Smithville · Upper Cumberland
Starting a business in DeKalb County.
Where to go, what it costs, and what is particular to DeKalb rather than true everywhere. The rules are Tennessee’s; the office, the hours and the number of licences are local.
Where you go
DeKalb County Clerk
James L. "Jimmy" Poss
732 S Congress Blvd, Room 102, Smithville, TN 37166
Open: Mon to Fri 8am to 4:30pm; Sat 8am to 11:30am
What it costs in DeKalb
$30inside those city limits
$15 to the county clerk, and another $15 to the city if you are inside Smithville, Alexandria. Two licences, two offices, one business. Outside those limits it is just the county one.
The $15 is set by state law, so it is the same in every Tennessee county. You need it once you expect more than $3,000 a year.
Worth knowing: 615-597-5175 is the county's general line, not the clerk's. Liberty and Dowelltown have no website and no published code.
Town by town
Liberty
Call to check
We could not confirm from an official source whether Liberty charges its own licence, and we would rather say so than guess.
Dowelltown
Call to check
We could not confirm from an official source whether Dowelltown charges its own licence, and we would rather say so than guess.
The rest of it is the same everywhere
Choosing between a sole proprietorship and an LLC, registering with the Secretary of State, sales tax, and the order to do it all in are Tennessee-wide rather than DeKalb-specific. The full guide covers them, including why an LLC costs $300 rather than the hundred or so most people expect.
Read the full guideWe serve DeKalb County
The Biz Foundry is a non-profit in Cookeville and coaching is free across all fourteen Upper Cumberland counties, in person or over video. There is no office in Smithville; there is a person who will talk to you about Smithville.
Book a free session →Checked against official county and state sources on September 17, 2026. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.