Your business entity might be in trouble, and you don’t even know it. I’m Julie King with King Patent Law, and today I’m showing you three critical corporate housekeeping tasks you need to check right now.
Task number one: Verify your business is in good standing with the state.
If you formed an LLC or corporation, your state requires you to file annual reports and pay fees. If you don’t, your business falls out of good standing, which can void your liability protection and prevent you from enforcing contracts.
Go to your Secretary of State’s website. Search for your business. Your status should say “Active” or “Good Standing.” If it says “Delinquent” or “Not in Good Standing,” you need to fix that immediately.
Task number two: Confirm your registered agent information is current.
Your registered agent receives legal documents and official state notices on your behalf. If that information is wrong, you could miss a lawsuit notification or a critical tax deadline.
Imagine your registered agent moved without telling you. You miss a lawsuit notice and end up with a $75,000 default judgment.
Verify your registered agent’s address is current. If it’s you, make sure it’s a physical address where you actually receive mail. If it’s a service, make sure your subscription hasn’t expired.
Task number three: Review your operating agreement or bylaws.
When was the last time you looked at these documents? If the answer is “never” or “when I signed them five years ago,” you might have a problem.
Life changes. Partners join or leave. Ownership percentages change. Someone passes away. Your operating agreement needs to reflect your current reality.
If your agreement says you have three equal partners but one bought out the others two years ago, that’s a legal time bomb waiting to explode.
Pull out your operating agreement this month. Read it. If it doesn’t match reality, schedule time to update it with a lawyer.
It's that simple.
These three tasks take less than an hour total, but they prevent catastrophic problems down the road.
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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