Practical guides for Chicago business owners, straight from the Lobi front desk.
A few times a month, somebody sits at our front desk with a formation checkout open and asks: do I actually need this? Here is what every add-on does, what is free elsewhere, and what renews.
Browse articles and guides about our space, business tips, local news, and practical help for building a business in Chicago.
This week a founder in the West Loop wrote with three precise questions about keeping her residential address off an Illinois LLC filing. Here is what each public address line asks for and how to answer it.
Sep 2026
Read articleRegistered Agent
Filing articles of incorporation in Illinois takes about twenty minutes. The form asks eight things, and one is a tax decision disguised as a paperwork question.
Registered Agent
Sep 2026
A bank, a lender or a landlord's attorney just asked for one, dated within the last 30 days. It costs $25 and prints in minutes, unless the state says no. This is about the unless.
Sep 2026
Read article
The search takes thirty seconds. Reading the record takes skill. What each field means, why the shop down the street returns nothing, and what to do when your own status line looks wrong.
Sep 2026
Read articleRegistered Agent
Plenty of Illinois companies killed by the Secretary of State were not failing. One report went unfiled, a notice went to an address nobody checks, and months later the state dissolved them. The filing costs $75.
Sep 2026
The document checklist banks do not publish: formation papers, operating agreement, EIN, IDs for every member, and an address that is not a P.O. Box.
Sep 2026
Read article
Illinois lets you serve as your own registered agent. Here is the nine-to-five requirement that makes most owners regret it, and the three cases where it is genuinely fine.
Sep 2026
Read articleRegistered Agent
Every Illinois LLC needs a registered agent. What one actually does, who qualifies, what it honestly costs, and why the agent and your business address should be the same building.
Registered Agent
Sep 2026
When the thing you are buying is the collateral, the math changes. Loan against lease, what approval hinges on, and when it beats a general loan.
Sep 2026
Read article
A card is the easiest credit to get and the easiest to misuse. When it is the right tool, what a personal guarantee means, and where it stops being cheap.
Sep 2026
Read articleFunding
Invoice factoring and merchant cash advances both turn future revenue into cash today. They are not the same product, and one is far more expensive.
Sep 2026
The cheapest money most small businesses can get is also the slowest. What 7(a) and 504 are for, what lenders ask for, and how to be ready.
Sep 2026
Read article
A lump sum and a revolving line solve different problems. How each is priced, what a factor rate really costs, and what daily payments do to cash flow.
Sep 2026
Read articleFunding
Five ways small businesses borrow, what each one costs in practice, and how to pick the one that matches the job the money has to do.
Funding
Sep 2026
You can license a Chicago business from a virtual office or coworking address, if your business type passes zoning. Who qualifies, who doesn't, and how BACP handles it.
Aug 2026
Read article
From a $0 phone setup to a $5,000 broadcast rig: what each budget really buys, and the tier where renting quietly beats owning.
Aug 2026
Read articleOffice Space
Anyone can launch a business podcast. Almost nobody survives past episode twenty. What 1,200+ studio projects taught us about the shows that last.
Aug 2026
Every service publishes a starting price. Almost none publish cost per minute at real volume, which changes the rankings completely.
Aug 2026
Read article
Most people meet this term when a bank declines their address. Here's what a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency actually is, written by one.
Aug 2026
Read articleBusiness Tips
We build AI front desk software and still pay humans to answer our phone. Where AI receptionists genuinely win, where they quietly cost you customers, and the rule we use.
Business Tips
Aug 2026
Banks, licensing departments and clients all check your address. Why mail drops get rejected, what a CMRA actually is, and what makes an address hold up.
Aug 2026
Read article
We've had a live receptionist greeting our members since 2019. What it costs, how Ruby and Davinci compare, and why we still won't hand the phone to AI.
Aug 2026
Read articleOffice Space
Downtown vacancy just fell for the first time in 15 quarters. Here is what rates really are, where the leverage lives, and the trap inside cheap Class B space.
Aug 2026
An honest guide to coworking space in Chicago, no paid placements. Real 2026 prices, the five questions to ask on every tour, and which spaces we'd send you to instead of us.
Aug 2026
Read article
What a Chicago podcast studio really costs by the hour, what separates a good room from a bad one, and how to pick without wasting a session.
Aug 2026
Read articleVirtual Office
Not whether you can use a virtual address for your LLC, but which ones the state, your bank, the IRS and Google will actually accept.
Virtual Office
Aug 2026
Complete USPS Form 1583 for your digital mailbox without delays: the two IDs you need, the notary step, and how to file it right the first time.
Aug 2026
Read article
Team Lobi Space climbed 1,632 steps of the John Hancock Center for the Respiratory Health Association. Here is what that says about a small Pilsen coworking room.
Feb 2026
Read articleComparisons
Six years on the Anytime Mailbox platform. They build the software; we are the staffed Chicago building.
Feb 2026
PostScan Mail is a national app network. Lobi Space is the staffed Chicago building. Here is how they differ.
Feb 2026
Read article
WeWork sells Loop desks. We sell the whole Chicago business address stack in Pilsen, with parking.
Feb 2026
Read articleComparisons
Regus runs multi-year global leases. We run one Chicago building with the price on the page.
Comparisons
Feb 2026
Industrious sells premium daily workspace. We sell a Chicago address, mail and paperwork in one place.
Jan 2026
Read article
Every LLC needs one. Here is what a registered agent actually does, what it costs, and why using your home address is a bad trade.
Dec 2025
Read articleVirtual Office
A commercial Chicago street address you can register an LLC with, open a bank account on, and verify a Google listing at, without leasing an office.
Nov 2025
LivePlan turns the blank-page business plan problem into a guided process. Here is what it costs now and who genuinely needs it.
Sep 2025
Read article
The four steps to forming an Illinois LLC, what each one costs in 2026, and the annual filing that catches people in year two.
Sep 2025
Read articleBusiness Tips
Blogify turns videos, podcasts and URLs into blog drafts. Here is what it does well, what still needs a human, and what it costs now.
Business Tips
Aug 2025
A Chicago nonprofit needed a second office without a long lease. Here is what they chose and why.
Aug 2025
Read article
Alliance Virtual Offices has been our partner since 2019. Here is what that means for members who need live reception.
Aug 2025
Read articleVirtual Office
Google is the strictest gatekeeper your business address will face. Here is what passes, what gets suspended, and how to fix a rejection.
Aug 2025
Furnished suites, all-in billing, meeting rooms, parking and 24/7 access: what an office at 1655 S Blue Island Ave actually includes.
Jul 2025
Read article
Most founders own a dozen tools and still do everything by hand. The fix is a smaller stack and three automations that actually hold.
Jul 2025
Read articleRegistered Agent
Incorporation, bylaws, your founding board, the 501(c)(3) application, and the annual filings that quietly decide whether your status survives.
Registered Agent
Jun 2025
What a PO Box costs in 2026, how the five sizes compare, and the one job a PO Box cannot do for your business.
Jun 2025
Read article
Hundreds of businesses run out of this building. Here is what the growing ones do differently, and the four myths the struggling ones share.
Jun 2025
Read articleNews
Houzz flew gear from California, hired a production team, and filmed real customers for a week. The room matters. The hosting matters more.
May 2025
How a virtual mailbox actually works, what separates a good provider from a mail drop, and the compliance step everyone has to clear.
May 2025
Read article
What LegalZoom actually costs in 2026, what the plans include, and the one recurring fee that catches most people after year one.
May 2025
Read articleBusiness Mailbox
The compliance side of a virtual mailbox: which IDs USPS accepts, why notarization is required, and the mistakes that get a mailbox shut down.
Business Mailbox
Apr 2025
The ID checks feel like bureaucracy until you understand what they prevent. How USPS compliance protects your mail, and the red flags of providers who skip it.
Mar 2025
Read article
A member's walkthrough: choosing a plan, picking your suite number, clearing Form 1583, and using scanning, forwarding, shredding and storage.
Jan 2025
Read articleNews
Serving Chicago founders since 2015. Here is every service under one roof, what each one is for, and how to choose between them.
Dec 2024
Pick a plan online, notarize Form 1583 with us, and start receiving mail the same day.
