Guide — EIN
How to Get an EIN Number for Free
Never pay for one: the FTC warning, the exact IRS path, the session-timeout trap — plus EIN without an SSN, and how to recover a lost EIN with a Letter 147C.
How to Get an EIN Number for Free →■ StartBusiness24 Guides
Straight Answers, Verified Numbers
The questions every new owner Googles at midnight — answered in plain language, with figures checked against the IRS, the USPTO, and the states' own pages, and the outdated advice called out where we found it.
Guide — Pennsylvania
How Much Does an LLC Cost in Pennsylvania?
$125 to form, $7 a year to stay in good standing — the full first-year table, and the new Act 122 annual report the old guides still get wrong.
How Much Does an LLC Cost in Pennsylvania? →Guide — Names
How to Check If a Business Name Is Already Taken
The 4 checks: state records, the USPTO Trademark Search (TESS is retired), domain and handles, and a common-law search — with the free Name Search Generator wired in.
How to Check If a Business Name Is Already Taken →Guide — Trademarks
How to Trademark a Business Name
What a trademark is, the ™ vs ® line, and the 5 steps: search first, pick your classes, file in Trademark Center at $350 per class, examination and publication, and the filings that keep a registration alive — plus the cheaper state option.
Read the Trademark Guide →Guide — Patents
How to Patent an Idea
An idea alone can't be patented — an invention can. The three tests (useful, novel, non-obvious), the provisional shortcut at $325 / $130 / $65, the real nonprovisional fees, and the one-year disclosure clock.
Read the Patent Guide →Guide — IP Value
What Your IP Is Worth — and Borrowing Against It
How trademarks and patents actually gain value, the three ways professionals estimate it, and what really happens when IP is pledged as loan collateral — security agreement, UCC-1, and the USPTO record.
Read the IP Value Guide →Go deeper — free training
The StartBusiness24 Academy turns these guides into full lessons: forming, business taxes, business credit, first customers, and AI tools for owners. Free, no company required.