McMinnville · Upper Cumberland
Starting a business in Warren County.
Where to go, what it costs, and what is particular to Warren rather than true everywhere. The rules are Tennessee’s; the office, the hours and the number of licences are local.
Where you go
Warren County Clerk
Lesa Scott
201 Locust Street, Suite 2P, McMinnville, TN 37110
Opening hours are listed differently by the county and the state, so we would rather you rang than turned up on the wrong morning.
What it costs in Warren
$30inside those city limits
$15 to the county clerk, and another $15 to the city if you are inside McMinnville. 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: Friday closing time is disputed: the county site says 4:30pm, tn.gov says 5pm, so no hours are stated. Centertown and Viola publish no town hall phone at all.
Town by town
McMinnville
Own city licence needed
101 East Main Street, 3rd floor, McMinnville, TN 37110
Morrison
Call to check
We could not confirm from an official source whether Morrison charges its own licence, and we would rather say so than guess.
Centertown
Call to check
We could not confirm from an official source whether Centertown charges its own licence, and we would rather say so than guess.
Viola
Call to check
We could not confirm from an official source whether Viola 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 Warren-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 Warren 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 McMinnville; there is a person who will talk to you about McMinnville.
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 If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.