In the pre-Internet days, the act of establishing a new company required getting a lawyer involved.  The cost of incorporation could quickly grow to over $1,000.  Today, however, there are numerous companies on the Internet that provide services to help you get incorporated for under $500.  A quick Google search will quickly give you a large list of options.  I did some research and in my case decided that creating a Limited Liability Company (LLC) was the best option, so I looked for companies that could help me establish a new LLC.

I did a search and narrowed down the options by taking a quick look at the web sites and taking a quick "gut check" on whether the site looked like it was from a reputable company I’d feel comfortable doing business with.  I narrowed the list down to five options:

1. MyNewCompany.com
2. Corporate Agents, Inc.
3. The LLC Expert
4. Business Incorporation Solutions
5. Legal Zoom

Each of the companies listed above seemed to be viable and worthy of my consideration. I spent time reviewing each of the web sites to better understand what they offered and the various costs involved.  In all cases the companies offered some base level service and then provided a various list of optional add-ons.  In some cases a service that was optional from one company was part of another company’s base offering. The other interesting thing I discovered was that each company indicated a different cost for filing with my state (even though that cost is dictated by the state!).

In order to better understand the cost of the various options, I broke out the different services and costs.  While there were some services beyond what I have listed below, the ones that follow seemed to be the most common and potentially relevant.

• State Filing Fee — this is the fee that the state you are incorporating in charges for incorporation.  In theory this would just be a fee passed straight through to you, but as I discovered some of the companies felt the need to add on some margin.
• Base fee — this is the base fee the company charges for their service. The services provided as part of the base fee do vary by company, so you really need to pay attention.  In addition, some companies offer different packages, each with a different base fee (and each package providing different services)
• Rush Fee — if you are in a big hurry you can, in some cases, pay extra to have things expedited.  This would include things like overnight FedEx instead of first class mail.
• Registered Agent Service — you can pay the registering company this fee for them to serve as your "registered agent".  If your new business doesn’t have a standard address (i.e., no PO boxes allowed) or you just don’t want to deal with formal/legal documents, then you need a registered agent that will use their mailing address when registering with the state.
• Corporation/LLC Kit — this is a nice kit that includes a 3-ring binder embossed with your company name, a stamp with your company name, and similar items.
• Federal ID Preparation — the company will put together all of the necessary paper you will need for getting your Federal ID.
• Forms on CD — you can get a CD with lots of helpful forms and information to get you started

Because each company has different services included in their base price and such it is difficult to compare apples-to-apples.  The chart below is my best attempt to do this:

As you can see, there is quite a bit of variation.  Depending on what services you are looking for the options vary. I decided to go with MyNewCompany.com.  I was impressed by the wealth of information on their site and their fees were the most reasonable for what I was interested in.

I hope you find this information helpful.