If your business sits inside Cookeville city limits, you need two business licenses, not one: one from the City of Cookeville and one from the Putnam County Clerk. Each one costs $15 to start. The state of Tennessee only gets involved once you know roughly what you’ll gross in a year.
That’s the whole answer in three sentences. The rest of this page is the order to do it in, the forms people forget, and the one call that saves you from signing a lease on a building you can’t legally operate from.
Call city planning before you sign anything
The City of Cookeville requires proper zoning for every business, and it tells you how to check: call the City Planning Department at 931-520-5271 and ask whether your location is zoned for the type of business you’re opening.
Do this first. Before the license, before the sign, before the lease. A license application is $15. A five-year lease on a space where your use isn’t allowed is a lot more than that, and the license office can’t fix it for you.
Running it from home? The city’s zoning code allows certain businesses in residential areas, and you’ll sign an Affidavit for Home Occupation saying you’ll follow those rules. It goes in with your license application.
The city license is a $15 application and two extra forms
Title 5, Chapter 3 of the Cookeville Municipal Code requires businesses operating inside city limits to hold a City of Cookeville Business Tax License. Here’s what goes back to the City Clerk together:
- The Business Tax License application, with the $15 application fee
- The Business Key Holder form, which the Cookeville Police Department asks for so they can reach someone after hours if something happens at your location
- The home occupation affidavit, if you’re working from your house
All three forms are linked as PDFs from the city’s Business Tax License page. City Hall is at 45 E Broad Street, open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm, and the main number is 931-526-9591.
The county license comes from the clerk on South Dixie
The second license comes from the Putnam County Clerk’s Office at 121 South Dixie Avenue. The county’s own page puts the initial cost of a county business license at $15.00. The office is open 8 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday, and the number is 931-526-7106.
The county page doesn’t spell out what to bring, so call ahead before you drive over. You’ll save yourself a second trip.
What you gross decides what the state wants from you
Tennessee’s business tax runs on annual gross receipts. For tax periods ending on or after December 31, 2023, the Tennessee Department of Revenue says businesses under $100,000 in annual gross receipts don’t file an annual business tax return. Between $3,000 and $100,000, you need a minimal activity license instead.
Here’s how that plays out in Cookeville, per the city’s page:
| Yearly gross receipts | License type | What renewal takes |
|---|---|---|
| More than $3,000, less than $100,000 | Minimal license | A $15 Minimal Activity Fee paid to the City of Cookeville |
| $100,000 or more | Standard license | File your return and pay online through the state’s TNTAP site. The city won’t renew a standard license until that’s done |
Expecting less than $3,000 this year, say a side business that’s still finding its feet? Don’t assume you’re off the hook. Call the City Clerk and ask before you skip the application.
One more state piece, separate from the license: if you’re forming an LLC or a corporation, that filing goes through the Tennessee Secretary of State, not the city or the county.
Changing your name or moving? Tell the city
The license isn’t a one-time thing. Any change to your business name, ownership, location, mailing address, classification or gross sales bracket should be reported on the city’s Business Tax Change Form. You can turn it in at City Hall, mail it to City of Cookeville Business Tax Department, P.O. Box 998, Cookeville, TN 38503-0998, or fax it to 931-526-4897.
People forget this one when they move from a home office into a storefront. It’s the same zoning question all over again, so call planning before that move, too.
A license makes you legal. It doesn’t make you findable
I worked with a contractor here in Cookeville who did great work and had tons of referrals. They had a Facebook page, and that was it. No website, no Google Business Profile. I brought them up on an episode of Unscripted Small Business, and the point still stands: the business was fully licensed and close to invisible to anyone who didn’t already know somebody who’d hired them.
So once the paperwork is done, spend an afternoon on the part that brings in customers you’ve never met:
- Claim your Google Business Profile, using the same name and address that’s on your license
- Put your phone number, hours and service area where a person can see them in ten seconds
- Get your business into local directories, including the Top 5 Cookeville directory
- Ask your first happy customers for a review the day the job is done
We dug into how that last part works, with three practitioners on the record, in how a Cookeville business actually earns a recommendation.
Got the zoning call done? Then you’re two $15 applications away from open. Which one are you walking into first?
Fees, forms and hours come from the City of Cookeville, the Putnam County Clerk and the Tennessee Department of Revenue websites, checked October 5, 2026. They change, so confirm with the office before you file. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.