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Any downsides to that approach?
2) Either learn basic accounting (if you don't already) and keep excellent records of all revenue and expenses business-related (ideally categorized into standard business categories) or find a CPA to keep your records straight monthly. A huge number of people get burned simply because they didn't keep proper records and then ran into tax or regulatory trouble later.
3) Definitely keep your business finances as separate from your personal funds as possible. Different checking account, different credit card, etc.
4) Think really hard before you hire anyone for anything, and if you do, make sure you're either doing 1099 correctly or get a professional to help with W2 stuff. Again, this is something that often comes back to bite people.
And lastly, remember that most businesses fail and that failing at business is not something to be ashamed of. If it's not working out, don't make yourself miserable and mortgage your future to try and save it indefinitely - walk away and try again with the lessons you learned.
Single member LLC wasn’t as hard as I thought to setup. 100 bucks online in Oregon, near instant approval too. Make sure you sign up with the IRS for an EIN. Signed up for Azlo just recently after keeping money in my personal, no big deal just makes taxes a little harder. Make sure you keep records of everything. Get yourself a good receipt scanner that does OCR, like neat. Keep the physicals around too. I’m not both…
That actually is a big deal.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/personal-liability-p...
Commingling assets. Small business owners may be more likely than their larger counterparts to commingle their personal assets with those of the corporation or LLC. For example, some small business owners divert corporate assets for their own personal use by writing a check from the company account to make a payment on a personal mortgage -- or by depositing a check made payable to the corporation into the owner's personal bank account. This is called "commingling of assets." To avoid trouble, the corporation should maintain its own bank account and the owner should never use the company account for personal use or deposit checks payable to the company in a personal account.
Add to your list to research corporate structures because LLCs are not always the best choice. A lot of people assume LLC is right for them based on advice from friends, but it’s something to think through.
One lead-in question: are you in the USA? If not, most advice is going to be fraught as hell. Assuming you are: this is a well-paved path these days. A few things as they come to mind (and, disclaimer, I am not an expert, I've just done this before): - Any advice you read here, including mine, should be immediately superceded by that of your tax professional or your lawyer. If you do not have a tax professional, I st…
1) Doing taxes correctly as anything other than a sole proprietorship is a huge pain in the ass, especially if you're selling things across state borders, and doubly so if you're in California. I recommend finding a tax professional to handle that for you (the time it takes to do it yourself is generally not worth it). Also don't forget that if you're actually making money you'll need to pay estimated taxes quarterly…
Pariss is also talking about LLC on Twitter you might want to follow her
I hate how this information is so spread out so I will try to condense this: (1) Register your domain name and setup email (GSuite is simple enough). I put this first, because it is nice to have all the business communications actually going to the business email, so you don't start intermixing with your personal email. (2) Next, I'd recommend hiring a local lawyer for the LLC filing and paperwork, not because you ca…