Starting an LLC: Where to begin?

I’ve got a few questions here and would really appreciate some help from anyone who knows the ropes 🙂

• Does a company actually need to appoint a CEO right when they're being incorporated?
• Is the identity of the company's founders kept private from the public record?
• What’s the actual distinction between a founder and a shareholder in an LLC?
• How does the process work if you need to swap out a director, and what kind of fees should I expect to pay?

- You have to list the director right at the start. Without that, you aren't getting anywhere
- All the details on the founders and board members are public record on the Secretary of State's website
- In an LLC, there isn't really a distinction between founders and shareholders. If you had actual shareholders, you'd be looking at a corporation instead
- Here’s how changing a director works: if you have a standalone document from when you started specifically for the director role, you just update that. It’ll cost you a few hundred bucks plus some filing fees at the courthouse. But if everything is lumped together in one massive operating agreement—which is common with older LLCs—you have to amend the whole thing. That gets expensive. It’s almost like starting from scratch, plus those court fees all over again

Anyway, hope that helps 🙂

Gerald Lewis7 said:- You have to list the director right at the start. Without that, you aren't getting anywhere
- All the details on the founders and board members are public record on the Secretary of State's website
- In an LLC, there isn't really a distinction between founders and shareholders. If you had actual shareholders, you'd be looking at a corporation instead
- Here’s how changing a director works: if you have a standalone document from when you started specifically for the director role, you just update that. It’ll cost you a few hundred bucks plus some filing fees at the courthouse. But if everything is lumped together in one massive operating agreement—which is common with older LLCs—you have to amend the whole thing. That gets expensive. It’s almost like starting from scratch, plus those court fees all over again

Anyway, hope that helps 🙂

superiska 🙂 thanks a ton for the help! 🙂

Is it actually possible for someone to own a stake in an LLC but stay anonymous? Like, not show up at all in the public Secretary of State filings?

Gerald Lewis7 said:- You have to list the director right at the start. Without that, you aren't getting anywhere
- All the details on the founders and board members are public record on the Secretary of State's website
- In an LLC, there isn't really a distinction between founders and shareholders. If you had actual shareholders, you'd be looking at a corporation instead
- Here’s how changing a director works: if you have a standalone document from when you started specifically for the director role, you just update that. It’ll cost you a few hundred bucks plus some filing fees at the courthouse. But if everything is lumped together in one massive operating agreement—which is common with older LLCs—you have to amend the whole thing. That gets expensive. It’s almost like starting from scratch, plus those court fees all over again

Anyway, hope that helps 🙂

Right now, only executive board info is live—not the founders—but that’ll change soon once the ownership data is uploaded to the registry.

Raymond Martinez10 said:Right now, only executive board info is live—not the founders—but that’ll change soon once the ownership data is uploaded to the registry.

My bad. Raymond Martinez10 is right—it's just the board members for now.🙂

Quote:...

silverbison293 says: Right now, they've only released info on the board members—not the actual founders—but the data on the founders (the owners) should be public shortly

Are you being serious? Since when? ☕

silverbison293 said:Quote:...

silverbison293 says: Right now, they've only released info on the board members—not the actual founders—but the data on the founders (the owners) should be public shortly

Are you being serious? Since when? ☕

Look at the amendment to U.S. Code NN137/09, Article 124—specifically regarding Article 396—and the Uniform Commercial Code NN91/10, Article 21, in relation to Articles 31.c and 52. Apologies for the "legalese" response—I’m rushing off to ☕ so I have to be brief. Just a heads up: watch that October 31st deadline for submitting data to the Secretary of State.

Sole proprietorship or an LLC?
Or maybe both?
I’d love to get your take on this.
I currently run a small sole proprietorship,
and I’m looking to scale up and expand my services... BUT I really want to stay under the sales tax threshold.
My thought was to open an LLC alongside it, also staying under that threshold.
That would allow me to have more employees working in the same space.

Since we provide services, we don't have much input tax to claim.
Open to all critiques—don't hold back.

I have a quick question here, so I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction...
If I decide to open an LLC—specifically a retail shop in a specialized boutique—and I am both the owner and the sole employee, there's a bit of a catch: I don't hold the required degree. My husband, however, does have the necessary credentials, but he’s already working full-time at another company.
From what I understand, you don't actually need a specific degree just to register a business, but to legally perform certain retail activities, someone on the team has to be qualified. Since my highest level of education is just high school, I'd normally have to pay for and pass extra certification exams to work in retail.
So, here is my dilemma: if my husband serves as the company director and holds the proper degree, while I act as the owner and employee, can I technically carry out those specific business operations without the degree since he is officially on board as the director? Or does that not count?
Thank you!

Good grief, you’re really overthinking this... you want to be a sales clerk after finishing high school? You totally can.

Can I, as the CEO of my own company, just take a job there as a sales rep?
Basically, can the boss work as a salesperson to get some income since she’s been
unemployed until now, especially if her background is just retail🙂?
Don't I need to pay separate payroll taxes for the CEO role and the sales role?
Thank you for the help 👍

I have no idea how long she managed to pull double duty as both unemployed and a CEO—which really shouldn't be allowed (but then again, who actually cares?)—but there’s a bigger issue here that nobody seems to be addressing yet. It isn't inherently a problem if a CEO picks up other jobs within their own company. The real issue is that board members should be guaranteed a certain minimum base salary according to IRS regulations—though, much like most things, it's currently not being enforced 👍

Raymond Martinez10 said:I have no idea how long she managed to pull double duty as both unemployed and a CEO—which really shouldn't be allowed (but then again, who actually cares?)—but there’s a bigger issue here that nobody seems to be addressing yet. It isn't inherently a problem if a CEO picks up other jobs within their own company. The real issue is that board members should be guaranteed a certain minimum base salary according to IRS regulations—though, much like most things, it's currently not being enforced 👍

Thank you 👍

Gary Harris4 said:Can I, as the CEO of my own company, just take a job there as a sales rep?
Basically, can the boss work as a salesperson to get some income since she’s been
unemployed until now, especially if her background is just retail🙂?
Don't I need to pay separate payroll taxes for the CEO role and the sales role?
Thank you for the help 👍

Hey everyone,

I know a corporation needs to have employees, but tell me—can I hire an employee and then have the founder serve as a volunteer CEO?

Or could I set that first employee up as the director (maybe without actual authority, if that's even possible)? I'm assuming the LLC would then have two board members: a director and a founder, where the director couldn't actually pull any strings without the founder's okay.

Just to be clear, the founder is already employed and covered by benefits at another job—like a big public corporation—so the LLC founder is just hiring a few close family members until we all grow enough to finally sail our own ship in private waters.

Thank you so much 😁😁😁😁

A founder can pull double duty as a director even if they have a day job elsewhere. As long as they’re clocked in full-time at that other firm, it doesn't matter.

Gerald Lewis7 said:A founder can pull double duty as a director even if they have a day job elsewhere. As long as they’re clocked in full-time at that other firm, it doesn't matter.

Alright, thanks for that.

Let me know if an LLC with just two board members also needs a supervisory board so they can swap out the CEO without hitting any roadblocks—you know, strictly from a "chain of command" standpoint.

Or can the owner/founder just make a decree by amending the LLC's operating agreement if things ever get messy?

Thanks again for all the help, seriously.

Ryan Price said:Alright, thanks for that.

Let me know if an LLC with just two board members also needs a supervisory board so they can swap out the CEO without hitting any roadblocks—you know, strictly from a "chain of command" standpoint.

Or can the owner/founder just make a decree by amending the LLC's operating agreement if things ever get messy?

Thanks again for all the help, seriously.

You don't need a supervisory board.

You can simply place restrictions on the manager's authority to act on behalf of the company. Just keep in mind those internal limits won't hold up against third parties.

I read somewhere that for an LLC, you don't actually need specialists for every single role. Like, someone could handle sales even if they just have a high school diploma or maybe a background in something totally random like interior design...
The same goes for other gigs, too—someone could run the bakery side of things with just a basic business certificate or whatever...
Is there any truth to that? Thanks for the help 🙂

Gary Harris4 said:I read somewhere that for an LLC, you don't actually need specialists for every single role. Like, someone could handle sales even if they just have a high school diploma or maybe a background in something totally random like interior design...
The same goes for other gigs, too—someone could run the bakery side of things with just a basic business certificate or whatever...
Is there any truth to that? Thanks for the help 🙂

I’ve actually been wondering about the exact same thing. If someone wanted to start a business here in the States and hire me for a better position, would that be allowed even though I only have a middle school education? Also, I was curious about the difference between starting a brand-new company from scratch versus just opening a branch office in a different state. Is it generally better to set up a whole new entity or just go with a branch location?

Thanks so much for any insight you guys can give me.

Hey everyone 🙂

A small group of us—about five or six sixteen-year-olds—are looking to get moving. We’ve got ambition, solid ideas, some finished prototypes, plenty of drive, and enough capital to get things off the ground. We want to launch our own business, something structured like an LLC. The catch is that none of us are legal adults yet. We aren't interested in waiting two years; that feels like 😁
forever.
The core of what we're doing involves electronics and computer science. I assume an LLC would be a smarter move than a sole proprietorship.

I've been looking at how things work overseas and noticed plenty of "kids" launching startups even before they hit sixteen. Is that actually doable here in the States?

What are the specific requirements for getting a business up and running here in the US?