Some states in the U.S. (including New York) require you to publish a notice in the newspaper once you’ve set up your entity.
Publish the fact that you’re in business. And I’m not just talking about LinkedIn and Twitter. Certain states actually require you, and this is so old-fashioned, certain states actually require you to publish the fact that you’re in business. New York state, for example, requires within 120 days of forming your LLC, you’re required to publish the fact that you’re in business in two separate newspapers that are both designated as authorized by the Clerk of the County in which you live.
I’ve zero times heard an independent professional tell me that they were audited or got in trouble because they had failed to meet this Certificate of Publication requirement. But I have seen a couple of places where you will want to have this document. So for example, if you are a minority- or a woman-owned business or you are a disabled veteran-owned business and plan to apply for official status as a minority-owned business or a woman-owned business or a veteran, a disabled veteran-owned business, then you may need to show that Certificate of Publication in your application to the State.
If you want to do this yourself, go ahead. There’s instructions on your state’s website. If you want to outsource it, there are firms that will do this for you. It’s not cheap. You may pay on the order of $1,000. But it’s a bit of an administrative hassle because you have to find the right papers, put the classified ad, make sure it runs for the certain amount of time that it has to, keep copies of those, file them with the clerk of the court, and get that certificate back. So a bunch of work involved that you might decide to outsource. You might decide to skip this altogether, but at least check the requirements of your state and find out if it is in fact require
