LegalZoom

I started my first business in September of 2017 and I've been a customer for almos two years. I would advise anybody that does business with them to go ahead. If you're making the LLC, getting the LLC package, or corporation package, to pay for the most expensive option because then that comes with an organized little binder, which I thought was that was pretty convenient for me. Also, the first time I did it, I didn't know, so I chose the cheapest option and it was everywhere. I definitely would advise to go with the higher-up ones, so you can get that binder and take care of everything. And I really like the compliance calendar because that's always a hassle.

My most recent with them was also creating another LLC. Since it was a little more complicated, they introduced me to a service that you don't really even find online, where they kind of take care of the legal. They have an accountant in-house that helps you as well with everything. However, then they realized, and this went on with the relationship which kinda sucked, they realized that doing investment advisors and the financial planners is a little more complicated than they expected. I appreciated that they were honest with me on the legal side and basically told me , "Hey, we don't have any lawyers that work with us and that are really specialists with that."

So, I appreciated that they were honest with me and basically told me that they didn't have the required education to do what I needed done. Aside from LegalZoom, I had a lawyer that I spoke with, like that one lawyer. But I think that's pretty cool. I think that would be really convenient for a lot of other businesses. Sadly, it just didn't really work out well with mine. But I think with anything else, it would probably work really well.

I liked LegalZoom's ease of service and payment plan options. They take care of everything for you, so that’s actually what made it more appealing to me. I didn’t have to do any of the legwork. They took care of everything for me from the beginning. I just paid for it straight out, and they took care of everything else. I wanted to get it started early, so I ordered their express package. And within like two weeks, everything was done - business formation and all the paperwork, so it was great.

LegalZoom offers incentives, and they help you with getting company banking stuff, bank accounts and credit cards. So, both times that I started the companies with them, they sent me offers for accounts and credit cards for the company itself. But they also give you instructions on what you’ll need. If you have your own bank, they give you instructions of what you actually need and what to bring with you if you go to your own bank, if you need to apply for accounts for your company. They even offered tax services. So, if you need help with the tax of running your own company, they assist you with that.

Since I travel a lot and I’m always on the go, they have an app that kinda sends me notifications if there's something that I haven't done that I need to do. So, the interaction with them is always good.They’ve been great to work with. They've been great to use. I would definitely recommend them to anybody who's trying to start their own business.

I was trying to do the work for this rich guy and LegalZoom was beneath him. He kept complaining about what I did on a LegalZoom file. It was the craziest thing I've ever heard. I never would have thought someone is offended by a legal document. I told him, "If you don't like it, it's a contract. Just change it or send it to your attorneys and have them modified. If you wanna spend money, spend the money." I was saving him time by doing an employment contract. Then he didn't wanna pay me so I didn't go work for him. But I think LegalZoom is great. I like the simplicity of it. It covers everything. It is a good service and I’ll use it again.

We formed the LLC through them, which was relatively expensive compared to doing it ourselves but honestly alleviated a lot of the nervousness we had about forgetting something, missing something, etc. The process was easy, the phone calls were simple, and they even sent us this really neat binder full of papers we never used... but it's made out of a cool material and has our company name stamped on it. Oh, and a company stamp too. Again, we never used this stuff and they can probably mass produce hundreds for a few dollars, but you know what? Those are cool little things we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and will make nice collectible memorabilia.

Anyhow, we also signed up for their Registered Agent Service, because we wanted to keep our home address off the company paperwork, as well as did the first annual report through them. That annual report is actually super easy to do on your own, though, so that's entirely up to you. Again: we did it through them for peace of mind.

Now, the service I signed up for DID add a few things I didn't actually want or need as a "recurring" charge, and after Googling the company that scared the crap out of me. I was afraid they had me locked in for years to come, and would charge me to the ends of time. The only way to cancel was through phone, and I was prepared to get trapped on the phone for hours trying to cancel but being given the runaround.

Except... that didn't happen. I was on the phone less than 10 minutes, most of that was waiting queue time, and they cancelled without a fuss and without asking me to reconsider. Just a "Ok, that's cancelled. What about the registered agent service? Keep that? Ok, all done". The dread I had of the deed was actually far far worse than the deed itself. Honestly, I've had a much harder time cancelling our stupid web hosting. (Not going to name and shame here, but I strongly recommend picking your hosts carefully...)

The LLC didn't really work out (day jobs just got in the way of really making a good product), so we voluntarily dissolved it recently. I just got off the call to end the recurring charge for the Registered Agent that was going to trigger in June, and again it was a really clean and simple process. The guy on the phone had me cancelled in a couple minutes, and then said that I'd be refunded the remaining amount that I'd have been charged between now and June; it'll be back on my CC in 3-5 days.

Tl;dr - I felt the need to write this review because I didn't feel like LegalZoom was a 1.1 star experience. They did exactly what I was looking for them to do, charged exactly what they said they would charge, and while they did add on other recurring charges that I wasn't expecting, I was able to cancel those pretty easily. None of their phone people harassed me during the cancellation, and all together the entire experience was pleasant.