Or do you do it periodically or have an employee do it?

A California LLC must file and pay the minimum $800 LLC fee only any one of the following apply:The LLC is doing business in California (this definition includes if property is located in CA, or if employees are being paid in CA),The LLC is organized in California,The LLC is organized in another state, but registered with the CA SOS, orThe LLC has income from California sourcesIf the owner of the LLC lives in California, he/she will have to pay CA income taxes on the income from the LLC even if the LLC is not organized or doing business in CA, but the LLC as a separate entity is not required to file a CA return unless it falls under one of the above.However, and this may be what David is referring to, if the owner or any other members of the LLC conduct business on behalf of the LLC in California, then the LLC is determined to be "doing business" in California and therefore is required to file and pay the LLC fee.

I know this because my brothers and I run a sawmill, about 8 or 9 of our 26 full time employees are laborers making 10/hr.

It would be great if they could start paying employees more competitive salaries and have less staff turn-over.

@Sam Van Horebeek  My largest investor is from Singapore.. they have a 20,000 employees in china Singapore Viet nam Malaysia .. and most of their products are sold to US companies.. they build precision parts..

We only have one employee and one independent contractor that we pay on a regular basis, so we're looking for something inexpensive, but something we can grow with for at least 5-10 employees.

This would be the partnership model.If I decided to take on "foot soldiers" then it would be more like finding employees.  

Flipping and development in the real estate realm work.The business must be a C Corporation, and it can be funded via a Employee Stock Option Purchase through the company's 401(k) plan.  

1 of us is self employed with no tax returns, and the other is a W2 employee with 2 years tax returns.

I've picked up on some threads that say:PenFedTD BankBOA(Local Bank)Wells FargoUnion BankUS BankBoeing Employee Credit UnionGTE Financial Credit UnionBank of the westFirst American BankFirst Midwest BankUnion BankRedwood Credit UnionSome not if Florida some not in second position but worth a look at the list :)