DC Business Portal

State IT Innovation of the Year

District of Columbia officials have launched a new website designed as a portal to help small businesses navigate the many bureaucratic and legal processes of setting up shop in the nation’s capital. The new D.C. Business Licensing Portal, which is still considered to be in its beta phase, is the first major project completed by the city’s relatively new digital services team. It’s meant to give small-business operators a replacement to what was once a thicket of forms requiring applicants to jump from agency to agency with little guidance. The project comes as city officials look to rebuild a downtown economy still wounded by the coronavirus pandemic.