To Form LLC ‘s you just have to follow a few simple steps.
- Name Availability. The first thing that you’re going to want to do, so you don’t waste time with paperwork that doesn’t pan out, is check with the Secretary of State, in the state where your business is located, to make sure that someone else has not already taken your proposed business name. Most states give you an easy-to-use name search feature on their government site. I’ve come up with names that were so off-the-wall creative that I know where of my own creation (at least I thought) and then I’d check the state’s website and find out that they were already registered by someone else. No one wants to go through all the hassle of creating the LLC form or documentations for one business name and then realize after the fact that it’s taken. Step one should be to check the availability of the name that you’d like to use for your new business LLC.
- Articles of Organization. After you have verified with the state that your desired name is available for your Limited Liability Company, you’ll have to complete a very short form called articles of organization. Most states will accept this on one sheet of paper. You can usually find a sample form on your state’s website otherwise, just do a quick search online for “articles of organization templates”. Completing this portion of the limited liability formation process shouldn’t take you very long, especially if you are mirroring another entity that has already been formed; it is just a matter of changing names and addresses. After you are done preparing the articles then you’ll need to file them with your state and get their stamp of approval. This stamp will have a date, which is your official organization date and becomes very important if you ever need to prove the age of your entity.
- EIN. When you have completed your name search and gotten your state to date stamp your articles of organization, then you are ready to apply for your Employer Identification Number (EIN). An employer identification number is to a business, what a social security number is to a person. It’s simply an ID that the government uses to keep track of your business. Since each state might have several businesses with similar names, the federal government has to use numbers (that are not duplicated) in order to distinguish one business from another. Your EIN can be applied for online at IRS.gov. The application only takes 10 minutes and the number can be issued to you at the end of the application process. You will use this number for vendors, LLC taxation, banking and a host of other reason.
