32: Filing Your Paperwork

J. Anthony Allen walks through filing a domestic LLC in Minnesota using the Secretary of State's online portal. The filing fee is $155, and you'll need to provide organizer info, pick a registered agent, and answer questions about employee count and business activity. The process takes you from account creation through payment, stopping just before final submission.
Chapters
Okay, so let's do it. Let's set up a new llc. I'm going to get as far as I can in this video or in this segment without actually doing it. Because I was really trying to think of one that I could set up just for the purposes of this class, for something I was going to do later. But I don't have anything I'm dying to do right now. I already have like 5 LLC is filed, so we'll get as far as we can. So here I am on the Secretary of State website for Minnesota, your state, probably the same, except substitute MN in that URL for your state's abbreviation. So we do this through the state either way. So on my website, I'm going to go to businesses and liens, business filings online. Okay, so I'm going to scroll. This is to look up existing businesses. And I go down here and I'm going to file a new business or nonprofit. Now here are my options. Assumed name. That means you will also want to file an assumed name. That's a document that a bank needs. If someone's gonna write checks or something to your company name, you need to have an assumed name on file. It just says that, you know, John Smith is the same person as, you know, awesome cheap shoes or whatever, and so that you can cash those checks. So that's an assumed name. It's just a little form. It's easy. Corporations, cooperatives. Limited liability company domestic or limited liability company foreign. I'm not exactly sure what the difference between these two is. I mean, obviously this one means I'm operating within the US and this one means I'm operating globally. But can I operate globally if I'm just in a state, in a domestic llc? I don't know. I actually don't know the answer to that. I have always done this domestic. So I'm going to. So you can see here, it's very quick. But it's $155. That's a bit of a stinger. But it's going to cost us money. So before I do any of this, I have to create an account with them. So create an account just so that you can log in. I already have one. Okay, now I'm back and I'm logged in. So I'm going to go to limited liability company, domestic. That's the easiest way to go. Okay. Are we going to be nonprofit or for profit? We're going to be for profit. Are we going to do professional statuses and services? This is according to some statute. You Might not see this. If you're not in Minnesota, I'm just going to say no. This is the kind of thing where if you were doing it, you would know. So if you don't know if you're doing this or not, you're not. Okay, now we need a name. Enter the name you wish to appear on your business except for the entity's designation. So the designation means like Inc or LLC or you know, that kind of thing. So just enter the name without that on it. Acquired designation must be chosen from the drop down list on the right. That's this. So we're going to say how do you want this to show up? Written in what way? I like this one the best. So I'm going to say that. Okay, so let's propose a business name and see if there's another business that already has that name. What did I just suggest? How about Super Cheap Shoes llc? Let's do it as three different words. Super Cheap Shoes llc. Search. Okay, it's available. View the name you may wish to edit before filing. Let's see what happens when something's not available. Let's say Target. Target LLC is available. That's unlikely. That's. So in this case, I, I could start a company called Target, but I'm going to get my pants suit off really fast because Target Corporation is going to come after me. But there's not an LLC called Target. But let's go back to Super Cheap Shoes. Here are some rules for the name of the business. Nothing too weird. I mean they won't let you have names that are like really offensive or some, something like that. They're not going to register. But pretty predictable stuff. So let's click on file Limited Liability company. Now we can do this all online. I'm not going to file any paperwork. This is like all of it. So I'm just going to do, I'm going to get as far as I can. So individual or organization? So an individual is much, much, much easier to file than an organization. So an individual means a single member LLC. Remember? So I'm going to say 1, 2, 3, 4. This is like a fake address that I use all the time. Sure. Save organizer. Okay. I can add another if I want, but I'm going to do single member. Okay. Registered agent. This is an interesting thing that you'll come across. A registered agent is kind of a throwback to before the Internet age, but it still exists. A registered agent means that if someone has to deliver a legal document to you, they need an address to which that legal document can be delivered 24 hours a day, sort of. So there were companies for a while that were. That popped up that were like registered agents, where you could say they are the registered agent and they would accept documents for you in the middle of the night just because you have to have this on file. But at least in an LLC it can be you. I always just list my home. Sure. Address of my registered agent. Sure. This is not my real address, by the way. Just thought I'd point that out. I do live in Minneapolis though. I'll make that real. Okay. Mailing address. If you cannot receive mail at the registered office. Address provided mailing address. So I'm just going to put the same mailing address in again. Cannot be the same as a registered office. Well, that's weird. Okay, let's make it very slightly different just for the purposes of this. So those have to be different. Wait, if you cannot receive mail at the registrar's office. Okay. So I don't think we have to input this now that I look at it. Yeah. So by not putting anything there, what I said was the registered office address is correct address. Okay. If we want to add an attachment, we can add it here. Now this would probably be our articles of incorporation. It doesn't say what to add, so I would, I wouldn't add anything. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. Contact and delivery information. This is all going to happen online. So this is just where it's going to send everything. Client reference information. So this you don't need to worry about. This is for like if you're. If I'm hiring someone to set up this LLC for me, they would write here something like being set up for J. Allen or something like that. But since I'm setting it myself, I'm going to leave a blank email for official notices. Add an email address here. I guess I have to put one. This is where your documents are going to be sent. So it's important. Okay. Now just a couple questions. How many Minnesota based full time employees does this entity currently have? Between 0 and 5. Does the owner or a member of the ownership group of this entity self identify as a member of the following communities? Okay. Woman member of community of color. Veteran member of disabled community, member of immigrant community. I'm going to say no to all those. This is just like a survey for them for their statistic purposes. Please select code that best identifies what you do. This is always a tricky thing, but let's say this is for my shoe company. So I'm going to say. Wholesale trade, retail trade. Let's say retail. Is this nt full time or part time endeavor for those primarily responsible for operating this entity? So for you, is this full time or part time? I'm going to say it's my part time gig for now, if applicable. What were this entity's gross revenue for this past year? Say zero. Next. Okay, so here is everything. I'm going to file this. I'm going to pay 155 bucks. As soon as I hit submit, it's going to. So when I hit submit, a new window is going to pop up where I'm going to put in my credit card and stuff. I'm going to pay 155 bucks and then I officially have an LLC. I think it gives you the info like right away, let's go to a new video and we'll talk about what that info looks like.










