The Minimum Setup to Start a Trade Business in Australia

The internet will try to convince you that starting a trade business is complicated.

Business.gov.au's checklist is 40 items long. Sprintlaw has pages of setup advice. BizCover has a "complete guide" that somehow finds 17 insurances to tell you about. Read any of them and you'd be forgiven for thinking you need a lawyer, an accountant, and a small loan just to hang out your shingle.

The honest version: a sole trader can be fully registered and legally trading in under 24 hours, for under $600. This is the minimum viable setup. Every step is genuine. None of it is optional. And nothing else needs to happen before you invoice your first job.

The truth about getting started — it's simpler than they make it sound

You are already 80% of the way there and you don't know it.

You've got a trade licence. You've got tools. You've got the skill. The rest is three government websites, one insurance quote, one bank account, and a separate notebook (or better, a Xero account) to track what comes in and goes out.

That's it.

The reason long checklists exist is that they're written for general businesses — retail stores, ecommerce, cafés, consultancies. A sole tradie doesn't need an EIN equivalent, a trademark lawyer, a PCI-compliant payment gateway, or a HR system. You need to be legally registered, insured, and able to send an invoice.

Everything in the list below is genuinely required before your first job. Nothing past it is required before your tenth.

Step 1 — Get your ABN (free, 15 minutes)

Your Australian Business Number (ABN) is your ID as a business. Without it, you can't invoice properly, and anyone paying you as a contractor will withhold 47% tax until you've got one.

Apply at abr.gov.au. It's free. It takes 15 minutes. You'll be asked:

• Your personal details (TFN, name, DOB, address)
• What business structure you're applying as (for most tradies: Individual/Sole Trader)
• What your main business activity is (ANZSIC code — there's one for every trade)
• When you want the ABN to start (same day is fine)

You'll usually get the ABN back instantly. If the system can't verify your identity automatically, it can take up to 28 days — which is why you apply for it the week before you start, not the morning of your first job.

One warning: there are private websites that charge $200+ to fill out the free ABN form for you. Don't. Go directly to abr.gov.au. It's a government site and it's free.

Step 2 — Register a business name if you need one

If you're going to trade under your own legal name — e.g. John Smith operating as "John Smith Plumbing" — you don't need to register a business name at all. Your ABN covers it.

If you want to trade as anything else ("Southside Plumbing," "Apex Electrical," "Warrnambool Bathroom Renos"), you need to register it as a business name with ASIC.

Go to asic.gov.au/business-names. It's $44 for one year or $102 for three. Pick three — you'll forget to renew otherwise, and an expired business name is a mess to recover.

Before you settle on a name: Google it. Check if the domain is available. Check if someone in your state is already trading under a name that's close enough to cause confusion. The $5 you spend on the domain now is $500 cheaper than rebranding in year two.

Step 3 — Check your trade licence is current for your state

Licensing rules vary by trade and by state. There's no single national trade licence.

The short version by trade type:

• Electricians — state-based licence required everywhere (NSW Fair Trading, Energy Safe Victoria, Queensland ESO, etc.)
• Plumbers — state-based licence required everywhere
• Builders and carpenters — state-based licence above a certain job value threshold (the threshold varies — $5,000 in some states, $10,000+ in others)
• Tilers, painters, fencers, concreters — some states require a licence, some don't. Check.
• Air conditioning / refrigeration — licence required plus ARCtick for anyone handling refrigerant

What to check for your state:

State	Authority
NSW	NSW Fair Trading
VIC	Victorian Building Authority + Energy Safe Victoria
QLD	QBCC
WA	Building and Energy WA
SA	Consumer and Business Services SA
TAS	CBOS Tasmania
ACT	Access Canberra
NT	NT Building Practitioners Board

Confirm your licence is valid, in your name, and in the trade category you're actually operating in. If you're working across multiple states, you may need separate licences or mutual recognition applications.

Without a current licence, none of the rest of this matters. You can't legally invoice for the work.

Step 4 — Get public liability insurance before your first job

Public liability insurance is the non-negotiable. It covers you if you injure someone or damage property while working.

A few baseline numbers:

• Standard cover for most trades: $5m or $10m — $10m is what most head contractors and builders require
• Typical cost: $400–$900/yr for a sole trader with no staff, depending on trade and claims history
• Time to get cover: Same day, in most cases, once you've paid

Shop around. BizCover, Trade Risk, Aon, and several state-specific brokers all quote the same cover from different underwriters. Prices vary by hundreds of dollars for identical policies.

What to watch for:

• Policy excess — the amount you pay before insurance kicks in. $500 is standard; anything higher than $1,000 is a red flag
• Subcontractor coverage — if you'll ever have a mate help you on a job, make sure they're covered
• Territorial limits — make sure the policy covers you in every state you might work in
• Claims history — if you've had a previous claim, disclose it. Non-disclosure voids the policy when you need it most

The full breakdown of public liability and the four other insurances worth knowing about — tools cover, income protection, professional indemnity, workers' comp — is in our public liability insurance for tradies guide.

Step 5 — Open a separate bank account (you'll thank yourself at tax time)

You don't legally have to as a sole trader. You should anyway.

Mixing your business and personal money is the single biggest source of tax-time pain for new tradies. It makes:

• Tracking legitimate deductions hard
• Reconciling income for the ATO hard
• Knowing how much money is actually in the business hard
• Responding to an ATO audit very hard

Every major bank offers a free or cheap business transaction account. Westpac, CBA, NAB, ANZ, Macquarie, or an online-only option like Zeller or Tide — pick one. Spend 30 minutes setting it up. From that day, every business dollar in and out goes through that account.

If you're using Xero (or planning to), connect it to your business account the day you open it. The alternative is reconstructing a year of mixed transactions in June. Don't.

Step 6 — Register for GST if you expect to earn over $75,000

GST registration is optional if you earn under $75,000 in your first 12 months. It's mandatory once you cross that threshold.

Most tradies don't register on day one. They either:

• Wait until they cross $75,000 and register then (mandatory)
• Register earlier if they're mostly invoicing commercial clients who expect a GST invoice

If you register, you charge 10% GST on every invoice and pay it to the ATO quarterly via BAS (Business Activity Statement). You also get to claim back the GST on your business expenses, which for a new tradie with tools to buy is often a net benefit.

Quick rule of thumb: if you're invoicing homeowners, delay registering. If you're mostly subcontracting to other tradies or builders, register early — they'll expect a GST invoice, and you'll recover the GST on your tools and ute.

Apply through the ATO's Business Portal or ask your accountant to do it when they set you up. For the full picture on tax, deductions, and how BAS works, see our tradie tax deductions guide.

What you don't need yet (save yourself the cost and complexity)

Here's what the consultants, agencies, and "small business coaches" will try to sell you in month one. Ignore all of it.

• A company structure (Pty Ltd). Costs $576 to set up, comes with ongoing compliance, and delivers zero benefit for most tradies until you're taking on staff or earning significantly more. Our sole trader vs company guide breaks down when it actually matters.
• A trademark. For a local trade name, the cost and process rarely earn out. Revisit in year two if you care.
• A $2,000+ website. Not in month one. A claimed Google Business Profile and an active directory listing will out-earn a dormant website every time.
• A marketing agency retainer. You don't need one. You need a properly set-up Google Business Profile and a handful of reviews.
• A "business coach" at $500/session. You need to be on the tools. That's the coach.
• A custom email domain with 12 staff members. A single work email is plenty.

Full list of what you can genuinely skip is in things you don't need when starting a trade business.

The one thing most new tradies forget until it hurts them

Separate your tax money the day an invoice lands.

Every invoice that gets paid, take 25–30% off the top and move it into a second business account labelled "Tax." Don't touch it. Don't borrow from it. Don't promise yourself you'll replace it later.

The ATO is patient for about six months. After that, they start charging interest, then penalties, then garnishing money directly out of your accounts. The hardest lesson in the first year of self-employment is that the money in your bank account isn't all yours — 25–30% of it already belongs to the ATO, and they will come for it.

Doing this from day one is the single highest-impact habit in the whole list. It's not on business.gov.au's 40-item checklist. It should be.

The whole thing, in order, in one screen

If you bookmark anything, bookmark this:

1. Confirm your trade licence is current for your state
2. Register your ABN at abr.gov.au (free, 15 min)
3. Register a business name at asic.gov.au if needed ($44–$102)
4. Get public liability insurance quoted — aim for $10m cover
5. Open a separate business bank account
6. Register for GST only if you expect to earn over $75,000
7. Set up a second account labelled "Tax" — move 25–30% of every paid invoice into it
8. Claim your Google Business Profile (free — this is your first marketing activity)

Done. You are legally set up to invoice your first job.

Anyone who tells you it's more complicated than this is either selling you something or has never done it themselves.

For the broader picture of everything that comes next — pricing, finding work, insurance deep-dive, getting paid on time — start with our how to start your own trade business in Australia pillar.