West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office Launches New Online “Business Startup Wizard”

There is a new online tool now available through the West Virginia One Stop Business Center that aims to simplify the business registration process in West Virginia. The tool is referred to as the “Business Startup Wizard” and can be accessed at https://business4.wv.gov.

The new, interactive Business Startup Wizard provides information and guidance to assist with the planning and registration process in order to efficiently and successfully get a business up and running in West Virginia.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners alike to register to do business in West Virginia,” said Secretary of State Mac Warner. “The One Stop Business Center, our new user-friendly website and online tools like the Startup Wizard are important to making that happen.”

Warner credits the legislature for supporting his Office’s initiatives and for providing the funding necessary to add and make improvements.

“The members of the Senate and House of Delegates understand how important the registration process is to encourage entrepreneurship and business development throughout the state. They also understand the need to keep our technology updated and to provide our citizens with user-friendly online tools.”

The new Business Startup Wizard features an easy to follow step by step interview-like process and prompts the user to answer a series of questions. At the completion of the questionnaire the tool generates a report with guidance and detailed information based on the answers to the questions. Additionally, the generated report can be saved or printed and can even be emailed to the user for later reference. Topics of information presented on the generated report include:

• Business structure guidance;
• Step by step information for starting and opening your business;
• Important county and city contact information;
• Additional licensing & special registration requirements;
• Business tax information;
• Business insurance information; and
• Employee verification information.

"The business registration process can be daunting when you do not know where to start,” said Penney Barker, Business & Licensing Director for the WV Secretary of State’s Office. “We designed this tool to help remove the complexity and unknowns and to provide guidance on not only where to start but how to efficiently complete the business registration process in West Virginia. The Startup Business Wizard is another example of our ongoing efforts to provide the very best possible service for the business community.”

The West Virginia One Stop Business Center website is the result of a multi-agency collaboration between the West Virginia Secretary of State, WorkForce West Virginia, the West Virginia State Tax Department, and the West Virginia Division of Labor. For more information about the West Virginia One Stop Business Portal or to access the new business startup wizard tool, visit https://business4.wv.gov.

The new Business Startup Wizard tool was developed and created by the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office in partnership with WV.gov.

About WV.gov

WV.gov is the official website of the state of West Virginia (http://www.wv.gov) and is the result of an innovative public-private partnership between the state and West Virginia Interactive. West Virginia Interactive works with state and local government agencies to build and manage interactive online services and is a subsidiary of digital government firm NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV).

About NIC

NIC Inc. (Nasdaq: EGOV) is the nation’s premier provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government interactions more accessible for everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies has developed a library of more than 13,000 digital government services for more than 6,000 federal, state, and local government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking personal assistant for government, Gov2Go, delivering citizens personalized reminders and a single platform for all government interactions. More information is available at www.egov.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190213005518/en/