Business Tools: phone, website, CRM, and invoicing for $39 a month

What do you get with Business Tools?

Business Tools is an optional add-on for $39 a month. It gives you a business phone line, website hosting with an AI website builder, a CRM, invoicing and estimates, texting, and online booking in one place. Add it to any order in the portal, and cancel any time from Billing. Your $49 agent service is the same whether you add it or not.

We offer it because of who our clients are. Most are new or small Ohio LLCs and corporations. The week the articles come back from the Secretary of State, the owner also needs somewhere to keep a customer list, send a first announcement, let people book a time, and send an invoice. Those are the four things the workspace covers: contacts, campaigns, booking, and invoicing.

The workspace is a separate system from the client portal where your statutory agent documents live. That separation is deliberate, and it gets its own section below. First, a closer look at what each tool does for a business that is just getting started.

Do you need Business Tools?

No. It is optional. If you already run your business on another CRM, a spreadsheet, or a paper calendar that works, keep using it. Your agent service stays $49 a year either way.

What the plan is for, first and last, is the statutory agent job: a staffed Ohio street address on the public record, same-business-day scans, and notifications that reach the right people. Business Tools is there for owners who want a phone line, a website, and a CRM from one place while they get the business going.

How does the contacts CRM help a new Ohio LLC?

A CRM is a customer list that remembers things. Each contact is one record with a name, email, phone number, and whatever notes and tags you add. Over time the record shows the conversations, appointments, and invoices tied to that person, so you are not digging through a phone and three inboxes to remember who asked for a quote.

For a new LLC the first useful step is simple: put the people you already know into it. Past customers, warm leads, referral partners, the vendor who sends you work. Tag them so you can tell them apart. Once they are in one place, the other tools have someone to work with.

You can also track deals or jobs in stages you name yourself, such as "quoted," "scheduled," and "paid." That gives you a plain view of what is waiting on you and what is waiting on the customer.

Treat the list as a business asset. It belongs to the LLC, not to whoever happens to be answering the phone this month. Keep it in the workspace rather than on one person's phone, and be choosy about who you give access to.

Can I send email and text campaigns to customers?

Yes. The workspace sends email and text messages to the contacts in it, either one at a time or as a campaign to a group. A campaign can be a single message, like an opening announcement, or a short series that goes out on a schedule, like a follow-up a few days after a quote.

Some common first campaigns for a new Ohio business:

• An announcement to past customers that you now operate under your new LLC.
• A follow-up to anyone who asked for a quote and has not answered.
• A reminder to repeat customers before your busy season.
• A thank-you after a job with a link to book the next one.

Keep messages short and plain. Say who you are, say the one thing you want the reader to do, and give them a way to do it, such as a reply, a booking link, or a phone number. A customer who hears from you twice a month with something useful is more likely to stay on your list than one who hears from you every other day.

Marketing email and text messages come with rules about consent and opting out. Following them is the business's responsibility, not ours. If you are unsure what applies to your list, ask your attorney before you send.

How does online appointment booking work in the workspace?

You set up a calendar with the times you are available, and the workspace gives you a booking page to share. Customers pick an open time, and the appointment lands on your calendar with their contact details attached. Reminders can go out before the appointment so fewer people forget.

For a service business, that replaces a lot of back-and-forth: no more trading texts to find a time for an estimate or consultation. Put the booking link in your email signature, on your website, and in your follow-up messages. Each booking also creates or updates the contact record, so your CRM fills in as people schedule.

A good booking page answers three questions before the customer has to ask: what the appointment is, how long it takes, and where it happens. "Free 30-minute estimate at your home in Medina County" books better than "Appointment." If you offer different kinds of visits, set up a separate calendar for each so the right time slots show for the right job.

Can a small business send invoices and take payments with Business Tools?

Yes. You can create an invoice for a contact, send it by email or text, and let the customer pay by card from the invoice. Card payments run through a payment processor account that you connect, and the processor's own fees apply. Those fees are set by the processor, not by us.

One detail worth getting right early: invoice in the name your customers will recognize, and make sure that name is one the business is entitled to use. If you invoice under the LLC's exact legal name, you are set. If you invoice under a brand name that differs from the legal name, Ohio has a trade name registration for that (state fee $39, ORC 111.16(S)(2)), and our Trade Name (DBA) Registration service files it for you.

Have payments land in the business's own bank account, not a personal one. Keeping LLC money separate from your own is basic hygiene for any entity, and your accountant will thank you at tax time when every invoice and payment is in one place with the customer's record attached.

Invoices in the workspace are your business's invoices to your customers. They are separate from your own bill for agent service, which is handled by card in the client portal.

What does using Ohio small business tools look like in the first month?

Take a made-up example. A carpenter forms an LLC in Medina County and names us as statutory agent. The filed articles show up in the client portal. That same week she opens the workspace from the portal's Business Tools page.

She adds the forty or so past customers and contractors whose numbers she already has, and tags them "homeowner" or "trade." She sets up one calendar called "Free estimate," available weekday afternoons, and puts the booking link in her email signature and on her truck's door magnet. She builds an invoice with the LLC's exact legal name at the top.

Then she sends one text to the homeowners: she is now operating as her new company, here is the link to book an estimate. Three people book that week. Each booking creates a record she can follow from estimate to invoice to payment. When a letter from the Ohio Department of Taxation arrives at our office later that month, it goes to her portal, not into any of this, and she gets a notification the same business day.

Nothing in that story needed a second subscription, and nothing in it mixed her customer data with her legal mail.

How are Business Tools kept separate from statutory agent records?

Your statutory agent documents, notifications, acknowledgments, and audit records live only in the client portal. None of that is ever written into the workspace. A summons, a tax notice, or a letter from the Secretary of State will never show up in a marketing tool, and nobody you add to the workspace gets a path to your legal mail.

The separation runs both ways. Closing or clearing out the workspace never touches your agent records, and nothing you do in the portal changes your contacts or campaigns. You open the workspace from the Business Tools page in the portal; the workspace has its own sign-in.

How do I get started with Ohio small business tools after forming?

A workable first week, in order:

1. Start agent service in the portal: create the account, add the business, e-sign the consent, and pay $49 by card.
2. Open the Business Tools page in the portal and follow it to your workspace.
3. Enter your business name, address, and phone as you want customers to see them.
4. Add the contacts you already have and tag them by type.
5. Set your available hours and share your booking link.
6. Build one invoice so it is ready the first time someone says yes.
7. Send one short announcement campaign to people who already know you.

Do not try to automate everything on day one. A clean contact list, a working booking link, and one invoice template cover most of what a new LLC needs in its first months. Add campaigns as you learn what your customers respond to.

Questions about access to the workspace go to us at (877) 908-6122, Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET. Questions about how a workspace feature works are answered by its built-in help center and by us.

What happens to Business Tools when you cancel?

Business Tools is billed monthly and you can cancel it any time from Billing; it ends at the end of the month you have paid for. Cancelling your agent plan doesn't cancel Business Tools automatically. Before that date, export or copy anything from the workspace you want to keep, such as your contact list and invoice records. After the period ends, the workspace is no longer available to you.

Your statutory agent appointment follows different rules. It stays active with the state until a new agent is on the record, and we keep accepting documents for you in the meantime. Documents already received remain available. So cancelling never leaves your entity without an agent, even though the workspace ends on schedule.

If you are cancelling because the business is closing, the entity still exists on the state record until a certificate of dissolution or cancellation is filed (state fee $50, ORC 111.16(N)). Our Dissolution and Cancellation service files it, and your agent service can be cancelled once the state records it. Plan the workspace export for the same stretch of time.