Form a company in your state

Now that you know what type of company to form, you'll file some paperwork with your state's Secretary of State (SoS). Find the website for your SoS's business division. Before you actually file, find their business name search tool, and make sure nobody else has already started a business in your state with the name you want to use. (You may also want to search if anybody has trademarked the name.) After you've checked your business name, look for the option to form your business online. Usually this is called filing your "articles of incorporation" for a corporation or "articles of organization" for an LLC.

As you fill out your state's form, you'll run into a few things that might need explanation:

Business purpose: Typically, states will have a standard option for your business purpose that is something along the lines of "any lawful business purpose". This is almost always the best choice. There's no reason to constrain the purpose of your business.
Registered agent: Your business needs a "registered agent" whose address will be registered to receive legal notices. That agent can be you, another person or business that has agreed to do this for you (such as your lawyer), or a specialized registered agent service (we recommend Northwest Registered Agent).
Par value: The lowest allowable value of your corporation's stock (it can change later). Set this to $0 if your state allows it (since you can always increase it), or $0.0001 if your state requires a non-$0 value.
Number of shares: The number of shares of stock to issue on your company's forming (you can issue more later). We recommend 100,000 because it's a round number and easy to calculate percentages (for example, 15,000 shares is 15% of the company).
Board members: Your business needs a board with a president (formally in charge of the company), a secretary (in charge of records), and a treasurer (in charge of finances). If you're starting a business by yourself, you can fill all roles.

After you submit your filing, it may take a couple weeks before receive your confirmation that your company has been created.

Next: Prepare your company documents

Previous: Choose a company structure

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