LLC Startup Wizard
Build a practical startup path for formation, registered agent service, EIN, banking, insurance, payroll, and compliance.
Start the wizardIf you are trying to form an LLC, choose a registered agent, get an EIN, or stay ahead of annual filings, this site is built to get you to the right page quickly. It stays focused on what you actually file, what you actually pay, and what you should not miss.
If you are not sure where to start, use the wizard. If you already know the state, estimate the realistic first-year cost before filing.
Build a practical startup path for formation, registered agent service, EIN, banking, insurance, payroll, and compliance.
Start the wizardEstimate state fees, registered agent service, EIN help, address, insurance, bookkeeping, payroll, and first-year follow-up costs.
Calculate costsPick a state and formation date to see the first reminders people usually miss after formation.
Find deadlinesCompare services by privacy, price, formation bundle, compliance reminders, and non-US founder fit.
Compare agentsMost visitors land here with one practical question, not a desire to read a giant archive. Use one of these paths first.
Open a state guide to see the filing name, state fees, annual requirements, and early admin steps.
Start with a state guideRead the general comparison first, then your state-specific agent page if you already know where you are filing.
Compare agent servicesUse the federal and post-formation pages for EIN timing, annual reports, foreign qualification, and changing your registered agent.
See filing guidesStart with the decision pages before you pay a filing fee you may not need yet.
Read the decision guidesThe pitch is simple: less generic startup filler, more clarity about filings, deadlines, and what the state actually expects.
Formation fees, state filing names, annual report mechanics, and core compliance steps are checked against state or federal pages.
The guides explain what matters without assuming you already speak in entity forms, biennial statements, and registered-office jargon.
Every major cluster maps to a practical next step: form, compare, file, insure, set up banking, run payroll, or decide whether an LLC is the right move at all.
These are the pages most likely to help if you are weighing filing convenience, privacy, or the tradeoff between a cheap hook and a cleaner long-term setup.
The right page if your main concern is keeping a home address off public filings without buying a vague promise.
Read the guideA grounded look at one of the strongest all-around options if you care about privacy and fewer moving parts.
Read the reviewThe fastest page to read if you are still deciding whether to act as your own agent or pay for the service.
Read the explainerThe full archive is broad, but most topics fit one of these four buckets.
How to form an LLC in your state, what the filing is called, how much it costs, and what the first compliance step looks like.
What the role means in your state, what changes if you hire a service, and where the tradeoffs start to matter.
EINs, annual reports, state taxes, changing agents, business banking, payroll, bookkeeping, insurance, business email, phone numbers, and the admin work that shows up right after formation.
Provider comparisons plus pages like LLC vs sole proprietorship, LLC vs S corp, business bank account choices, payroll setup, bookkeeping software, and whether you need an LLC for Etsy, Airbnb, dropshipping, YouTube, Amazon KDP, OnlyFans, or other real-world setups.
A curated starting set if you want the most useful pages first rather than the full archive all at once.
A strong starting point if you want a dependable agent without overpaying for features a small business may never use.
Useful if you sell online and want a cleaner setup across public records, EIN paperwork, and marketplace accounts.
Useful if you want the entity, EIN, and bank account set up before launch without starting admin too early by accident.
Useful if you are ready to file now and want to know whether the banking step blocks formation or simply comes right after.
A practical starting point if the LLC is approved and you want the clean timing for EIN, bank setup, and first transactions.
Useful if the state filing is approved and you want the right next steps for EIN, documents, banking, and payment setup.
A practical read if you are comparing online accounts, branch banks, monthly fees, FDIC wording, and bookkeeping fit.
Useful if you formed an LLC and want the honest answer on separation, personal accounts, EIN timing, and records.
Useful if you are trying to open banking before the EIN arrives and want the clean order before money starts moving.
A practical read if you run a one-owner LLC and want a bank account that fits taxes, owner draws, fees, and simple books.
Useful if you formed a US LLC from abroad and need to compare EIN, passport, country support, and cross-border payment options.
A practical comparison for LLC owners choosing between Mercury and Relay, including fees, FDIC wording, payments, subaccounts, bookkeeping, and team access.
A practical comparison for LLC owners choosing between Novo and Lili, including monthly fees, FDIC wording, invoicing, accounting tools, cash deposits, and fit.
A plain-English guide to using Wise Business for an LLC, including international payments, receiving account details, fees, FDIC wording, EIN timing, and banking tradeoffs.
Useful if money has already started moving and you want to cleanly separate LLC activity from personal banking.
A practical read if you need the difference between owner draws, distributions, S corp payroll, and estimated taxes.
Useful if you run a one-owner LLC and are deciding whether owner pay should be a draw or a real paycheck.
Useful if your LLC elected S corporation taxation and you need the plain-English payroll rules before taking distributions.
A practical comparison of Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, Square Payroll, and ADP for employees, contractors, and owner payroll.
Useful if you are choosing between a payroll-first tool and a QuickBooks-centered workflow for a small LLC.
A practical guide to using Gusto payroll for an LLC, including employees, contractors, S corp owner payroll, tax filings, pricing, and setup tradeoffs.
A plain-English guide to when an LLC needs payroll, including employees, S corp owner wages, single-member LLC draws, contractors, and payroll tax basics.
A practical LLC hiring guide to contractor vs employee classification, using IRS, SBA, and Department of Labor rules in plain English.
A practical first-hire checklist for LLC owners covering EINs, W-4, I-9, payroll taxes, state accounts, wage rules, workers' comp, and records.
A plain-English guide to estimated taxes for LLC owners, including Form 1040-ES, self-employment tax, partnership and S corp treatment, and underpayment penalties.
A practical guide to when an LLC needs business insurance, what the LLC does not cover, and how required coverage, client contracts, and common policies fit together.
A plain-English guide to bodily injury, property damage, advertising injury, certificates, limits, exclusions, and when to ask a licensed agent.
Useful if your LLC sells advice, creative work, technical work, bookkeeping, marketing, or other services where mistakes can become claims.
A practical look at professional liability, general liability, cyber coverage, workers' comp, client contracts, and certificates for consultants.
A practical guide to product liability, general liability, inventory coverage, cyber risk, workers' comp, and marketplace insurance requirements for ecommerce LLCs.
A plain-English guide to general liability, workers' comp, tools, commercial auto, bonds, certificates, and client contracts for cleaning LLCs.
A practical guide to choosing LLC insurance by coverage need, including general liability, BOPs, professional liability, cyber, workers' comp, and product liability.
A plain-English comparison of Hiscox and NEXT for LLC owners, including liability coverage, professional coverage, workers' comp, certificates, speed, and policy tradeoffs.
A practical guide to COIs for LLCs: what the certificate proves, what it includes, when clients and landlords ask for one, and what to check before sending it.
A practical guide to workers' comp for LLCs, including employees, state rules, owner coverage, Texas and California examples, and when to ask a licensed agent.
Useful if you run a one-owner LLC and want clean records, bank separation, receipts, owner draws, and tax-time reports without overbuilding the system.
A practical comparison of QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, and FreshBooks for LLC owners choosing a bookkeeping stack.
Useful if you are choosing between accountant-friendly accounting depth and a simpler low-cost bookkeeping workflow.
Useful if you are choosing between two serious accounting systems and want the tradeoff in workflow, pricing, collaboration, and accountant fit.
A practical read if your LLC is simple now but payroll, partners, S corp taxation, or messy records could make DIY expensive.
A useful sequence for new owners who need to line up EIN, tax classification, bookkeeping, estimated taxes, payroll, and state obligations.
A practical guide to custom-domain email, aliases, admin accounts, security, and the point where a free personal inbox starts looking thin.
Useful if you want the right address pattern before opening software, bank, platform, and client accounts under the LLC.
A practical read before putting a business number on your website, including VoIP, texting, 2FA limits, and emergency-calling tradeoffs.
Useful if your LLC is real but you are not sure whether it needs a public site, domain, email, and contact page yet.
A practical guide to choosing the LLC's domain before the name, email, website, and public brand get harder to change.
A clean post-formation sequence for EIN, BOI status, banking, bookkeeping, taxes, licenses, insurance, website, email, and records.
Useful if you run a one-owner LLC and want the real difference between the narrow IRS rule and what banks and setup steps usually expect.
Useful if your LLC has more than one owner and you want the straightforward IRS answer before banking and tax setup start.
A practical read if you want to file early and need the honest tradeoff between clean setup now and starting state obligations too soon.
Useful if freelance income is getting real and you want a cleaner timing call on structure, EIN, contracts, and banking.
Useful if your design work has grown into real client responsibility and you want a cleaner call on structure, contracts, and banking.
A practical read if client code, production responsibility, or subcontractors are making the one-person setup feel too thin.
A practical read if you are selling on Etsy and want the real answer before paying for an LLC too early.
Useful if you are testing a dropshipping store and want a cleaner timing call on liability, taxes, and structure.
Useful if Amazon sales, inventory, and account details are getting serious enough that the business needs its own legal frame.
Useful if TikTok Shop payouts, verification, and business banking are making the personal setup feel too loose.
A practical read if your course business has moved beyond a draft and now needs cleaner payment, banking, and business separation.
Useful if client retainers, subcontractors, or email-compliance work are making the agency feel like a real business already.
Useful if properties, contractors, or rent bookkeeping are turning investing into a real business instead of a loose side project.
A practical read if you want to close a simple LLC yourself without forgetting the tax, EIN, or state-filing cleanup.
Useful if the dissolution form is already filed and you want the real post-shutdown checklist before loose ends turn into notices.
A grounded starting point if channel income is growing and you are deciding whether the business structure should change.
Useful if you publish on KDP and want the real answer on account identity, tax details, and when a business entity starts helping.
A practical read if creator income is getting real and you want a cleaner call on verification, payouts, taxes, and business setup.
Useful if short-term rental income is getting real and you want a cleaner call on entity setup, liability, and admin.
A practical read if you sell coaching and want the real timing call on structure, insurance, and business setup.
Useful if you formed a one-owner LLC and are deciding whether the operating agreement is real paperwork or optional fluff.
A practical read if you care about privacy, mailing addresses, and which address fields can safely use your home.
Useful if you are tempted by an out-of-state filing and want the real foreign-qualification tradeoff before you commit.
A practical read if you are trying to keep your home address private and want to know which address service actually solves which problem.
Useful if you want privacy without renting office space and need to know which LLC address fields a virtual address can actually cover.
A practical starting point if you want to know whether your LLC needs a separate office, a mailing setup, or just the right address in the right field.
Useful if you keep seeing business address and registered agent address used like synonyms and want the real difference fast.
A useful starting point if you want the free IRS route and do not want to pay a service for a simple federal step.
Useful if you are waiting on state approval and want to know whether the EIN step can safely happen earlier.
Useful if the LLC lost good standing and you need the right order for back filings, taxes, and reinstatement paperwork.
Good if you want a straightforward filing path and need to understand the state fee structure fast.
Useful for anyone who is only thinking about the formation fee and not the follow-up compliance step.
The right page if the New York publication rule is the thing making your filing feel complicated.
Useful when you formed in one state but the business is starting to operate somewhere else.
Useful if a remote hire in another state is starting to feel like more than a payroll detail.
A practical recovery page if a missed report already turned into late fees, dissolution, or a suspended-status problem.
Useful if you are deciding whether to register in a second state or actually move the LLC itself.
A useful decision page if you are still deciding whether an LLC is the right structure at all.
Useful if you want a clearer picture of formation cost, annual fees, and the numbers that show up later.
A foundational explainer if the agent role still feels fuzzy or abstract.
A useful recovery guide if a missed Florida filing already turned into an administrative dissolution problem.
Useful if a Florida rebrand means changing the legal LLC name and you want the right Sunbiz filing path.
Useful if you need the California name-change form, the filing fee, and the follow-up Statement of Information step in one place.
Useful if you already formed in California and just need the fastest official path to the required online filing.
A practical warning page if you are close to missing the deadline and want the real penalty picture fast.
A practical Texas guide if you are changing the legal LLC name and want the amendment and IRS sequence right.
Useful if you need to change the LLC's certificate itself and want to know when Form 424 is right and when it is overkill.
A practical starting point if you need to amend a New York LLC and want to know why most filings still go through Albany by mail.
Useful if you are rebranding a New York LLC and want the exact filing path, fee, and IRS follow-up in one place.
Useful if you formed in Delaware and need the real amendment cost, the right form, and the annual tax reminder in one place.
A useful buyer's guide if you are forming from outside the US and the EIN and address steps are the real problem.
A practical pick if you need a real agent from abroad and want to understand when a bundled provider is worth extra cost.
Useful if you move around often and need a cleaner call on registered agent, EIN, and address support.
A practical buyer's guide if your store is growing and you want the LLC, EIN, bank, and platform setup to line up cleanly.
A useful comparison if you are trying to keep setup costs low without missing the add-ons that change the total.
A practical decision page if your LLC is simple on paper but you are not sure whether the details are simple in real life.
Browse all guides by state, filing task, comparison topic, or business-entity decision.