Should I Work As My Own Registered Agent?

If you decide to start a new business, you should take care of some paperwork, hire employees or independent contractors, file Articles of Incorporation, open bank accounts and so on. Many things to do, yet so little time!

But don’t panic! If you have a reliable partner like us, Prestige Auditors, almost all of the steps you should take will be simplified and adapted specifically for you. This will give you the opportunity to enjoy the process of starting a new business and to grow and flourish at the same time. However, there are still some things you should cover before setting up a new business, and we will help you with this!

Registered Agent Needed

As you may know, a formed business should have a registered agent, a person or a business entity who is working on your behalf, and performs as a figure who accepts official and tax documents. Basically, it’s a third party which will help you maintain your profitable business, take measures and put an end to problems occurring within business operations. Well, technically, you can be your own registered agent. However, this is not beneficial for you and your company. Now let’s see why!

1. If you have already hit the books and investigated laws of your state, then you should know that registered agents should have a physical address where the business is operating. So, if you are running your business outside your state, you will be in trouble!
   What’s more, if you are working at home, or operating an e-commerce business, you, as a registered agent, will have to provide your home address. Do you know anyone who will be happy to make their home address public? We don’t!
2. Being your own registered agent costs you time, because every single change should be reported and comprehensively described. Especially when you change your address, the state should be informed about your decision, and more to the point, you are going to pay fees for notifying. So, this is not only time, but also money-consuming.
3. If you’re planning to expand, and operate your business in various states, then you should know that you are required to have one registered agent for each state. In any case, working with a registered agent service will help you run your business more smoothly, because you won’t lose much time and money.
4. If your business is home-based or eCommerce, you are most likely to have irregular working hours. This means that within these hours, you will have to be available to be up-to-date with tax or other official documents from the state.
5. We have noticed that some of our clients are mentally not ready to receive official, important and sometimes confidential documents, which can affect the quality of your work. Again, working with a registered agent will help you a lot, and you will feel more secured and assured in your business.

In short, you can technically become your own registered agent. However, it consumes a lot of time and resources, and requires some special skills which you should learn if you want to do it on your own. Prestige Auditors will help you with forming your eCommerce or other type of business, but it’s always best to know the basics of forming a business before actually forming one!