Tennessee general contractor marketing that matches your license to each county

In Tennessee, an ad for a big job counts as an offer to do it. So the project size your license allows is also the project size your website and ads should promise.

A contractor license is required before bidding, offering or negotiating a price on a project of $25,000 or more, as TDCI's contractor license page puts it. We read that as covering a landing page that sells additions, custom homes or whole-house remodels.

Tennessee's contractor licensing law makes the offer itself unlawful without the right license and limit. A contractor who works without one can recover only documented expenses in court. The ad is where that trouble starts.

The limit is set per project. TDCI works it out as 10 times the lesser of your working capital or net worth. So "projects of any size" is the wrong line for most contractors. Name the kinds of projects you take, at sizes you can sign.

Two changes on the Board for Licensing Contractors page matter for growth plans. Since July 1, 2026, a surety bond can stand in for the CPA financial statement when you ask for a limit. Exams also moved to a new provider. When your limit goes up, raise what the site offers the same week.

The board also enforces. Its rules treat letting an unlicensed company use your license number as misconduct. Lending your number to a partner's ads is not a shortcut.

Tornadoes drive a real share of Tennessee rebuild work, and the season runs longer than most plans allow. A rebuild page needs to be live before the first warning, and it needs to stay honest after one.

The National Weather Service in Nashville counts an average of 31 tornadoes a year statewide from 1995 to 2025, 18 of them in Middle Tennessee. The year 2025 alone brought 50.

Most come in spring. Two thirds of Middle Tennessee's tornadoes have struck in March, April or May, per the office's tornado climatology, with a smaller peak around November.

December is the change to plan for. Middle Tennessee saw 9 December tornadoes from the 1800s through 2014 and 28 from 2015 on, per the NWS review of December 9, 2023. That day was the deadliest December outbreak in Middle Tennessee's records. A rebuild page that comes down in June misses it.

Three state rules shape what that page and its ads may say:

• No fake storm sales. Tennessee's consumer protection law bars an ad that falsely says an offer was caused by a natural catastrophe.
• No price spikes after a declaration. Once the governor declares an abnormal economic disruption, the price gouging law covers repair and construction services for up to 15 days, longer if extended.
• Three business days to cancel. A deal signed at the homeowner's kitchen table can be cancelled until midnight of the third business day, under the home solicitation sale law. Saturday counts as a business day. Sunday does not.

TDCI's disaster page warns homeowners about con artists posing as officials and insurance adjusters. Put your license number and recent permits on the rebuild page, so a homeowner can check you in a minute.

Bids are often won on the follow-up, and Tennessee has its own rules for that follow-up on top of the federal ones. They cover texts as well as calls.

Tennessee's do-not-call law defines a sales text separately from a sales call. A homeowner who gave you permission, or who has been a customer within the last 12 months, is outside the ban. One who signed with you 13 months ago is not an existing customer by that definition.

Sales calls and texts belong in the hours from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., under the state's calling hours rule, unless the homeowner agrees otherwise. The caller has to say who they are at the start.

A contractor who cold-texts or cold-calls Tennessee households pays $500 a year for the state register, per TPUC's answers for telemarketers. The fee is due May 1, and TPUC updates the list monthly. A call center in another state is covered too.

Automated voices bring two more rules. Since July 1, 2026, the robocall cap law limits prerecorded or artificial-voice autodialed sales calls to 10,000 a month per caller, with monthly logs kept.

Tennessee's voice and likeness law, the ELVIS Act, bars using a person's voice in an ad without consent, simulated voices included. A generic AI voice is one thing. One that sounds like a well-known local radio host is another. The guide to texting and AI answering rules covers the federal side. This page is not legal advice. Run new call and text scripts past counsel first.