Start a Washington LLC

1. Name your Washington LLC

Before you register your LLC in Washington, you need to decide on a name. Make sure that your LLC name isn’t taken by another company in the state. Also, make sure it is unusual enough to be distinguished. The state has a business name search, but with our Washington business name search page tool, we’ll walk you through it step by step.

Washington LLC Naming Requirements

Washington state law requires you to include some variation of “Limited Liability Company” as the name’s suffix. You can end your company’s name with the full “Limited Liability Company,” shorten it to “Limited Liability Co.,” or use the abbreviations “LLC” or “L.L.C.”

The state additionally prohibits certain words and combinations of words from appearing in LLC business names. You cannot use words that would suggest your limited liability company is a financial institution, like “banker,” “banking,” “trust,” or “cooperative.” You also can’t combine the words “trust” and “loan.” Finally, you may not use any combination of two or more of the following words: “savings,” “association,” “society,” “home,” “loan,” or “building.”

Reserve a Business Name for your Washington LLC

You might not be ready to take the next step and file your Certificate of Formation right away. Washington gives you the option to reserve your intended name for 180 days, so if you need some time, use our name reservation service to make sure your name is ready when you are.

As you search for available business names, check if relevant domain names are available for those business names. A website is an affordable marketing tool that can drive customers to your business. You want a domain that aligns with your LLC name, making the website easy for search engines to find. Check out our domain registration and domain name search services for more information.

File a DBA in Washington

If you plan to use an alternate name for your limited liability company, you’ll need to complete this process twice. Known as a trade name or “Doing Business As” (DBA) name, you’ll first need to check that your trade name is available and compliant with Washington’s requirements. Unlike your LLC’s official name, your trade name should not have any business entity suffix, including “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” The trade name should also not include any words relating to financial institutions, such as “bank,” “trust company,” “credit union,” or other similar words or phrases.

Once you’ve found an acceptable DBA name, you will need to register it. This guide to Washington DBAs can give you the specifics.

2. Appoint a registered agent in Washington

Washington Registered Agent Requirement

Every registered Washington business entity needs to have a registered agent. This is a person or entity acting as the point of contact for service of process and other legal documents on behalf of the business.

The registered agent must meet two conditions:

• have a Washington residency in the form of a permanent address in the state and
• have the authorization to do business in the state.

Can You Become Your Own Registered Agent?

As an LLC member, you can list yourself as a Washington registered agent for your company; however, this option is not always in your best interest. If you are served with a lawsuit, for example, you don’t want to receive this paperwork at your place of business, with customers and clients around.

Instead, consider our professional registered agent service. We can help you fill this legal requirement and make sure all important documents get to you in a discreet and time-efficient manner.

ZenBusiness can provide your registered agent

When you use our registered agent service, we’ll provide you with an agent who’s available to receive important legal, tax, and other notices in person. This gives you the peace of mind of knowing you’re in compliance with the registered agent requirements. And, it helps avoid embarrassing situations where you could be served papers for a lawsuit in front of clients and employees.

As a bonus, our service also keeps you organized. When you get important documents, we will quickly inform you and keep them together in your online digital dashboard so that you can view, download, and/or print them whenever you want. It’s better than rummaging through piles of papers to try to find important legal documents when you need them.

3. File a Washington LLC Certificate of Formation

Once you’ve decided on a business name and appointed a registered agent, the next step is making your Washington LLC official! To do so, you’ll need to complete a Certificate of Formation and file it with the Washington Secretary of State. This is the official document that formally establishes your LLC as a recognized legal entity in Washington.

Information Required in the Washington LLC Certificate of Formation

To complete your certificate, you’ll need:

• Registered agent name and address. As noted above, this is the person or business that will receive legal documents on behalf of your business, be available during regular business hours, etc.
• Principal office address and contact information. You will need to provide a phone and email contact for your business. Your business street and mailing address (if they are different) are also required. Please note: Unless you are acting as your own registered agent, this address is not the same as your registered agent’s address.
• Duration. You will pick if your company has a perpetual duration, if it expires after a certain number of years, or if it expires on a specific date.
• Effective date. This is the date your business begins to exist. You can select the date of filing or a different date, but the date is not allowed to be more than 90 days from your filing date. It also cannot be prior to the filing date.
• Executor. Washington requires each business to have at least one executor. An executor is a person forming the LLC and signing the Certificate of Formation. An entity is not allowed to be its own executor.
• Governor. Washington also requires each business to have at least one governor. A governor is a person or entity listed on the business’s annual report, and in an LLC is usually a member or a manager.
• Nature of the business. You can be specific, but a more general statement will suffice.
• A return address for filing. This is the email and address where you want follow-up correspondence on your application to go.

File Online with the Washington Secretary of State

The Washington Secretary of State prefers online filing but does accept paper forms with an extra fee. Once accepted, your LLC will receive a Washington State Unified Business Identifier (UBI). Be sure to keep a record of that number, as you will use it when dealing with other state agencies. Within 120 days of forming an LLC in Washington, you are required to file an Initial Report, which is really the first annual report your LLC will file every year.

Get Professional Filing Help

If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. Take a look at our business formation packages and let our team do the work for you. Once the Washington Secretary of State approves your LLC, your state paperwork will be available on your ZenBusiness dashboard, where you can keep it and other important business paperwork digitally organized.

In addition, we offer customized business kits to help you keep these important documents organized and looking professional. Whether it’s an operating agreement, member certificate, business contracts, compliance checklists, transfer ledgers, or anything else, you can be sure it’s all in one safe place.

4. Create an operating agreement

An operating agreement is a legal document where you put in writing how the business will run, the breakdown of responsibilities, how profits will be shared, and more. All members (owners) of the LLC will approve and sign it, making it a binding contractual relationship between the members. Washington does not require a business to have an operating agreement, but most experts strongly encourage all LLCs to have one.

Why You Should Get an Operating Agreement in Washington

This is because you can tailor an operating agreement to your business’ needs. If a conflict arises, the default state LLC laws will control the outcome. You can help avoid unpleasant situations like this by using our operating agreement template, available in many of our formation plans.

What does a Washington operating agreement look like? What’s contained inside will depend on the specifics of your business, but there are a few things you will want to include:

• Percentage of ownership and distribution of profits
• Voting rights and responsibilities
• Division of roles and responsibilities with members and any managers
• Required meetings
• Buyout and buy-sell rules

Once it is completed and signed, it should be kept in a secure location with other important business formation information.

✓ If you’re unsure as to how to start creating an operating agreement for your LLC in Washington, then check out this guide. Make note that, if you decide to form your LLC with ZenBusiness, all our plans include a customizable operating agreement template to save you time researching and crafting the agreement yourself.

5. Apply for an EIN

A federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a nine-digit code the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses to identify businesses for tax purposes. Most Washington LLCs need this Tax ID number, sometimes even those that are single-member LLCs with no employees. Getting an EIN should be a priority anyway, as it can help with practical things like opening a business bank account. You can use our EIN registration service to make it easy.

✓ Our LLC formation service includes obtaining an EIN for your LLC but we can also help you get an EIN for an existing company

Open a Business Bank Account for your Washington LLC

Once you’ve secured your EIN, you’ll be able to open a business bank account. It’s important to keep separate accounts for your business and your personal banking, as failing to do so might land you in legal trouble and open your personal assets up to creditors or those looking to file a lawsuit against your business.

To help you avoid this, we offer a discounted bank account for new businesses. This allows for unlimited transactions, online banking, a debit card, and more. When you want to authorize others in your business to use the account, we offer a banking resolution template to simplify the process.

If you don’t feel confident in your financial skills quite yet, try ZenBusiness Money. It can help you create invoices, receive payments, transfer money, and manage clients all in one place.