How to Start an Electrical or Plumbing Business in Hawaii: 5 Years and 10,000 Hours, $306 Triennial Renewal and Why You Also Need a Contractor License

If you want to run an electrical or plumbing business in Hawaii, you need two separate credentials. The first is a personal trade license from the Board of Electricians and Plumbers, a DCCA board that works under Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) chapter 448E. The second is a contractor license from the Contractors License Board for the company that bids and performs the work. Many people searching for a hawaii electrician license or how to become a plumber in hawaii guide focus only on the personal license, then discover the company side later.

Hawaii has no general statewide business license and no county general business license. Registering an entity or a trade name is a filing, not a license. The one universal state registration is the one-time $20 General Excise Tax (GET) license. Everything else is licensed by agency or trade.

This guide covers the order most owners follow. It is informational content, not legal or tax advice. Confirm every fee and requirement with the agency named before you file or pay.

What You Need Before You Start

• Proof that you are 18 or older
• Dated work records showing hours under a journey worker, supervising electrician, or master plumber, with each supervisor's name and license number recorded on the entry
• For electricians, proof of 240 hours of electrical coursework accepted by a University of Hawaii community college
• A business name that includes Limited Liability Company, L.L.C., or LLC if you form an LLC
• A registered agent with a Hawaii street address, who must be physically present in Hawaii
• Budget for the $50 LLC filing fee, the $20 GET license, and the $12.50 annual report due each year after the year you register

Step 1: Pick Your Trade and Know What Each License Covers

Electrical and plumbing have separate license tracks and separate experience rules. Electrical work runs through the journey worker electrician license. Plumbing has a journey plumber license and a master plumber license. Your company license must match the work: C-13 for electrical and C-37 for plumbing with the Contractors License Board. If you plan to do both trades, you will need qualified people for each. Many owners start with one trade to keep the paperwork and the crew manageable.

Step 2: Confirm Your Experience Path

For a journey worker electrician under HRS 448E-5(b), you need either 5 years of full-time work or at least 10,000 hours of residential or commercial wiring under a journey worker or supervising electrician. You must also be 18 or older and complete 240 hours of electrical coursework accepted by a University of Hawaii community college.

For plumbing, a journey plumber needs either 5 years of full-time work or at least 10,000 hours as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper. A master plumber needs 2 years registered as a journey plumber or equivalent experience. Do not assume that another trade's hour counts or another state's rules apply in Hawaii. The statute sets the baseline, and the board decides whether your records qualify.

Step 3: Build an Hours Log the Board Can Verify

Experience documentation is where applications stall. Start a log on your first day of covered work and update it weekly. For each entry, record the date, the job address, whether the work was residential or commercial, the hours worked, and the supervising journey worker or electrician. Ask the supervisor to confirm each monthly total in writing. Keep pay stubs or employer letters that show your employment dates, so the hours can be tied to a real job.

Step 4: Finish the 240 Hours of Coursework

Electrician applicants must complete 240 hours of electrical coursework accepted by a University of Hawaii community college. Before you enroll, contact the college program and ask two questions: whether the course counts toward the board's requirement, and what proof of completion the board expects. Confirm the exact course list with the Board of Electricians and Plumbers. Do not assume that a general continuing education class will count.

Step 5: Apply for Your Journey Worker License and Pass the Exam

Submit your application to the Board of Electricians and Plumbers through DCCA with your hours log, your coursework proof, and any fees the board lists. This guide does not state the exam fee, so check the board's current fee schedule before you pay. If you hold a license from another state, ask the board whether reciprocity applies. Do not assume it does.

Apprentices and trainees who work under a licensed person do not need their own license for that supervised work (HRS 448E-9). Helpers can therefore work on a licensed electrician's or plumber's job while they build the hours toward their own license.

Step 6: Form the Business Entity

Many electrical and plumbing businesses organize as an LLC. Articles of Organization (Form LLC-1) carry a $50 filing fee and are filed through Hawaii Business Express at hbe.dcca.hawaii.gov. The Business Registration Division (BREG) describes online filing as the most efficient method. Before you file, search the name for free in the BREG business name search. The name cannot be substantially identical to one already registered (Section 428-105, HRS). If you need time to decide, a 120-day name reservation costs $10.

Your Articles must list a Hawaii street address for your registered agent. The agent must be an individual or an entity authorized to transact business in Hawaii, and must be physically present in the state. An LLC cannot serve as its own registered agent (Sections 428-107 and 425R-4, HRS). A commercial registered agent files a listing statement with BREG for $100. Compare that cost against having a trusted person in Hawaii serve in that role.

BREG does not publish a standard turnaround time for routine filings. Expedited review normally adds $25 per document, but BREG states that expedited processing is not available right now following its July 6, 2026 move to a new registration system. Plan for routine processing only.

If you will bid or advertise under a name other than your LLC name, register a trade name on Form T-1 at cca.hawaii.gov/breg/registration/trade. The fee is $50 plus a $1 State Archives preservation fee. An optional $20 expedited fee exists, but BREG's current notice says expedited processing is not available, so do not plan around it. A trade name registration is valid for five years. The Department does not send renewal notices, so put the expiration date on your calendar. Hawaii has no county-level DBA filing.

Step 7: Get Your General Excise Tax License

Hawaii has no sales tax. The General Excise Tax is levied on the business's gross receipts, not on the customer. The GET license is the one universal state registration, and it costs a one-time $20. Apply on Form BB-1 or through Hawaii Tax Online at tax.hawaii.gov/get. Processing is immediate in person, 5 to 7 business days through Hawaii Tax Online, and 4 to 6 weeks by mail.

For electrical and plumbing contracting, plan your bids around the 4.5 percent rate, which is the 4.0 percent state rate plus the 0.5 percent county surcharge. If you show GET as a separate charge on customer invoices, the maximum pass-on rate is 4.7120 percent. Every license holder must file periodic and annual GET returns, even in a period with no income. Missing returns is one of the easiest ways to create a problem with the Department of Taxation.

Step 8: Get the Contractors License Board License

Your personal electrician or plumber license does not, by itself, let your company bid or perform contracting work. The company needs the Contractors License Board license for its trade: C-13 for electrical and C-37 for plumbing. This guide does not state the application fee or the required qualifiers, so confirm them with the Contractors License Board before you submit.

Staffing matters here. Under HRS 444-9.5, at least half of the individuals doing electrical or plumbing work on a job site must be licensed under chapter 448E, unless the board waives that requirement for a county. A crew with one licensed journey worker and several unlicensed helpers can run into trouble on larger jobs. Plan the crew before you bid, not after the job starts.

Step 9: Handle County Permits and the Annual Report

Hawaii has four counties: Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. It has no incorporated cities, and there is no county health department. Permits for specific electrical or plumbing projects are handled through the county planning or permitting department where the work takes place, so check the requirements for each county you serve and each project type. A county permit is tied to a project. It is not a general business license.

Your LLC also owes an annual report, with a fee of $12.50. It is due by the end of the calendar quarter that matches your registration quarter. Entities registered January 1 to March 31 file by March 31. April 1 to June 30 files by June 30. July 1 to September 30 files by September 30. October 1 to December 31 files by December 31. No report is required in the year you registered. For example, an LLC registered on February 15, 2027 would first file its annual report by March 31, 2028. Hawaii has no franchise tax on LLCs, so the annual report is the recurring entity filing to track.

Step 10: Set Up Payroll Compliance

If you hire employees, you must follow the Prepaid Health Care Act. Confirm your employer obligations with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations before your first payroll, since this guide does not list contribution details. Build those costs into your bids along with GET.

Step 11: Calendar Your Triennial Renewal

Trade licenses renew every three years by June 30. Electrician renewals fall in 2026 and 2029. Plumber renewals fall in 2027 and 2030. As of 2026, renewal costs $306 for an active license and $12 for an inactive license. Before you renew, complete an NEC update course or exam if you are an electrician, or a plumbing code update course or exam if you are a plumber (HRS 448E-8 and 448E-8.5).

The 2026 electrician renewal deadline was June 30, 2026, and that date has passed. If you hold an electrician license, confirm your renewal status with the Board of Electricians and Plumbers now, and ask what applies if your license is not current. Also confirm the renewal schedule for your Contractors License Board license with that board, since this guide does not list it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using the wrong trade's hour requirements, or skipping the 240 hours of electrical coursework
• Trying to rebuild the hours log from memory months later, when supervisors are hard to reach
• Forming an LLC without the word LLC in the name, or naming a registered agent who is not physically present in Hawaii
• Assuming your personal license covers the company, which still needs the C-13 or C-37 contractor license
• Staffing jobs so that unlicensed helpers make up more than half the people working on site, without a board waiver
• Missing the first annual report, or forgetting the five-year trade name expiration
• Pricing jobs without the 4.5 percent GET
• Letting the 2026 electrician renewal go unconfirmed

What to Expect

Following these steps in order may help you reach a point where your company can bid and perform covered electrical or plumbing work. Outcomes depend on the quality of your experience records, the board's review of your application, and the jobs you accept. Many applicants find that documenting experience takes longer than the filings do. Timelines also vary. BREG publishes no standard turnaround, GET licenses may be issued immediately in person or may take weeks by mail, and board processing times are set by the board. Nothing in this guide guarantees an approval date, a specific timeline, or business income. A complete hours log and a deadline calendar may reduce the most common delays.

Disclaimer and Next Steps

This article is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Before you choose an entity, sign contracts, buy insurance, or decide how GET applies to your jobs, consult a qualified attorney and a certified public accountant (CPA). For free small business counseling, the Hawaii Small Business Development Center offers help at hisbdc.org.