Balance Your Monthly Expenses:
Corporate Guide Service
We’ll Pay Your State Fees. You’ll Pay One Low Monthly Payment.
Our Northwest Corporate Guide Service provides a special monthly payment option for our premium clients—a true game-changer in the world of business formations and business maintenance. The service is available by invitation only, and it serves an alternative to our traditional pay-in-full option and uses a subscription payment model designed to benefit entrepreneurs frustrated by steep upfront and annual state fees.
How does our Corporate Guide Service work? We pay your state filing fees for you, and you pay us back in low monthly installments over the course of a year. It’s that simple.
Why Choose Corporate Guide Service?
When you start a business, you’ll likely have to deal with all sorts of upfront costs (getting a business license, buying equipment, hiring employees, credit card processing, and so on). Tack on a triple-digit state filing fee, and you’ll have less money on hand to deal with these early expenses. If your business is brand new and a little cash starved, as new businesses often are, any reduction to your overall startup costs keeps more money in the bank when you need it most.
In Massachusetts, for example, it costs $500 just to file an LLC’s certificate of organization with the State, and that’s if you do it on your own—without any guidance from business formation experts like us—and if you serve as your business’s registered agent (two decisions we don’t recommend).
Plus, you don’t have choose between affordability and security. Instead, you can start your business with a first monthly payment that’s lower than paying your initial state filing fees up front. And, you still get the benefits of using a premium registered agent service to form your business.
How Corporate Guide Service Works
Our Corporate Guide Service is a great way to balance your business’s monthly expenses. This service uses a subscription payment model to help our clients avoid steep upfront state fees. Basically, we pay your state filing fees for you when we form your business, and you pay us back in low monthly installments over the course of a year.
This service also includes all the perks of our traditional pay-in-full service. And, after your fees are all paid at the end of your first year, we’ll provide business report & renewal service and continue as your registered agent for a low monthly fee.
First, you’ll need to decide if you want to form an LLC or start a corporation. Not sure which business structure is right for you? Check out our LLC vs Corporation page for a detailed look at the benefits and drawbacks of each. Still unsure? Visit the Small Business Administration’s business structure guide.
When you receive and respond to your invitation to sign up for Corporate Guide Service, you’ll work with one of our Corporate Guides to get your account set up and to schedule your payments.
We’ll prepare your state formation document and send it to the relevant state agency for approval, and you can even use our business address on your public filing if you so choose. In the meantime, you’ll immediately gain access to your secure online account filled with free state forms already populated with your business’s information.
Once the state approves your filing, we’ll notify you that your business has been formed, and then submit an application to the IRS to get your business a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN or EIN). An EIN is a lot like a social security number for your business, and you will need an EIN to pay your business taxes or hire employees.
With your formation docs approved and your EIN in hand, you can now take any necessary next steps, like getting any required business licenses and opening a bank account.
Our role doesn’t come to end when your business gets formed. We’ll serve as your business’s registered agent, and receive service of process (legal notices) and other official state documents on your behalf. Plus, when you enter the second year and beyond of your monthly Corporate Guide Service, we’ll handle any additional state filings (such as annual or biennial reports) for you as well.
Have a question only a business expert can answer? No problem. We have offices in every state, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, which means our local business experts, called Corporate Guides®, are just a phone call away.
Northwest Corporate Guide Service FAQs
How much does it cost to sign up for Corporate Guide Service?
The monthly cost will vary depending on your home state and sometimes your business type (LLC or corporation). This is because the state filing fees differ from state to state.
Who can sign up for Corporate Guide Service?
Our Corporate Guide Service service is available by invitation only to our premium clients.
What is included in the first year of my Corporate Guide Service subscription?
The first year of Corporate Guide Service includes your business filing with the State (for which we pay your state fees up front), our registered agent service, and an EIN for your business.
What is included in the Corporate Guide Service after the first year?
After the first year, Corporate Guide Service includes our continuing registered agent service and our business renewal service (such as annual or biennial report filings depending on the requirements in your home state).
What if I want to pay my state filing fees up front instead?
No problem. Our original pay-in-full business formation option remains available in every state. Simply choose “Pay in Full” instead of “Pay Monthly” when you sign up.
How does Corporate Guide Service compare to paying in full?
With our ordinary formation service, you pay your state fees and our service fees right away. This includes a full year of registered agent service, free limited mail forwarding, and loads of free forms and tools. Since you’re paying all of the required fees at once, your upfront costs will be higher when you choose our pay-in-full formation service.
Our Corporate Guide Service includes an EIN (no need to fuss with applying for an EIN through the IRS) and all of the benefits you get with our ordinary formation service—registered agent service, free limited mail forwarding, operating agreement or corporate bylaws, and a host of free forms and business tools. With our Corporate Guide Service, however, you pay a low monthly fee instead.
How do I renew my Corporate Guide Service after the first year?
Your Corporate Guide Service will renew automatically at the end of your first year unless you decide to cancel.
Can I cancel my Corporate Guide Service before the year is out?
Yes, but you will be required to pay the remaining total in full for the year. This is necessary because we have already paid your state fees in full and delivered the services your monthly Corporate Guide Service payment is meant to pay down over the course of the year.
Why don’t other formation companies offer monthly payments?
It’s possible they see a monthly payment option as too risky (since it involves financing a client’s filing costs and getting paid back over time). Or, maybe they just haven’t thought of it yet. We’re the first company to offer a subscription payment model for business formations, so I guess you could say it’s just our idea.