296 - Business formation requirements in your state
On today's episode of the podcast I chat with my legal intern, Madeline Cintron, about the State by State Business Blueprint.
Madeline has been working to create a resource I started called the "State by State Business Blueprint." This is a resource that is currently only available inside my signature course, Unf*ck Your Biz. In the program I share my business blueprint which is made up of 14 steps, starting with 1) Check for name availability for your LLC, 2) Get your registered agent, 3) Form your LLC but these 14 steps can vary by state. The terminology also varies by state, for example California calls your annual payment an annual franchise tax, but some states refer to it as an annual report fee or annual fee.
The point of the blueprint is to give my students the right language to look for in their state and give the direct links on where to go online to file your LLC in your state so you don't find yourself going to Legal Zoom and instead know how to do it yourself. It also makes our internal process easier if you choose to hire us at the Not Your Average Law Firm to file your LLC for you.
To give you an example, let's dive into New York. When filing an LLC in that state, you'll want to 1) Get a registered agent, 2) Choose your business name and check availability/apply to reserve your name, 3) Determine entity type and file articles, 4) Get your EIN, 5) Get your seller's permit aka certificate of authority, 6) Get your business license or tax certificate, 7) Get your DBA, called a "certificate of assumed name" in New York and then we move into the post-formation steps. *Please note that they steps are for New York and not for Florida has briefly referenced after they were listed.
The same goes for fees. There's the filing fee and the annual fee. In some states there's a business license fee, in some states there's the fictitious business name license fee, it varies state to state. What I've typically found is that states with high filing fees have low annual fees and vice versa. For example, in California our minimum annual fee is $800 but our filing fee is only $70.
To get access to the State by State Business Blueprint, sign up for our next round of Unf*ck Your Biz at unfuckyourbiz.com
