Why are licensing and legal documents important for small businesses?

Licenses help ensure that businesses are safe for the public. Restaurants should be clean. Lawyers and doctors should be professional and accountable. New drugs should be safe and effective.

You can sometimes tell when a restaurant is not sufficiently clean. The dishes may be dirty, or the staff may be careless. You cannot be certain of its safety, short of breezing into the kitchen and testing the cooler and the burners.