Starting a business in Colorado? but realized the steps to forming a Colorado LLC are a bit confusing. Don’t fret; with careful planning, you can make sure your Colorado LLC is off to a good start. If this is your first business venture or first time forming an LLC, you might wonder where to start.

Starting a Limited Liability Company in Colorado

In this guide, we’ll show you how to start an LLC in Colorado, helping you get off to a successful start by walking you through your next steps and, along the way, showing you how our services can help.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to get your LLC formed in the Centennial State and be on your way to growing your business most efficiently.

Step 1: Name your Colorado LLC

Select a name for your Colorado LLC. While brainstorming about your company, you’ve likely thought of a business name. But an LLC name is more than just a creative way to market your services; it also has to comply with state regulations.

Start by creating a list of possible names, then consult our Colorado business entity search page to find one that’s not in use. When you enter a name in the search, try entering just the key portion of the name and not the name in its entirety. This will yield more search results, particularly any that are close to your name.

Name Requirements for an LLC in Colorado

To be in good standing with Colorado state law, your company’s name must end with the proper designator. The following list includes all legally allowed phrases or abbreviations you can add to the end of your selected name:

• Limited Liability Company
• Ltd. Liability Company
• Limited Liability Co.
• Ltd. Liability Co.
• Limited
• L.L.C.
• LLC
• Ltd.

Colorado law states that a name can’t include any term that would violate any state statutes. The name doesn’t need to be in English; it just needs to be written in English letters or Arabic or Roman numerals.

While you can use a name that is not a match to another Colorado business, it’s a good idea to have something that sets you apart from the competition and makes it easier to establish your business online.

LLC Colorado domain name

A quick domain name search can show you if a name is available or already taken. At ZenBusiness, we can secure a domain name for your business website and email address. We also offer privacy features to protect your information and limit spam and unwanted solicitations.

Reserve a Business Name for LLC Colorado

Once you’ve conducted your Colorado business search and found a name that satisfies your business goals and Colorado’s requirements, you have the option to lock it in. Colorado allows you to reserve a business name for 120 days for a fee.

Colorado LLC name reservation services

If you’d rather not deal with this process yourself, we have a business name reservation service that can handle it for you. As part of the service, we also check to see if your desired name is available. If the name you’ve chosen is approved, it will be put on hold for 120 days. This will allow plenty of time for you to finish establishing your LLC. 

File a DBA in Colorado

Sometimes, LLCs have more than one name. There’s its legal name that’s registered with the state, and there can be a Colorado trade name, as well. A trade name, known as a “doing business as” (DBA) name, is an alternate name under which your LLC can do business.

Trade names are often used when owners want to operate under a shorter or simpler name than their official LLC name. They are used for advertising and other sales purposes, too. We can help you secure a trade name with our DBA name service.

Registering a trade name in Colorado doesn’t mean that the name will be protected from others using it, so you may want to consider registering a trademark with the state of Colorado. A trademark is a word, a symbol, or a combination of the two that identifies goods or services offered by a specific company.

Register Trademarks for your LLC in CO

Registering a trademark with the state is a way to protect your business name within Colorado. There’s a small fee to do so, and the registration is good for five years. After this period, you’ll need to file a trademark renewal. To protect your trademark at the federal level, you can register with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This will ensure broader protection if you’re planning on doing business outside of Colorado. You can also search its trademark database to make sure your desired name isn’t already federally trademarked.

Let’s move onto step 2 in showing you, how to get an LLC in Colorado.

Step 2: Appoint a registered agent in Colorado

Colorado law requires every LLC to appoint a registered agent. The person or entity appointed will be the point of contact for legal matters — if your company is subpoenaed or sued, service of process papers will be delivered to your Colorado registered agent. 

Your resident agent must be either a resident of the state of Colorado or a business entity authorized to do business in Colorado, and they must have a physical street address in the state. P.O. boxes are not allowed for a Colorado LLC formation.

The company owner can be the registered agent, but this is not always the best option. After all, being served in front of customers is a sure way to deter business, and with so many alternatives, it could be in your best interest to hire an outside registered agent service.

Hire an Outside Registered Agent Service

Hiring an outside registered agent service like ours is an affordable way to save you possible troubles later on. It also gives your business an official registered agent address with the state so that, if your business ever moves, you won’t have to file an amendment with the state (and pay the accompanying fee) to update your registered agent location.

A registered agent service receives important legal and other correspondence from the state, which helps you:

• Organize important legal documents
• Keep your LLC in compliance
• Avoid legal fees and penalties

Step 3: File Colorado Articles of Organization

A Colorado LLC is created when the articles of organization are filed with the state. Once you’ve decided on a name and appointed a registered agent, it’s time to certify your LLC in Colorado. To start doing business, you’ll need to complete your Articles of Organization and file them with the Colorado Secretary of State. Your Articles of Organization is a legal document that officially creates your LLC. It lets the government know important details about your new business.

Filing official government documents like this can be intimidating and/or frustrating for many people, however it is all necessary to starting an LLC in Colorado, which is why we’re here. With our business formation plans, our trained formation experts handle the filing for you to make sure it’s done quickly and correctly the first time. But, although we can handle this for you, we’ll show you how the process works below.

LLC Articles of Organization requirements 

You’ll need the following information to fill out the Articles of Organization form accurately:

• The name of your LLC
• The principal office address of your LLC
• The mailing address of your LLC
• The name and address of your registered agent
• The type of management you plan to have, whether the LLC will be run by its members (owners) or by a manager appointed by the members

Complete your LLC Registration Online with Colorado Secretary of State

You’ll need to use the Secretary of State’s online portal to complete your LLC registration, as a paper form is not available, and pay a nonrefundable filing fee.

If you have us handle filing your Articles of Organization, once the state approves your LLC, your paperwork will be available from your ZenBusiness dashboard, where you can keep it and other important paperwork digitally organized. 

Once you get your physical paperwork back from the state of Colorado approving your new LLC, you’ll want to keep it in a safe location along with your other important LLC documents, such as your operating agreement, member certificates, contracts, compliance checklists, transfer ledger, etc. We offer a customized business kit to help you keep these important documents organized and looking professional.

Step 4: Create an operating agreement

Operating agreements are not always required — and not mandatory in Colorado — but help create governance for an LLC. This document outlines your business structure and covers the rules your company will follow, explains how finances will be handled, lists specific LLC members, spells out how decisions will be made (including member voting structure), and details any additional regulations. 

If you’re starting your LLC alone, you may feel an operating agreement is unnecessary, especially since one is not required to proceed in Colorado. However, Colorado operating agreements can outline what happens to your company if you leave or become incapacitated and help protect you and your assets in case of dissolution or bankruptcy. If you are starting your LLC with other members, each party will need to agree to the terms and sign the document.

If you’re unsure as to how to start creating an operating agreement for your LLC in Colorado, we offer a customizable template to help get you started.

Step 5: Apply for an EIN

The final step to starting your Colorado LLC is to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN). It’s also known as a tax ID number and a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). This unique nine-digit number allows the government to identify and tax your business. It also allows you to:

• Hire employees
• Open a business bank account
• Keep business and personal taxation separate

Unless you are a single-member LLC with no employees (and sometimes even then), an EIN is required for all tax and financial paperwork. You can get an EIN from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You can get your LLC’s EIN through the IRS website, by mail, or by fax, but if you’re unfond of dealing with that particular government agency, we can get it for you. Our EIN service is quick and eliminates the hassle.

Open a Business Bank Account for your Colorado LLC

Once you’ve secured an EIN, you’ll be able to open a business bank account. Having separate accounts for your business and your personal banking is critical for sorting out your finances at tax time and helps you avoid commingling funds. Commingling funds can not only make your filing tax more difficult, but it could also be used against you if someone takes you to court to challenge whether you and your LLC are truly separate entities (i.e., they want to sue you for not just your business assets, but also your personal assets).

Create invoices and take payments

We offer a discounted bank account for your new business. 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.

For further help keeping track of your new business’s finances, try ZenBusiness Money. It helps you create invoices, receive payments, transfer money, and manage clients all in one place.