Starting a business can be overwhelming with all the paperwork and decisions involved, especially when choosing the right business structure and filing the necessary documents.
ZenBusiness simplifies this process by offering a range of services to guide new business owners through every step. With its affordable subscription plans, fast processing times, and additional services like accounting and web design, ZenBusiness provides a comprehensive and customizable solution.
Whether you need basic LLC formation or ongoing business support, ZenBusiness makes starting and managing your business easier and more accessible.
ZenBusiness Features
If you’ve tried to carry out one of the many legal steps required to start a business alone, you know how challenging it can be to stay on top of all the required tasks — especially when states vary in terms of business licenses, requirements and forms.
ZenBusiness makes it easier to keep track of these tasks, as well as others that you may encounter as your business grows. Although the features you receive with ZenBusiness will vary based on your pricing plan and location, some of its most noteworthy services include:
- Business formation (LLCs or corporations).
- Name availability search.
- Registered agent services.
- DBA (doing business as) registration.
- Operating agreements.
- Federal employer ID number, also known as an EIN.
- Ongoing state compliance requirements.
- Annual business reports.
- New York state business formation publication.
- Filing amendments.
- Certificates of good standing.
- Banking resolutions.
The ZenBusiness suite of services also includes add-on features, such as a complimentary assessment from a certified accountant to help set up bookkeeping, accounting and tax considerations within your first year of operation.
You can also acquire a business domain name from ZenBusiness, subscribe to money management services and weigh your options for the best business credit cards from within the platform itself.
ZenBusiness Pricing
ZenBusiness offers three service tiers, varying by included features and price. You can also opt-in for certain services at an additional cost, such as a business website and domain name, while remaining on a lower-priced plan.
Plans
- Starter: $0, plus state filing fees.
- Pro: $199 billed annually, plus state filing fees.
- Premium: $299 billed annually, plus state filing fees.
A-la-carte features
You may also choose to buy additional services to supplement a lower-tier plan without paying for services you don’t need. These include:
- Operating agreement: $125.
- Expedited processing: $79.
- Worry-free compliance: $199 per year.
- EIN filing: $99.
- Registered agent service: $199 per year.
- Annual report filing: $100.
- Amendment filing: $100.
- Certificate of good standing: $100.
- Business document template library: $100.
- Business website builder: $129 per year.
- Domain name with privacy: $35 per year.
- Business email address: $25 per year.
ZenBusiness: The Good and The Bad
The Good
Centralized, Integrated Platform: ZenBusiness streamlines all of the work you’ll have to do to start up a new business, and it keeps all of that essential information on one platform. With ZenBusiness, it’s easy to track the progress of each step you’re taking to create your business, and you don’t have to try to manage deadlines and priorities across multiple platforms.
Excellent Support: ZenBusiness formation experts are available to provide customer support during business hours. That support is available for the entire life of your business. Additionally, ZenBusiness provides detailed Q&As and resources, including articles, to help you start your business.
Extra Add-Ons: While ZenBusiness offers three main packages, it also provides an array of add-on services, like worry-free compliance, annual reporting services, and registered agents services. You can add on the specific services you need, tailoring a package for your business without paying a high price for services you won’t use.
Worry-Free Compliance: One of the more valuable services ZenBusiness offers is its Worry-Free Compliance. With this service, ZenBusiness handles your state filings, helping keep you compliant. If you ever fall out of compliance, you’ll have support from ZenBusiness experts to get you back on track. This service can offer significant peace of mind, especially for new business owners.
Quick Processing Times: Many ZenBusiness customers report quick LLC formation processing times of just a few days. The Pro and Premium plans offer accelerated processing if you’re in a rush and want to speed up the process even more.
Pay It Forward: ZenBusiness is a Public Benefit Corporation, meaning it helps small businesses grow by awarding them grants and loans. Your business will be supporting a company that then supports other small businesses. ZenBusiness awarded more than $100,000 worth of grants to small businesses in 2020.
Helpful Resources: A quick look around the ZenBusiness site makes it evident that this business is designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs. There’s useful guidance and information on nearly every page that gives you the background details you need to make well-informed decisions about how to best run your business.
Business Website Option: Unlike some other business formation services, ZenBusiness offers a set of tools to help you put together a professional online presence. It includes a business website, domain name, security certificate, and more.
The Bad
Filing Fees Not Included: Because filing fees vary by state, they’re not included in ZenBusiness’ pricing. This is the same with all services, but you’ll want to budget the state fees into the total costs you’ll see with ZenBusiness.
Subscription Model: ZenBusiness runs on a subscription model with annual billing. Since most of its services, like LLC formation, occur only once, these plans lose significant value after the first year. A one-time payment for business formation services would be a more practical option.
Limited Website Capabilities: Though it offers business website services, there are limited website templates and customization options. If your company is in ecommerce or otherwise relies on your website, you may be better off with a dedicated website builder with more options, functionality, and customization.
ZenBusiness Support
You can contact the ZenBusiness support team via a number of channels, including:
- Live chat: 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Central Time) Monday to Friday, or 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sunday
- Phone: from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (CT) Monday to Friday, or 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sunday
- Email: 24/7 – though don’t expect an immediate response
You can also take advantage of the FAQ and tons of free tools and resources on the ZenBusiness site. For one, informative business planning, formation, and management articles and guides.
But also interactive tools like its state filing fee checker – and a name checker, which uses any inputted keywords to suggest relevant names and domain names for yours.
ZenBusiness’ live chat support is definitely one of the better options for contacting its support team. After answering a couple of bot-generated fielding questions, I was connected with a ZenBusiness agent straight away. Though a bit slower to respond, this was because they did take time to fully research the answers to my questions.
They inaccurately provided information once about the possibility of upgrading the ZenBusiness website specs (which is not feasible), but they quickly rectified this mistake.
Apart from that, they displayed both friendliness and a willingness to go beyond expectations in finding accurate answers to all my questions. Nonetheless, a few noteworthy issues are outlined below.
Though easy to use and navigate, there were a few glitches with the ZenBusiness live chat box itself. Mainly, neither clicking Enter nor the Send widget worked to send my message once or twice during the live chat.
Instead, I had to close and reopen the chat window to get these functions to operate properly again. Sometimes clicking Enter sends your message, but clicking the send widget does, too – which can lead to confusion if you accidentally send an incomplete message too soon.
My one experience with the ZenBusiness email support channel was underwhelming. Though I did get a confirmation email with a case number immediately after I sent a message, I had to wait until the next day – even though I had sent the email quite early in the morning.
Bottom Line
ZenBusiness is an excellent choice if you want customizability – it lets you select the add-ons and subscriptions you need. But, ZenBusiness has its own unique freebies and extras to offer – both with its free and paid plans.
If you want to save on subscriptions, opting for a paid LLC formation tier package will see you through. That is, as long as the included services are what you’re looking for. That said, you can also take advantage of bundle deals to register your EIN, get business documents, and set up your website for less.
