Hey friend, listen, if you formed an LLC recently and you think that's
all it takes to maintain that limited liability and to really be a
boss and have your LLC in order to guess what?
Hey, it's a break into you, but there are a few more steps that
you need to take to maintain your LLC,
but have no fear. I am going to break all of that down in
this video, so let's jump right in.
Now, if you're new to the channel, my name is Temi Siyanbade.
I'm a huge sub-based attorney in the host of Ask Tami Live.
But we discuss the best ways to establish your business, protect your name and
keep your own profits. And today's question of the day is,
how do I maintain my limited liability company?
Essentially, what you're asking is, how do I maintain my limited liability?
How do I stay protected? Because isn't that the point of getting the LLC
in the first place? It's to take advantage of certain tax benefits.
It's to make sure that you are protected from a legal standpoint,
right? Guess what? That protection will fly away from you if you
don't maintain your LLC the right way.
So let's talk about it. First thing I want to talk about are what
are some of the potential things that could happen if you don't protect or
maintain your LLC? Well if you enter into some type of,
let's I'll give you a couple of scenarios. Things that I've seen.
I've had individuals who want to file a trademark application and then we'll be
wanting to file that mark application in the name of the business.
But then when we do the research we find out that hey your business
is not actually formed. What does that mean that means if they continue with
forming that trademark or registering that trademark with an LLC that
is out of status, that's going to finally avoid that trademark application
because it wasn't a legitimate business that submitted the application.
That's one area where if we see this come to play.
Another area that this comes into place, let's say you are doing business in
a particular state and something happens and you want to sue somebody.
And you're getting ready to go to the court and file this lawsuit from
your business perspective. But then you get there and you find out that your
LLC is not an existence. Yes,
what? You're going to run into issues because again,
you are out of status, right?
So you need to make sure you maintain your LLC.
I mean, this is a huge thing. And then when you don't maintain your
LLC open up, opening yourself up to a discourse.
So those are some of the major things that I want you to keep
in mind when we're talking about why you should even care about it.
All right, so what do you need to do now that you know that
I don't want to lose that? All right,
so the first thing you need to do is you need to make sure
that you maintain your annual report. What do I mean?
In every state where LLCs are allowed, which is an office state,
you require you to do some for an organization that annual report
is you basically let it know, hey, this is the updated information about the
owners or the managers. This is how much we made,
this is our registered agent information, things like that.
If there are any changes, they want to know. Because part of the reason
why you have an LLC registered is so that people can have access in
terms of if there were some type of lawsuit and so if something happens,
they need to notice information. Now, different states also may have a fee
that's associated with it, so states like California has an annual $800
fee, but you just gotta pay. Delaware has a similar fee,
but it's not as expensive. California is very much similar to high-end.
Texas does not have an annual fee that you need to pay unless you
make a certain amount to each year.
So if you, it's closer to $2 million at this point,
so if you're making around $2 million in terms gross revenue,
then you're going to be responsible for what they call a franchise text.
I know the name is very deceitful because you hear franchising,
you think, oh, this is just where people are franchises,
but no, in the state of Texas, it's for LL season as well,
it's if it's dependent upon how much your annual revenue is,
okay? So you, again, have to make sure you are doing the annual reporting
and any associated feeds.
Okay? Now the second thing that you want to do in order to maintain
your limited liability statics,
right, that comes with your liability company,
is you want to keep your documentation separate.
If you've watched my videos on LLCs in the past,
you probably heard me say this like 1 million. And it's still the same.
Keep your personal asset separate from your business.
Okay, right? So separate bank accounts,
right? It's a contract. It's keep it cool.
It's going to help you too. It's going help you with some time for
taxes. It's going to help you in terms of just keeping yourself organized,
keep them separate. All right,
so that's the second thing that you want to make sure you do.
The third thing that you want to do and this one nobody talks about
is you want to keep your LLC funded. Now,
we know that as you're starting your business, you might not have any income,
you're just getting started, you might even be operating at a bit of a
loss when you're just getting started, and that's understandable and it's okay.
But then there comes a certain point where it's like, if you're engaging in
certain types of contracts or in certain types of behavior has a business that
basically sounds like you've got a lot of money and this sounds very vague
what I'm trying to say. But essentially what I'm trying to articulate is you
need to make sure that you're thinking about ways of keeping your LLC funded.
One thing that I see people do is you know you have your LLC
and you generate your income but then you take all that money out you
put in your personal business or in your personal account and I mean that
you get to keep your profits for sure.
But in terms of responsible LLC maintenance there should
be money in the LLC That is, at least enough to maintain all
of the ongoing fees associated with your LLCs.
So you want to make sure you're keeping it funded.
Now again, these three steps that I spoke about are critical.
There are a couple of other things that you can do in terms of
just limited liability protection. Like signing your documents appropriately.
What do I mean? I mean, if you're entering into a contract,
don't enter into the contract as a person as yourself.
Enter into the contract in your professional role for the business.
So I'm not going to sign any least agreements to say Tamishia about it.
I'm going to say this agreements are for the law office of Tamishia about
it and it's signed by Tamishia about a managing member.
Do you know what I'm saying? So like signing your document on behalf of
the organization and putting on your specific cap as it pertains
to your role in the LLC. Those are the things that you do that
maintain that separation say, hey,
I'm serious about my business. Okay? You really want to make sure you do
that. Now, if you're hearing all of this,
you're like, oh my gosh, I've never done that.
What is Temi talking about? I formed an LLC about 20 years ago,
and I've never submitted a document.
Okay, let me tell you, your LLC probably doesn't exist anymore,
and if you're operating and doing business with it,
you're really playing around your big,
pretty risky. But I also want to encourage you that you can reinstate your
LLC. What does that mean? That means you can go back and re-submit filings
and catch up with your late fees and do whatever it is that you
need to do that you didn't do in most states. So they will allow
you to submit documentation and says, okay, I haven't filed in the past three
years. Here are my late fees and they don't need to be super significant,
they're very from state to state. But you pay up the late fees if
their taxes do, you pay the taxes and then you receive some communication that
comes from the Secretary of State, you fill out whatever forms you need to
fill out there, you also need to fill out some forms with your Comptroller's
office and we submit the forms through the respective parties and they they don't
always communicate with each other so that's why there's all this back and forth
but essentially by the time you receive the information and submit it to the
right person in this group and that group and I have all the groups
that get all their paperwork and all that stuff they will reinstate your LLC
and you'll be able to move forward. Why might people do this?
Here's where I see it come up often where people are like you know
I'm going to reinstate my LLC. Maybe you're trying to get some type of
loan approval and you don't want to start a fresh because you want to
have the longevity of your business behind you.
Right? If you start a French, you might not be able to qualify for
certain loans or for certain types of credit.
And so to have the longevity of the time that you've had in the
past, you may want to reinstate your LLC.
All right, so that's where I see it come up. It's when people are
up for opportunities where longevity matters a lot.
And that's in a lot of instances. All right,
now I hope that this didn't scare you. I hope that this helped you,
and you're like, okay, now I know what I need to do.
like do not play games with maintaining your LLC.
It's critical, it's critical, it's critical.
Now, if this video has been helpful to you,
you might want more information. You might be asking,
hey, Timmy, how can I stay connected with you?
Download our level up your business checklist.
It's a great checklist that tells you exactly what we do for our businesses
and how we help them to make sure that they are protected and established.
Essentially, we want to help you protect what you create.
And that's what the checklist talks about. And when you sign up for that
checklist, When you download that checklist, you will also receive an exclusive bonus invitation
to our new private community where we have a growing resource hub.
You have access to free courses that I've made.
You have access to articles that I've made and you have access to videos.
You have access to a whole lot of stuff in this resource hub and
it's all available to you for free. If you download the checklist,
so go ahead and do that. Now before we go,
I'm going to ask you in the comment section below.
Let me know, let's be honest, let's be honest out here.
How many of you struggle with keeping up with maintaining your LLC?
And what are one or two things you think you can do to improve
that? We have some things that we do for our clients,
essentially, we do it for them. And that's one thing that you can look
into. But what are the things that you have found that have helped you
to maintain your LLC or what were the things that kind of caused you
to mess up? We want to hear it. All right,
that's all I have for you today. Talk to you soon.
Bye.