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How I Mapped
the User Journeys

Behind each journey is someone trying to start a business, build a home, or earn a living. These journey maps reflect the complexity and intertwined paths real humans have to navigate.

PLC — Permitting, Licensing & Certification

114 Journeys
57 PLC Types
845 Dependency Edges
454 Annotated Gotchas
602 Source Citations
1
Entity Formation Business Registration, EIN
2
Licenses & Permits Professional, Industry, Federal
3
Zoning & Land Use Zoning Approval, Special Use
4
Build & Inspect Building Permit, Fire, Health
5
Open for Business Business License, Signage
Ordering Principle

Dependency, not jurisdiction

Steps are ordered by when they happen in practice. You form your business entity before you apply for a liquor license. You get zoning approval before you pull a building permit. You pass your fire inspection before you receive a certificate of occupancy.

Steps are sequenced by dependency. Each one unlocks the next, regardless of which level of government issued it.

Edge Types

Three kinds of dependency

Hard 741

Technically blocks the next step. You cannot legally or physically proceed without it.

Soft 67

Conventionally sequential but not required. Skipping adds risk, not a wall.

Parallel 37

Can run concurrently with another step. Order does not matter.

Journey Structure

Four phases of every journey

01 Preparation

Entity formation, tax registration, insurance

Business Registration
EIN Registration
State Tax Registration
02 Application

Formal permits and professional credentials

Health Dept License
Liquor License
Contractor License
03 Inspection

Physical compliance and site approvals

Zoning Approval
Building Permit
Fire Inspection
04 Active

Operational licenses and ongoing obligations

Business License
Signage Permit
Entertainment License
Ongoing

Not every step is one-and-done

Many permits and licenses must be renewed on a regular cycle. These steps are marked with a renewal indicator in the matrix. They appear at the point in the journey where they are first established, but they continue for as long as the business or license is active.

↻ Annual
Business License, Fire Inspection
↻ Every 2 Years
Liquor License, Professional License
↻ Every 5 Years
EPA Permit, Mining Permit
↻ Biennial
FDA Registration, DOT Authority
Annotations

Where journeys get stuck

Each journey includes two to four annotated gotchas — concrete friction points where applicants commonly stall, get rejected, or hit unexpected requirements. Every gotcha is tied to a specific step and backed by a source.

454 Total Gotchas
314 Major · multi-week delays
140 Minor · hassle, rarely blocks
Major

Open a Restaurant → Health Inspection

Health departments require a plan review of kitchen layout before buildout begins; if equipment placement (e.g., handwashing sink distance from prep surface) does not match approved drawings, inspectors will require physical changes before issuing a pass, triggering 2-6 week re-inspection delays.

Source: FDA Food Code - FDA
Major

Open a Retail Store → Zoning Approval

Retail uses such as liquor stores, tobacco shops, or dense retail clusters may require a special use permit on top of standard zoning approval, adding 6-16 weeks; verifying allowed-use status before signing a lease is the single most common avoidable delay (source: Naperville Illinois Business Permit Directory 2026).

Source: What Zoning is Required for Auto Repair? (Retail Special Use Permit Overview) - AutoLeap
Major

Open a Pharmacy → DEA Registration

In approximately half of U.S. states a State Controlled Substance Permit (CSP) must be active and verified before the DEA will process the federal pharmacy application; submitting the DEA form first causes it to stall rather than queue, triggering a restart and adding 4-8 weeks to the timeline (source: The Veracity Group, March 2026; healthlawalliance.com).

Source: Practitioner's State License Requirements – DEA Diversion Control Division

Major gotchas commonly cost weeks. Minor gotchas are hassle, not blockers. Tap any step in a journey to see its gotchas in context.

Citations

Every step traces back to an authority

Citations exist at three layers — every PLC type has one, every gotcha has its own, and every journey carries three to six broad references grouped by type.

57 Node Sources

One authoritative reference per PLC type (IRS for EIN, FDA for food registration, ICC for building permits). Visible on every step of every journey.

454 Gotcha Sources

Each friction point cites the regulation, statute, or guide that documents it.

602 Journey References

Three to six per journey, grouped as regulatory / guide / dataset, surfaced in the Sources panel beneath each matrix.

Most-cited domains
epa.gov 63law.cornell.edu 34codes.iccsafe.org 24up.codes 22nfpa.org 17faa.gov 16ecfr.gov 16waterboards.ca.gov 15atf.gov 14nyc.gov 14cdn.kingcounty.gov 13fda.gov 12ttb.gov 12sla.ny.gov 12sba.gov 11

Full citations surface in context inside each journey — tap a step to see its source, or expand the Sources panel below the matrix for journey-level references.

Research

Sources

Maryland PLC Data Catalog 1,058 PLC types with operational metadata.
DOL CareerOneStop Occupational License Finder Full flat-export of all occupational license records across US states.
WVU Knee Regulatory Research Center Licensing Database Annual snapshot of occupational licensing requirements across all 50 states + DC.
SBA 10-Step Business Startup Guide Canonical federal guidance for business formation sequence.
NJ Business Navigator Roadmaps Industry-specific licensing roadmaps from NJ's open-source business portal.
Municipal Codes Common local permitting patterns for construction, land use, events
What this is
  • + A representative model of how PLC requirements distribute across jurisdiction levels
  • + Ordered by real-world dependency chains, not bureaucratic hierarchy
  • + Annotated with real-world friction points, each backed by a source citation
  • + Every step sourced to a government, industry, or standards body reference
  • + An abstraction useful for stakeholder presentations and system design
  • + Directionally accurate for any US jurisdiction
What this is not
  • – A legal compliance guide for any specific jurisdiction
  • – Exhaustive — real jurisdictions have many additional niche permits
  • – Validated against a specific state or city's actual requirements
  • – A substitute for consulting your local permitting office
Release history

What's new

v1.2 April 21, 2026

Fully Grounded with hundreds of data sources

Every step in every journey now carries an authoritative source, and high-friction steps are annotated with real-world gotchas.

  • + Source citations, everywhere. Each of the 57 permit / license / certification types links out to its official reference — IRS for an EIN, FDA for food registration, the International Code Council for a building permit.
  • + Gotchas on high-friction steps. 454 annotated gotchas flag the places where applicants commonly stall, get rejected, or hit a surprise requirement. A red dot on a step means it has one.
  • + Journey sources panel. A collapsible panel under each journey lists the broader references grouped into regulatory, industry guides, and datasets.
  • + Methodology redesign. This page was rebuilt as a dossier on the underlying dataset — live counters, the dependency-edge taxonomy, sample gotchas, the three-layer citation architecture, and the most-cited source domains.
v1.1 April 20, 2026

Dependency-aware journeys

Journey steps now sequence themselves by real-world prerequisites. Zoning approval comes before a building permit because it has to.

  • + Smarter step ordering. Each step sits after everything it depends on. Within any level, shorter steps come first so the longest remaining hurdle is the visible next milestone.
  • + Dependency View. A toggle replaces the matrix with an animated flow of how steps connect. Ambient loops through the journey as a guided tour; Realistic plays once at one day ≈ 0.1 seconds and surfaces the minimum total time if independent steps run in parallel.
  • + 167 new dependency edges, each typed as hard (blocks the next step), soft (conventional but not required), or parallel (can happen concurrently).
  • + Mobile-ready. The journey page works on phones with a phase-by-phase accordion and compact timeline.
v1.0 April 19, 2026

Launch

The Permit & License Journey Explorer goes public — 114 real-world journeys across 15 categories, mapped across federal, state, and local requirements.

  • + 114 journeys, from opening a restaurant to becoming a nurse to hosting a street festival.
  • + Jurisdictional matrix view. Each journey renders as a four-phase by three-jurisdiction grid so you can see which permits come from which level of government at a glance.
  • + Search and filter. Find a journey by name, or narrow the list by jurisdiction and category.
  • + Step details. Tap any step to see its agency, application fee, processing time, renewal cycle, and downstream impact.