As any business owner can attest, success is often built on sound financial decisions, responsible spending, and budgeting appropriately for necessary costs.
For many business owners, hiring a registered agent may be something that gets crossed off the list of necessary costs as a cost-savings measure. However, choosing to be your own registered agent can become problematic, and it’s far more advantageous and beneficial to a hire a registered agent instead of choosing to be your own registered agent. Read on to learn why you should opt for hiring a registered agent instead of choosing to be your own registered agent.
Availability
If you serve as your own registered agent, you are never really off the clock. While most business owners will laugh and say that’s just how it is, if you don’t have a registered agent service, you will always have to be available to accept service. That means you won’t be able to go on vacations, nor will you be able to take time off to be truly unavailable for work at family events, such as your children’s graduation or even a funeral service. Most states mandate that a business has a registered agent on file so that the individual can be served at any time in the event that legal documents need to be delivered. If you’re that person, you have to be available to be served, and you probably don’t want to have to live at the office.
Privacy
A registered agent’s name and address are published so that everyone knows who can accept service of process and where it can be delivered. If you work from home, your home address will be used as a PO Box cannot be listed for a registered agent. This means that anyone can find out your home address and where you live. While you might at first feel that this wouldn’t be a problem, consider the work that your business does. Could it be possible to ever have a dissatisfied customer? Sometimes, it is best to separate your work life from your home life.
Reputation
If your business is separate from your home, you still will need to be available at your business’s address to accept service. You may have customers that come in and could witness you being served court documents. What might be a mundane legal case or even inconsequential to your business but in which you’re involved as a third party could turn into a major attack on your reputation if the wrong person witnesses you being served. This could negatively impact your reputation, but your bottom line as well.
Multi-State/Office Businesses
If your business operates in multiple states, you cannot clone yourself and be in more than one place at a time. In these cases, it is absolutely necessary to hire a registered agent.
Choose Wisely: Hire a Registered Agent
Overall, while it might seem like a simple way to cut costs, serving as your own registered agent could prove to be detrimental to your business. By hiring a registered agent, you can rest assured that you have a reliable individual who is able to accept service on your behalf. Furthermore, your privacy, reputation, and time will all remain in tact. If you’re interested in learning more about hiring a registered agent, give us a call today at (855) 236-9172!
