First Things to do After Forming a New Business

Starting a Business

The first step of starting a new business is forming your business entity with the correct Secretary of State of where you will be doing business in. This will consist of registering important business information with the state and ensuring all documents are correctly formatted to avoid any rejections or long wait times. The process of business formation can be instant or require a review period depending on the state you are registering in, so it's important to plan ahead and ensure your business is officially registered before conducting any official business activities.

As this process can be a complicated one, there are many business formation services like Firstep can can help you complete this process in a smooth and efficient way. Our expert filers have experience in all 50 states and are able to accurately submit the required forms to the correct agencies. If this is something you think could be a beneficial service to you and your business, contact us today!

Registered Agent Services

Registered agents are the person designated to receive any service of process or important documents sent to your business by the state. A registered agent will be required to be 18 years or older, have a physical address in the state your business is registered in, and be available during regular business hours Monday - Friday (9am-5pm). There are services that will act as your registered agent that will meet these requirements for all 50 states, but you can also appoint anyone of your choosing for this role as well. You will need to appoint a registered agent during the formation process of your business and maintain an active registered agent through the lifespan of your business.

One thing to be aware of is to make sure your registered agent is a trusted person who you know will be at their listed address during regular business hours. Missing a legal notice for your business can lead to a default judgement, which typically will go against your business. It will also be how the Secretary of State will notify you of any issues, changes in requirements, and more. It is your registered agents job to get you these documents in a timely manner so you are able to act on these notices.

You can be your business's own registered agent, but it does come with it's own pros and cons. To see a more detailed walkthrough of the pros and cons of this we have a guide you can see here. As your business grows and expands to multiple states it is operating in, this can be relatively difficult to maintain and you may need to appoint a trusted employee or a service to act as your registered agent later down the road.

Creating a Business Plan for After the Formation Process

After your business formation documents have been approved, you can officially start your business operations under the chosen name of your business. It's important to wait to do this until you get back your approved articles of organization to avoid any legal issues before actually starting business activities.

A good first step to take after your formation has been approved is to obtain an EIN for your new business. An EIN (employer identification number) is a federal tax ID number that will be specifically attached to your business. EINs do not expire and will be used for hiring employees, submitting taxes, and opening a business bank account. Having an EIN helps with the separation of personal and business finances as this will allow you to open a separate bank account and ensure you are keeping these funds separate. Accidentally combining your personal and business funds can lead to a piercing of the corporate veil and the loss of the liability protection that comes with owning an LLC and a Corporation.

Business Bank Accounts

After the EIN process has been completed, it would make sense to open a business bank account to ensure your finances are properly set up for long term success. As mentioned before, this will help with the separation of personal and business funds and allow for your business to maintain the protections of your personal assets. You will typically have to wait until this point to open a bank account anyways as you will be required to provide your articles of organization and EIN number to open an account under your business name.

Obtaining your articles of organization, EIN number, and opening a business bank account will set your business up for success and you will be prepared to starting your business activities and start getting your brand name out there and begin marketing and sales to customers.

Marketing Scheme

This step will be where you will want to start planning how you will be marketing to customers, selling your products / services, and creating lasting relationships with customers. Creating a marketing plan will lay out the business's marketing activities over a specific period of time and details the main goals and metrics you will be focusing on. Knowing where to shift your focus to can help strategize where to spend necessary money at and ensure you are not stretching yourself too thin too early.

Before creating your marketing plan, you will want to make sure you understand your business goals and mission to better focus your time. A simple thing that can help this process is to conduct a SWOT analysis to help plan for the different internal and external factors that will be affecting your business. This will highlight important challenges your business may face, and give you ideas on how to solve these issues before you are stuck facing them head on.

Marketing will be important to use in conjunction with the beginning business operations as you will likely be starting to have meaningful interactions with customers and having your marketing objectives put in place early can help shape how you will act in these early interactions.

Business Operations

With your marketing and business goals set into place, you can start your daily business operations with a focused goal that you are targeting. Whether you are trying to grow your audience, sell more products, or both, it is very helpful to know your goals for the business to keep a focused plan for the growth and development.

A business website can be a big factor in helping to sell and promote your products, especially as a new business. Now that you have a growing customer base and hopefully a recurring group of customers, establishing long term relationships with these customers can be a significant boost and leads to a higher chance in getting repeat customers and good reviews for your business. These reviews can be used / highlighted on your website which will lead to an increased credibility.

Tracking your sales and invoices are another step in the formation of your business you will most likely need to tack. Knowing these metrics allows you to see which products are performing the best, and you will be able to see more in depth data on this depending on which service / tool you decide to use. Also, this allows you to have more of a focus on your top performing products and see where customers are finding your business from whether that be through marketing activities, organic search results, or some other form.

How to Stay Compliant After Formation

Compliance is an aspect of owning a business that is not very often talked about, but this can be a very important part of running your business. Staying compliant will include filing your annual reports with the correct Secretary of State, updating business information if there are any changes, keeping a registered agent active, and more.

Ongoing compliance is something we offer here at Firstep that is used by numerous businesses we work with. For most states, you will need to file annual reports every year, or every other year, and this is to keep your business active and in good standing. These reports will have varying fees based on the state your business is registered in, as well as varying due dates for each state. It's important to keep track of these dates as states can charge signifiant late fees for filing late, and even dissolve your business if you have missed reports in previous years.

Firstep will track these renewal dates for you and ensure your business does not miss a report, and that all information is submitted correctly to avoid any rejections by the Secretary of State. As a new business, this aspect can often be overlooked and can lead to issues down the road so it's important to do research into when your state's due date is and what your business will be required to file. This assistance can be especially helpful if you have other businesses you manage and

Along with filing your annual reports, you will need to ensure you are correctly taking care of taxes and any specific licensing that is required by your business industry. Firstep is not a tax service and does not offer these services, please contact a tax professional for support on this matter.

Conclusion

Starting a new business can be a very exciting time, but also comes with a lot of administrative tasks you will need to take care of as well. Along with getting your business up and running you will need to ensure all your formation documents are submitted correctly, and that you are maintaining good standing with the Secretary of State by filing your annual reports and keeping your business information up to date.

Having a clear plan in place early in your business's life can help you in the long run as you will have clear goals and objectives to meet. As most new businesses are tight on cash at first, ensuring you are not wasting money spending it on things you can wait on can truly help you achieve long term success.

Maintaining a registered agent and accurate information is very important for maintaining your business compliance with the state. If your registered agent resigns from your business, most states will give you a grace period of around 30 days to appoint a new agent before dissolving your business. This can lead to significant reinstatement fees and hassle that is typically best to avoid.

Firstep can help with all these tasks allowing you to focus on your business plans and not have to deal with meticulous paperwork. However, it's not required to use our services. Business owners are able to go to their specific Secretary of State to file these reports and form their business. Each state will have their own website you can go to or you are typically able to file these reports in person as well. The choice is yours, and if you value the help of Firstep to handle this paperwork you can check us out today to sign up!