The Document Nobody Reads — Until Everything Goes Wrong
Your operating agreement is your business’s rulebook. Make sure it has rules.
Here’s a story that plays out constantly. Two friends start a business, shake hands on 50/50, skip the operating agreement, and get to work. Then one wants to sell. The other doesn’t. Or one stops showing up. Without an agreement, you’re in court — and in Illinois, the judge applies the state’s default LLC rules: equal profit distribution regardless of who does the work, equal voting rights regardless of who put in capital. Those defaults might be fine for your situation. They might be catastrophic. Without an agreement, you don’t get to choose.
An operating agreement is how you choose. You choose who gets paid what, how decisions get made, what happens when someone wants out. Corp Nation includes a customized operating agreement template with every LLC Starter Package, drafted to Illinois standards. Banks require it before opening a business account. The SBA wants it for loans. Enterprise clients expect it before signing contracts. It’s not just legal protection — it’s credibility. It signals you’re running a real, well-organized business and not just a name on a state filing.
Even single-member LLC owners need an operating agreement. Courts have used the absence of one as evidence that an LLC wasn’t truly separate from its owner — which destroys the liability protection. You’re building something real. Give it a real rulebook.