Mariana Reis runs Northstar Studio, a six-person design practice, from Lisbon. The company is a Wyoming LLC. For two years, compliance was “a folder of PDFs and a feeling of dread.”
The problem wasn’t any single filing
“Each thing on its own was fine,” she says. “The federal form, the Wyoming report, the registered agent renewal. The problem was that nobody was holding all of them at once. I’d remember the IRS deadline and forget Wyoming. I found out my report was late because I got an email that said delinquent.”
A late Wyoming report is recoverable. But the studio was one renewal away from administrative dissolution — and Mariana didn’t know it.
What changed
“I added the LLC, and the calendar just… appeared. Federal, state, governance, all on one line. The thing I needed was never a better reminder. It was one place that knew about everything.”
The studio is now on the Care Plan. “I run a design company. I think about compliance for about four minutes a year now, when something needs my signature. That’s the right amount.”