Steps to Forming a Florida Corporation
Information We Need From You to Start Your Corporation
1: Select a Name: Your company name must include a corporate suffix such as Corporation, Corp., Incorporated, Inc., Company or Co.
2: Authorize Shares: Owners of a corporation are known as shareholders. They own shares of stock in the company. Florida requires you to authorize a number of shares when you start your corporation. Most corporations will authorize an easily-divisible number of shares, say 100, and then you would issue 51% of those shares to yourself at your first shareholders meeting. This gives you control of the company and leaves the other 49% for future business partners.
3: Choose Management: Corporations are controlled by their Directors, who are in charge of setting company policy, appointing corporate officers (President, Secretary, Treasurer), setting salaries and bonuses and issuing stock. In most instances, you would assign yourself as the sole Director and take on all the roles of the corporate officers.
4: Remaining Info Needed to File:
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Principal place of business: the street address location of the business office where your corporate records and financial books are kept.
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Purpose: the lawful business your corporation will perform.
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Initial officers and directors: names, titles and addresses of your initial officers and directors (in Florida this is optional).
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Registered Agent: a legal Florida registered agent must have a physical street address in the state. This is known as a registered office and is where service of process will be delivered (cannot be a PO box). Our Speedy filings come with one free year of Florida registered agent service by Northwest Registered Agent. This service keeps your private home and office addresses off the public record and fulfills the registered agent, principal and mailing address requirements.
Form Your Corporation Here Online
Steps to Forming a Florida LLC
Information We Need From You to Start Your LLC
1: Select a Name: Your company name must end with the words Limited Liability Company or the abbreviation LLC or L.L.C. To see if your company name is available, conduct a Florida business name search.
2: Membership: LLCs are owned by their members. Unlike corporations, an LLC does not issue stock. Instead, members are simply assigned an ownership percentage. This percentage is usually based upon what each member has contributed to the company.
3: Choose Management: Typically, an LLC will be managed by its members. There are no directors or corporate officers in an LLC. In some cases, an LLC will opt to appoint a manager to oversee the daily business activities. Managers can be members or an outside party.
4: Remaining Info Needed to File:
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Principal office address: the physical street and mailing business office location where your company records and financial books are kept.
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Registered Agent: legal registered agents must maintain a physical street address within the state where they can sign for service of process. This is known as a registered office (no PO boxes). With our Speedy filings, you receive one free year of Florida registered agent service. This keeps your home and office addresses off the public record while also fulfilling your registered agent, principal and mailing address requirements.
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Management: the names and addresses of those authorized to manage and control your company (currently this is optional).
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Effective date: if you wish to have the official day of your LLC’s formation be later than the filing date, you can specify a later date (cannot be more than 5 business days prior to filing or 90 after date of filing).
Form Your LLC Here Online
Testimonials
“I did not want to deal with any hassles when I formed my LLC and lucky for me, you dealt with it for me. Thanks for such a useful service and quick delivery.” – Alan M., Floral City, Florida
“You were great to work with, answered all of my questions and even fixed a mistake I made without complaint. You were worth every penny.” – Charles H., Ocala, Florida
“Top notch customer service is what I’ve learned to expect from you and your staff. On top of filing my incorporation, I was also able to get great tools to start off my business with.” – Reuben A., Miami, Florida
