Self Employment 101: What Is A Registered Agent and How Do You Find One Out of State?
Yesterday I had to figure out how to find a registered agent to act on my behalf for my LLC company that I own and do work for from another state.
So there are a few parts of that first sentence to breakdown, and if you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you have an LLC, are thinking of creating one, or are interested in some of the extreme intricacies of owning your own business. The odds are good that you will not consider this an exciting read, but I do hope you find it informative and helpful. Because yesterday, I sure could have used this and saved myself considerable time and stress. [Note: I am not a legal expert, accountant or another expert in operations, so please do not take what I write below as legal advice. Use it as a tool of understanding, please.]
A Bit Of Background
In May 2019, my family moved from Denver to Minneapolis. I left my full-time job and was able to lock-in a contract doing some professional marketing and web design work. To do this required that I create my own business before the contract could be completed.
In February 2019, I established an LLC (an LLC is a “limited liability company”) in Colorado before we moved. Part of creating an LLC requires that you file Articles of Organization in which you specify your business name, location, and the names/ addresses of the owner/ members and a registered agent.
As I was establishing this company for myself, I was and am the sole owner and member of the LLC, addressed to my previous home and I acted as the registered agent (an agent is a person that accepts legal documents — in person — on your behalf).
All of this is easy enough to establish by yourself online via the Secretary of State website. There are also tons of resources online to help you do this, as well as accounting companies and other businesses who help you do this work should you choose not to.
Now that my business was established and registered with the State of Colorado, I was able to complete my contract and operate as my business.
Fast Forward To Now
Jump ahead to 2020. I’ve now been in Minneapolis since May 2019. I also have a business setup here (an S Corporation) for work that I complete for businesses here.
At least once a quarter, I verify that my LLC is in good standing with the Secretary of State by going to their website and looking up my business. I knew that I should expect to file a Periodic Report soon to verify and confirm the details of my business.
By absolute coincidence, yesterday was also the day that the SOS sent me an email reminding me to submit my Periodic Report.
A Periodic Report can be filed online in the State of Colorado. In a Periodic Report, you are verifying the following:
- Your business ID
- Your business name
- Your principal office location and mailing address
- Registered Agent Name and address
- The name of who is filing the report
All of this is straight-forward enough. When I moved and had locked in the details of my new address in Minnesota, I updated the Colorado Secretary of State my new operating address in Minnesota.
However, because this is all new to me, I missed a very important step. I forgot to find a registered agent in Colorado. I still listed myself as the agent by accident at my old address.
Yesterday, while reviewing and preparing my Periodic Report, I discovered this oversight (again, I’m a newbie at this and did not understand what a “registered agent” was).
How Do You Have A Registered Agent For An Out Of State Business?
It wasn’t long into reviewing the report details when I had a minor moment of panic upon realizing my mistake. I did not have a registered agent with a Colorado address.
I spent considerable time doing research online for solutions. Turns out there are MANY businesses that will act as a registered agent on your behalf with a physical address.
The problem is, most of the businesses I found seemed rather dubious. They had very few public reviews of their work, no actual name of an employee doing work for them, and little going for them other than a website with information and a payment option setup to give them your credit card info and be billed.
If you’re like me, you wouldn’t do this without further research. I found quite a handful of companies with addresses in other states that appeared to do the same (Northwest Registered Agent, Harbor Compliance, InCorp — to name a few).
I felt lost and even more confused. So I started another search. I began to look for small business attorneys who I thought could offer me help by acting as my agent. This actually worked, but not in the way I anticipated.
It took me less than two minutes to find a local attorney in Denver who specialized in small business needs with public reviews about her good work. So I emailed her.
I asked if she provided the service of acting as a registered agent. Shockingly, she responded within a few minutes and told me that they handle that, but they use a third party — InCorp — for that. That was enough for me.
Having already come across InCorp, I now felt that they were vindicated and immediately sought them out.
InCorp — and other businesses like this — offer their services of having a registered address and place of business in the state where you operate. They will be the point of contact for any legal documents sent on your behalf IF they are listed as your registered agent.
In the case of InCorp, you purchase that service by the year, and in my case, I did a two-year purchase.
The automated email after submitting the purchase for Colorado provided all the info that I needed to complete my Periodic Report.
Within a few hours, a representative from InCorp emailed me asking for further information they needed on their end to act as my agent.
I submitted my report to the Secretary of State, I got my registered agent locked in and confirmed via email and my job here was done.
If you stuck with me this far, I hope you take something away from my experience. I learned some things along the way and I hope what I did learn will save you time if you ever find yourself in this very specific situation.
If you have further advice for someone self-employed like me, let me know — I’m sure I’ve missed a step on something else or made another mistake in another way and would be happy to be corrected.
Good luck to you in your self-employed adventures. There are lots of resources out there for us, it just isn’t always so easy to find them.
