The State of Michigan in partnership with the Michigan Small Business Development Center have launched a new online resource and forms directory to assist those starting a business. The Online Business Startup Wizard, is a new service providing an interactive tool to guide users through the registration forms needed to start their business. Now, instead of contacting three different agencies to obtain proper forms, this site allows business owners to enter all of the necessary information one time to generate the initial state government forms necessary.

The new “wizard” will collect necessary information from business customers and populate the required forms to be submitted to the Department of Treasury, Consumer and Industry Services, and the Bureau of Workers’ and Unemployment Compensation. Required forms include Entity Filing, Tax Registration, Tobacco Tax Registration, Motor Fuel Tax Registration, Payroll Service Provider Power of Attorney, Power of Attorney, and EFT Authorization.

The State intends to continually improve the “wizard” and will offer additional functionality in the future. While the Online Business Startup Wizard does not include all areas of interaction with the different State agencies, it does include most areas a small business will initially need to consider.