Lafayette · Upper Cumberland
Starting a business in Macon County.
Where to go, what it costs, and what is particular to Macon rather than true everywhere. The rules are Tennessee’s; the office, the hours and the number of licences are local.
Where you go
Macon County Clerk
Stacy Kemp
201 Nature Trail Way, Suite D, Lafayette, TN 37083
Open: Mon, Tue, Wed 8am to 4:30pm; Thursday CLOSED; Fri 8am to 5pm; Sat 8am to 12:30pm
What it costs in Macon
$30inside those city limits
$15 to the county clerk, and another $15 to the city if you are inside Lafayette, Red Boiling Springs. 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: The Thursday closure is real and easy to be caught by. tn.gov still names the previous clerk, who retired on 31 Aug 2026. Suite C is the Mayor's office, not the clerk's.
Town by town
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 Macon-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 Macon 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 Lafayette; there is a person who will talk to you about Lafayette.
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 If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.