Jump Start Micro-Enterprise Credential: Company Registration Teacher Guide
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION: December 22, 2015)
Small businesses need to complete a series of forms during their start-up phase. These forms inform government
agencies at every level (Federal, state and local) about the name of the business and its organizational structure,
enabling these government agencies to make sure the new company complies with all applicable laws and pays all
applicable taxes.
Entrepreneurs can find it daunting to try to determine which government agencies to contact and which forms to
complete.
That’s why the Louisiana Secretary of State created the geauxBIZ website that integrates the business filing
requirements of different Louisiana state and local agencies. The geauxBIZ website is a “one stop portal” that
streamlines the paperwork requirements of a start-up, making the process of establishing a new business more intuitive
and less intimidating.
This Teacher Guide provides an overview of the form completion processes students will be required to complete their
submission to the geauxBIZ student portal and receive their saved documents pdf from that portal.
This Teacher Guide will also provide you with a way to evaluate the forms that students complete and submit to you
after they complete their geauxBIZ student portal submission.
Task Instructions
You should assign a team of three or four students the task of registering their company through the geauxBIZ student
portal. Your instructions to them should be:
“Your team must register a fictional company on the geauxBIZ web portal. You can use the name and
business purpose of one of the companies you created to complete your credit applications. For the
purposes of this exercise, please assume your company is a limited liability corporation or LLC.
Please go to http://student.geauxbix.com to start this process. You will create a business license checklist
that you should print out and submit to me.
Then, when your team successfully registers your company and can download a pdf of your completed
forms, please have the geauxBIZ student portal system send it to me via email. I will then provide you with
the final tasks your team will need complete to successfully register your new company with all of the
relevant government agencies.
You will receive no other instructions. You are allowed to confer with your team members and with other
teams. Good luck!”
This establishes a “self-organized learning environment” (SOLE) that tests the students’ ability to organize themselves
and determine how they can proceed.
We are confident that the vast majority of students will be able to complete this straightforward task on their own. The
materials in this Teacher Guide will help you steer any groups that encounter problems.
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Jump Start Micro-Enterprise Credential
Company Registration Teacher Guide
Process for Students to Use the geauxBIZ Student Portal
Student teams should go to http:/student.geauxBIZ.com to initiate their registration process. The instructions this site
will give are intuitive. Student teams that have a problem following the instructions should persist through trial and
error. It is entirely permissible for them to consult with teams that have successfully completed their geauxBIZ
registration tasks, just as adults can ask other adults in the real world for help on a task their friends may have
successfully completed in the past.
Students will complete the following forms on the geauxBIZ student portal:
Form Completed on geauxBIZ Portal
Action that Student Teams Need to Take
Create Business License Checklist
Print out and provide paper copy to teacher
Complete a Name Reservation / Receive Alert Message
Print out Alert Message and provide copy to teacher
Complete three forms as guided by the system:
1) Fictional Articles of Incorporation
2) Fictional Articles of Organization
3) Fictional Reservation of Corporate Name
Instruct the system to send a pdf of the successfully
completed forms to the teacher’s email address
Once your students have completed this task – and delivered to you the print outs and pdf indicated in the table above –
then please help the student teams complete the final two tasks.
Process for Students to Complete the SS-4 and Louisiana 6906-A Forms
Attached is a blank SS-4 form. You will ask the student teams to complete this form for their fictional company.
Your job is simply to make sure that student teams complete each of the 18 required elements in the form and then sign
the form. You can use the FAQs below to answer any questions your students may have about this form.
After students complete the SS-4, you should assign them a nine digit fictional Federal Employer Identification Number
(also called an FEIN or FEI Number). The format of that number should be: 00-0000000. Any nine digit number will do.
When you assign your student teams their FEIN, please also provide them with the Louisiana 6906-A form. Sutdent
teams should complete this form and hand it into you as their final company registration component. Students should
use as their “Louisiana Charter Number” the following: [question for Carla and team – what is a Louisiana charter
number?].
Final Thoughts
Your students may ask: “This task seems so straightforward. Why is this part of the Micro-Enterprise Credential?”
Two reasons. First: because “heaven is in the details” when filling out forms. This exercise gives students hands-on
experience in filling out forms that they may later need to complete and submit as small business employees or owners.
Second: going to the Secretary of State geauxBIZ portal and completing an actual Federal tax form will demystify this
process for students. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs are intimidated by the paperwork requirements
imposed on small business. This component of the Micro-Enterprise Credential will help students overcome any anxiety
they may feel about accessing government agencies and completing government forms.
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Jump Start Micro-Enterprise Credential
Company Registration Teacher Guide
FAQs - geauxBIZ student portal
Q1
How do students log-in to the geauxBIZ student portal?
A1
Students need to use the link: http://student.geauxbiz.com From that point on the system should be intuitive for
students to use.
Q2
What address should students use for their fictional business?
A2
Students should use one of the addresses they used for their business when applying for their bank loan. Students
should not use their actual home addresses for reasons of privacy.
Q3
What are “Other provisions” in question 3 of the Fictional Articles of Incorporation?
A3
Carla and team?
Q4
What are “Other provisions” in question 3 of the Fictional Articles of Organization?
A4
Carla and team?
Q5
What should students use in response to the question on the Fictional Name Reservation: “Said name is
requested to be reserved on behalf of _______________”
A5
Carla and team?
FAQs – SS-4 Form
Q6
What is the proper way for a company to complete line 3?
A6
Businesses may leave this item blank.
Q7
Who should students indicate is the “responsible party” for line 7a?
A7
Student teams can and should use any name they want. Encourage students not to use actual student-identifying
data for this exercise.
Q8
Are there “correct” answers for questions like line 12 that asks for closing month of accounting year or line 13 that
asks for number of future employees?
A8
Student teams may input any data that “makes sense” in these lines. There are no specific “right answers.”
FAQs – Louisiana 6906-A Corporate Franchise Tax Initial Form
Q9
What is a “Louisiana charter number” and how do new businesses obtain this number?
A9
Carla and team?
Q10 What is a “registered agent”?
A10 According to the geauxBIZ website: All business registrations with the Secretary of State require, by law, an agent with a
physical address in Louisiana. An agent, or as it is sometimes called, registered agent, can be almost anyone of legal age
and a legal resident of Louisiana. An agent is someone that is designated to receive legal documents served on the
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Jump Start Micro-Enterprise Credential
Company Registration Teacher Guide
business in the event of administrative or legal action. An agent has an obligation to forward the “legal documents” to the
business.
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