Tonya, I make small business loans (through the SBA) for a living. Generally, the actual SBA employees aren't going to have all the knowledge about the business license requirements because each area is different. You need to contact the business license office of your local area to find out exactly what you need.

Grants are few and far between and the SBA certainly doesn't provide them, but you may find some grant advice at the local SBA office and through local economic development office. In my area, I have seen grants available especially in depressed parts of the state, where economic development is very important. Of course, this usually means that they want to see potential jobs for the citizens of that area. The SBA is there to encourage lenders to be willing to lend to small businesses, but they don't actually make the loans. The lenders do. The SBA provides a "guarantee" for a portion of the loan to reduce the risk to the lender.

SBA does have some really good resources on their website, though. You should go to www.sba.gov and click on the state where you live and search through the local site to find what resources are available to assist you in thinking through your business plan, putting it on paper, etc. If you need to borrow funds to get started, you need to be ready to put in a reasonable cash down payment and show, through projections, how you will earn enough money to service the debt on the business. The Small Business Development Center in your area and SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Exectutives) are two of the most common resources a new small business owner turns to for aid.

I don't know if this has helped, especially since I don't know what kind of business you are planning to open and where you plan to locate it, but if you have more questions, please feel free to ask me.

Logan