# New Business Leads – Freshly Licensed Chicago Businesses (`leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads`) Actor

Newly issued City of Chicago business licenses: restaurants, salons, retail, contractors, daycares and more, with address, ward, neighborhood and activity. Official city open data, renewals and pop-ups excluded. Only new leads each run.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads.md
- **Developed by:** [Alex](https://apify.com/leadsignal-data) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$20.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## New Business Leads: Freshly Licensed Chicago Businesses

**Every business that just got its Chicago license, including restaurants, salons, spas, home-care agencies, daycares, garages and retailers. Reach them in their first weeks for about 2¢ each.**

The Actor pulls from the **City of Chicago's official business license records**. It returns **new licenses only** (about **580 a month**) and filters out renewals, pop-ups, peddlers and special events. Each lead includes the DBA name, legal entity, street address, ZIP, ward, neighborhood, license type, a plain-English business activity and the issue date.

👉 **Try it free:** new Apify accounts get **$5 of free credit every month**.

### Real sample leads (pulled October 2026)

| Business | Legal name | Activity | Issued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riot Hair Studio | LYLAS LLC | Hair services | 2026-10-07 |
| BioLife Organic Spa | BioLife Organic Spa Inc. | Skincare services | 2026-10-07 |
| ABCOR Home Health | Northwest Home Care, Inc | Home health care | 2026-10-07 |
| United Technique Recording | Nimeh Corp | Multi-media services | 2026-10-07 |
| Secure Parking | Secure Parking USA, LLC | Public parking garage | 2026-10-07 |

**ROI:** 1,000 new Chicago businesses cost $20. One POS, payroll, insurance, or marketing client covers that many times over.

### Who uses it

POS & payments · commercial insurance · accountants & payroll · local marketing/SEO/web agencies · suppliers (beauty, food service, cleaning, pest control) · B2B SaaS for salons, restaurants and clinics.

### Filters

**Business activity keywords** (`Restaurant`, `Hair`, `Massage`, `Fitness`, `Tobacco`) · **license types** (`Retail Food Establishment`, `Tavern`, `Children's Services Facility License`) · **neighborhoods** (`Logan Square`, `West Town`) · **wards** · **ZIPs** · issue-date range.

### Set it up as a daily lead feed

Keep **Only new since last run** on, choose **Schedule → Daily**, and send leads to Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, Zapier or Make.

### Input

```json
{ "activityKeywords": ["Restaurant"], "neighborhoods": ["Logan Square", "West Town"], "dateFrom": "30 days", "onlyNew": true }
```

### Output fields

`licenseId, licenseNumber, businessName, legalName, address, city, state, zip, ward, neighborhood, licenseType, businessActivity, applicationCreated, dateIssued, licenseStart, expires, accountNumber, latitude, longitude, source`

### Pricing

**$0.02 per lead** ($20 per 1,000). No subscription.

### FAQ

**Source?** The City of Chicago "Business Licenses" dataset on data.cityofchicago.org, published by the city for reuse and updated daily.
**Why not renewals?** Renewals are businesses that already exist. This feed is only for businesses that are brand new.
**Other cities?** Request yours in the Issues tab.

***

*Last updated: October 11, 2026 · Built by **LeadSignal**: public-record lead feeds for B2B sales. Not affiliated with the City of Chicago.*

# Actor input Schema

## `licenseTypes` (type: `array`):

e.g. Retail Food Establishment, Limited Business License, Consumption on Premises - Incidental Activity, Children's Services Facility License, Tavern.

## `activityKeywords` (type: `array`):

Match the activity text, e.g. Restaurant, Hair, Massage, Tobacco, Fitness.

## `neighborhoods` (type: `array`):

e.g. Logan Square, West Town, Near North Side.

## `wards` (type: `array`):

Ward numbers, e.g. 1, 27, 42.

## `zips` (type: `array`):

e.g. 60614.

## `excludeTemporary` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only permanent new businesses.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD or relative like '30 days'.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Skip leads already returned by previous runs (ideal for scheduled daily feeds).

## `dedupeStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store used to remember seen leads. Use different names for different feeds.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum leads to return in this run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "activityKeywords": [
    "Restaurant"
  ],
  "excludeTemporary": true,
  "dateFrom": "30 days",
  "onlyNew": true,
  "dedupeStoreName": "chicago-new-license-seen",
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All leads/records returned by this run.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "activityKeywords": [
        "Restaurant"
    ],
    "dateFrom": "30 days"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "activityKeywords": ["Restaurant"],
    "dateFrom": "30 days",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "activityKeywords": [
    "Restaurant"
  ],
  "dateFrom": "30 days"
}' |
apify call leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,leadsignal-data/chicago-new-business-leads"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yzbPdzPBqmubA5cvX/builds/hUywWhm2bpwbZLWKE/openapi.json