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Key Terms to Know When Registering a Business

Top10.com Staff
Key Terms to Know When Registering a Business
Forming your own Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is an excellent way to provide stability and direction for your company.

In the past, most business owners filled out legal forms, drafted documents related to incorporation and physically filed them with state business licensing authorities. Today, entrepreneurs who want to form their own LLCs and LLPs can do so using online LLC registration services.

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What Are Online Business Registration Services?

Online LLC and LLP registration services provide business owners with a simple, inexpensive and relatively quick way to legally incorporate their businesses in all 50 states. These services offer all the forms and documents needed to form an LLC in your state. You'll be able to fill out essential information and find the guidance needed to draft incorporation documents. Registration services also take care of publishing and filing the Articles of Incorporation in your state.

Understanding Online LLC and LLP Registration

Completing online LLC registration requires filling out a set of forms, preparing necessary business documents and submitting them to the correct authorities in your state. Online registration services provide the forms needed for your state so that you don't have to spend hours wading through complicated business regulations just to understand what you need to file.

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Before starting the process of registering your LLC online, you'll need to make a number of decisions pertinent to the legal structure of your business. You'll be required to file an operating agreement in your state, which outlines how the business will be managed. You'll need to think about and discuss the following in order to draw up your operating agreement:

Definitions of major terms:

You'll need to define terms such as fiscal year and business abbreviations at the beginning of your operating agreement.

Company name and purpose:

This section lists both the name of your company and why it was formed. It can also include a doing business as (DBA) statement.

LLC term and formation date:

List the date your LLC was formed and the term, or time, for which it will be in operation. The most common LLC term is perpetual.

Contributions and liabilities:

Describe what different partners will be contributing to the business. This section of the operating agreement includes a proviso that partners won't be personally responsible for business debts and obligations.

Management and duties:

Describe the management structure of the business and the duties each partner will carry.Meetings:Determine when essential meetings will be held and how records will be maintained.

Dissolution:

This section describes the conditions under which an LLC can be disbanded or dissolved.

Common Business Registration Terms

In addition to the above LLC registration terms, you're also likely to see or read about the following on an online business registration site:

Name availability searches:

These searches of copyright and trademark records ensure that the business name you want to use is available.

Member certificates:

These special certificates outline the initial holdings of all LLC partners.

State publication and filing fees:

These are the fees that must be paid to your state in order to form an LLC. To learn more visit IncFile.

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Top10.com Staff
Top10.com's editorial staff is a professional team of editors and writers with dozens of years of experience covering consumer, financial and business products and services.