morning rush that is over by ten. The margin lives in speed of service and in not running out of the one thing everyone came for. Typical runway: 4 to 7 months Licence path: Food service through DLCA 02 Opening a restaurant The longest permit path of any small business here, and the one where the sequence matters most. Alcohol, health, fire, and zoning all touch the same room. Typical runway: 8 to 18 months Licence path: Food service through DLCA 03 Running a private villa A licence category of its own, a 12.5% occupancy tax, and a choice about how much of your revenue you hand to the booking platforms. Typical runway: 2 to 5 months Licence path: Short-term rental through DLCA 04 Starting a boat charter Federal licensing on top of territorial licensing, hard capacity limits, and a weather exposure that no other business here carries in the same way. Typical runway: 6 to 12 months Federal: USCG credential required 05 Starting a taxi operation A regulated fare structure, a medallion system, and a mandatory certification course. The rates are set for you. Everything else is operations. Typical runway: 4 to 9 months Regulator: V.I. Taxicab Commission 06 Opening a mail center Federal postal registration, per-customer identity forms, and a package volume that only works if customers know their box has something in it. Typical runway: 3 to 6 months Federal: CMRA registration with USPS 07 Opening a medical practice Professional board licensure, federal privacy obligations, and an insurance credentialing process that decides when you actually get paid. Typical runway: 9 to 18 months Licence path: Professional board plus DLCA 08 Opening an admin or professional office The lightest permit path in this set. Accountants, agencies, insurance, property management, and consultancies, where the differentiator is how you handle client documents. Typical runway: 1 to 4 months Licence path: DLCA, general or board

The parts that never change

Every business here walks the same first mile.

Whatever you are opening, the territorial spine is the same. The guides differ after this point, not before it.

  1. Register the name or the entity. Trade name, partnership, or corporation registration through the Lieutenant Governor's Office. Almost everything downstream waits on this.
  2. Get the federal tax number. An EIN from the IRS, which the Bureau of Internal Revenue will want to see.
  3. Register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Including the tax clearance letter the licence application depends on.
  4. Apply to DLCA for the business licence. Under the category that matches what you actually do. DLCA runs the police record check and the DPNR zoning review on your behalf as part of the application.
  5. Clear the inspections your category triggers. Fire Service for everyone. Department of Health for anything involving food, and for a number of other regulated activities.
  6. Set up for gross receipts tax. Five percent on receipts, with a monthly exemption for businesses under the annual threshold. It is a tax on receipts, not on profit, and it applies whether or not you made money.

Verify current requirements with DLCA at dlca.vi.gov and the Bureau of Internal Revenue at bir.vi.gov before acting on any of this.

The part we do

The last two steps are the ones we build.

Getting licensed is paperwork and patience. Getting bookable, orderable, and findable is software, and that is the part FruitStack takes on. Come to us at any point in the sequence, including before you have a licence number.

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