I'm a personal chef doing meal prep for a handful of clients, and I'm finally getting an LLC set up. Every service I've looked at wants to bundle in a registered agent, "business kits", compliance dashboards, the whole works. I just need the LLC and an EIN. Has anyone filed in a way that didn't feel like buying a gym membership they'll never use?
LLC Formation
I'm a personal chef and need an LLC without buying unnecessary extras
File directly with your state's Secretary of State website. Most states let you do it online for the filing fee and nothing else. The upsells are optional by design.
"Business kit" usually means a binder and a laminated certificate. You are paying forty bucks for the privilege of owning a three-ring binder.
Registered agent is the one add-on that actually matters if you don't want your home address on public fiilngs. Some states require one anyway. Cheapest legit option is often just being your own agent if your state allows and you don't mind the address thing.
Self-agenting is allowed in my state. I mostly work out of a commercial kitchen so the address exposure isn't a dealbreaker for me. Good to know I can skip it.
EIN is free from the IRS site, takes ten minutes. Do not pay anyone for that. This gets people every single time.
Also don't forget the annual report or whatever your state calls it. People obsess over the formation fee, and then get administratively dissolved two years later because the renewal was $25 and they never opened the mail.
Counterpoint: some of the paid services are worth it if you genuinely cant handle a form. But for a one-person chef operation, no. You'll spend more time canceling the subscription than filing.
What are you actually trying to accomplish with the LLC? Liability shield or just looking official to clients? Because for personal chef work the food handling liability is the real issue and an LLC doesn't replace insurance.
Both honestly, but liability is the bigger one. I already carry insurance through my kitchen arrangement. The LLC is more about separating business and personal if something ever goes sideways.
Then you're on the right track. State site, EIN from IRS, skip the bundle. Put the saved money toward a separate business bank account, which actually does matter for keeping the liability shield intact ngl.
Mixed feelings on the bank account thing. Some states care more than others about commingling., But as a general rule, yeah, don't run client payments through your personal checking. That's the stuff that gets people pierced.