Most owners of small LLCs form an LLC in their home state. If you were to decide to form your LLC in another state but run your business in your home state, you would have to register and pay additional filing fees as a foreign LLC in your home state. In addition, you would need to maintain and pay for a registered agent in the state where you form your LLC. It’s typically easier and less costly to file an LLC as a domestic LLC in your own state. For more information, see our article on where to form your LLC.

Yes, your LLC can do business in other states, although some LLCs need to register as foreign businesses in other states before they do business there (called "qualifying to do business"). If you are just selling merchandise or services to residents of other states, however, you don't need to qualify to do business in those states. Only when your LLC has transactions that take place entirely within one state, such as shipping goods from a warehouse in one state to a customer in that same state, does your LLC have to qualify to do business. For more information, see our article on qualifying to do business in other states.

Some states don’t allow LLCs to be owned by professionals whose occupation requires a license. In these states, licensed professionals who want to provide professional services through an LLC must form a professional limited liability company (“PLLC”) instead. The professionals most likely to be required to form a PLLC are lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, accountants, and chiropractors, but many states also require massage therapists, cosmetologists, and personal trainers to form PLLCs. Only California doesn't allow professionals to form LLCs or PLLCs.

Nolo cannot form LLCs or PLLCs for professionals in the following states: