You’re busy. You don’t have time for a full business audit this month. I get it.
I’m Julie King with King Patent Law, and I’m giving you a 15-minute business health check you can do right now that will prevent so many of the easily preventable legal disasters I see in small business.
Step one: Check your state business entity status online. Five minutes.
Go to your Secretary of State’s website right now. Search for your business name. Look at your entity status.
Does it say “Active” or “Good Standing”? Great. You’re done with step one.
Does it say “Delinquent” or “Not in Good Standing”? You have a problem. Figure out what’s needed to fix it, usually it’s a missed annual report or unpaid fee, and get it done this month.
Step two: Calendar all renewal deadlines for the year. Five minutes.
Grab your contracts, business licenses, and insurance policies. Every single one has an expiration or renewal date.
Put each date into your calendar with a 30-day advance reminder.
Why? Because missing a renewal deadline can:
- Void your insurance coverage
- Cause your business license to lapse (meaning you’re operating illegally)
- Lock you into another year of an expensive contract you wanted to cancel
Five minutes now prevents massive headaches later.
Step three: Verify your registered agent contact info. Five minutes.
Your registered agent receives legal documents and official notices on your behalf. If they’re not actually receiving those documents because the address is wrong, you could miss a lawsuit notification, a tax deadline, or a state compliance notice.
Check your state’s records. Is the registered agent address current? If it’s you, are you still at that address? If it’s a service, is your subscription active?
If anything’s wrong, update it immediately. This is not something you can afford to get wrong.
Fifteen minutes. Three tasks. Prevents disaster.
If you have more time this month, do the full seven-point business checkup.
Intellectual property is one of your most powerful business tools. If you’re ready to build a strong brand and protect what you create, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
I help entrepreneurs across the U.S. make smart, legally sound decisions about their intellectual property. I’m an attorney in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but I serve intellectual property clients nationwide.
Ready to protect your work? Book a consultation online at kingpatentlaw.com or call 217-714-8558.
For more information on intellectual property and business law, check out the other posts on this site, listen to my podcast “Spellbinding IP: Patent, Trademark, and Business Strategy” on all major podcast platforms (video available on YouTube, Spotify, and Substack), or follow me on social media at @kingpatentlaw.
Avoid the legal horrors, and keep rocking your IP.
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