Do You Need an LLC for Your Freelance Writing Business?
Short answer: it depends. Long answer: that's why we're doing this livestream this week! Creating an LLC for your freelance writing business can be a crucial step, but when do you take it, what's involved, how do you do it the smart way, and are there specific goals within your business to hit before creating one?
We'll also go over how creating an LLC help with things like business bank accounts, business insurance, and legal matters. If you've been on the fence about creating an LLC or want to know more about how your LLC affects your freelance biz, come hang out on Friday!
LLC Creation:
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Freelance Writer Business Insurance:
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Do You Need an LLC for Your Freelance Writing Business?
Is it necessary to have an LLC as a freelance writer? So is that something that you have to have in order to become a freelance writer? So the short answer is it depends slash no , and the long answer is why we're doing this topic today. Hey Holly, welcome. And we had to wrangle a whole bunch of pets today, so I had to wrangle these guys.
Oops, there they. said pets that were wrangled. So we had to do a lot of pet wrangling today, . So now that I got my pets wrangled, let's get into it. So when we're thinking about LLCs, we're thinking about, Hey Getty, welcome. We're thinking about actually filing, like we're setting it up, we're going through all of the steps, um, and we're gonna go through kind of what that means and what's the point of it.
1) When do you create an LLC as a freelance writer? What's involved and what do you need to know?
So the first thing that we're gonna talk about, So when we're thinking about an L L C, you can start a freelance writing business without an llc. You don't need an llc, um, limited liability company, right? Lll c um, to start your freelance writing business. Basically, what you're gonna end up doing is as your business grows, you can create an l llc.
And I didn't have an LLC for like, More than half of my business. Hey Fedra. Um, so I didn't have an LLC for like more than half of my business, um, which I wish I had created it sooner, but it's also something that I feel like if you're trying freelance writing out and you're trying to see if it's working for you and you're figuring out like, is this my right next step?
Do I like working with clients? Do I like operating a freelance writing business? Is this something I like? I don't feel like you need to create an LLC immediate. . So there's times where like there's people who are just, um, doing it on the side, like there's something that they just wanna try it out that I don't think you need to create an L L C like immediately.
So with your L L C, what you're gonna be getting is, um, I like Northwest Registered Agent, so when I, um, created my llc, like there's, you can create an LLC by going to your like comptroller's website. Um, I forget what it is, but there's a whole bunch of LLC things that are within your state because LLC rules are different.
Um, in every state. In some states you have to have certain permits and there's other things that go on. So for me, I just use Northwest Registered Agent and I can link to them below. Um, but when you're creating this llc, you're creating the LLC itself and your e i n, right? So your employer identification number e I.
And for me that was really easy with Northwest Registered Agent rather than going through all of the different like state websites that had these very outdated forms that were really confusing to me. And like Northwest Registered Agent is like, I don't know if they're in all 50 states, but it's pretty close.
So that made it a lot easier. And when I was starting out, like if I'm just trying freelance writing and just seeing how things. Um, I, I wouldn't create an LLC yet until you're fully ready to be like, yeah, this is a business I wanna run. So, especially if you're working with magazines and stuff, like, you're gonna be submitting a lot of W nine s and you're going to be, um, working on a smaller basis, like a smaller number of assignments.
And your LLC is gonna protect you legally from a whole bunch of stuff. Like it's gonna, um, help with actually showing you're a business, it's gonna help you set up business bank. Um, it's going to, um, allow you to have protection and it's allow you to separate your personal and business finances. Like there's a lot of benefits to an L L C and I think if you're actually running a business, it's useful.
Oh, and I should also mention like, I'm not a lawyer, , I'm not a tax person. Like I'm just a freelance writer giving advice. So, so saying that, um, When you're, when I feel like there's times when I've seen freelance writers like immediately create an LLC and just like start their business and then they have to dissolve it and they have to go through all of these annoying things to dissolve it, and they have to go through all this stuff when they shut it down.
So I feel like there's a period of time where if you're trying things out, you don't need an llc and you. try things out. Um, the other thing is like, if you're just trying things out, usually you're working on things that are super small. So you're working on things that are, um, not gonna be like something that someone would like , you know, sue you over, or be something that would be super serious.
So a lot of times when we're thinking about LLC protection or LLC things, Um, would come into play, right? Like those are serious things. Like what the times when you see freelance writers need to enact their llc or they need legal protection is like when they're doing investigative journalism or they're like exposing someone in the news or like it's some kind of big thing that pops up.
And that isn't very common for us as freelance writers. Like there is a small subset of freelance writers that do that type of work where the L L C is like, they have very high coverage. They do a lot of stuff where someone would sue them. Um, but most of the time in our work, like our stuff would be handled between us and the client and we would either give the client a refund if that was applicable, um, or we would just like handle it that way rather than like going to court.
So a lot of times when we're starting out, we'd be working on smaller projects and the likelihood that something would happen is very small. If you're someone who's really concerned about that or you've. Legal issues in the past or there's some kind of thing where you just are very paranoid or, or concerned or, um, overworked about it, then start the LLC from the very beginning.
It's better to have the peace of mind than to like tr trouble over all the little things. So my opinion is you don't need it. If you're trying it out and you're seeing how freelance writing goes and you're working with a few magazines and working on a few small assignments, seeing how things are and seeing if you actually like it, and then you can create the ll.
If you're really serious about it and you're like, I wanna be a freelance writer, I'm down. Let's do this. Create the llc. So, um, one more thing I wanted to say in this category is, we're, um, we are thinking about, uh, two parts of creating our llc. So that means the LLC itself, right? Our actual business and our e i n.
So instead of using your s s n, your social security number, now you can use your e i n, your employer identification number on all your W nine s and all of your tax stuff so that you're not sharing your social security number to all of your clients. You're only sharing your e. , this is really important and it's an add-on.
So you create your llc, then you add on like in, you add on a service, right? You say, I also need this thing, your e i n. So those things go together. Your LLC is then gonna be giving you paperwork so that you can open business bank accounts or business credit cards if you wanted to do that. You definitely need business bank accounts, so that's really important.
And then, like I said, like your LLC is also gonna help you with legal protection and your LLC is also gonna help you with stuff like business insurance, which we're gonna go over a little bit later. So your LLC will like, help you get business insurance. It'll be an extra layer of protection with that.
And then you also have like the capacity to ha finally separate your, um, your personal finances and your business finances in different things, different banks, um, bank accounts, and then, um, . And then you're able to actually like, have full separation in a business. You're able to give out your e i n on W nine s.
Your W nine is just how you get a 10 99 for taxes. So you submit a W nine to your client and when tax season comes, you get a 10 99. There's like a billion different 10 99. Uh, it's not just a 10 99. It could be like a 10 99. Miss M I S C, miscellaneous. Or a 10 99 neck n e c or a 10 99 K or a 10 99. There's like a ton of them, but you're gonna be submitting these forms.
2) What goals do you have for your freelance writing business and LLC?
So our LLC is providing a lot of different things and our e I N is providing a bunch of different things. So that's part number one. Part number two, and first we're gonna check on them. So it's lick clock. Luckily, everybody's being snugly. So number two. We're gonna talk about specific goals in our business to hit before we create one.
So, like I said, number one, if you're not sure about freelance writing, work on some small things. Work on some small projects. See if you like the process. Because a lot of people, like I've seen people rush into creating LLCs before and then they have to dissolve them and they have to like, you know, it's like it, it can be a big pain when you're like randomly starting a business and then un starting a business, right?
And ending. So try it out a little bit, see how it goes, and then if you feel like that's something that works for you, do it. Two, if you're very nervous about like doing freelance work or you've had some legal issues, or there's something that you feel like you need to have the protection of the L L C, or you need to have the L L C immediately, just create it.
If that helps you have less anxiety or less worry about the business process, just do it. Get your e i n. So for me, I feel like I started my LLC too late and a lot of times, like there are, um, like certain numbers, I forget what it is. Um, I remember someone one time telling me like, if you made under 50 K as a freelance writer, you didn't need an llc.
It just wasn't enough money. Um, and something to keep in mind is that like a lot of times people know that like freelance writers aren't swimming in millions of dollars, right? So if we were to go to court, a lot of times when writers end up going to court, it's like, you know, people who have made a ton of money like JK Rowling or, um, people who are associated with a big publication that has mi millions of dollars where they're not personally suing the writer or they personally sue the writer and the public.
Because a lot of times if they're suing just the writer, like most of the time, like even if we're a six figure writer, they're not gonna get huge payday from that, right? So think about like the odds of that and also think about how much money you're making. So even if you're making a small amount of money, I think that for me, I wish I had started my LLC when I realized like this was more of a serious, like this was really gonna be a thing.
I wish I had started it like maybe a year after I started freelance writing when I actually went full-time. So I was freelance writing and doing that on the side for like almost I, like a year, like almost a year and a half before I left my full-time job in P became a full-time freelancer and I wish that I had started my llc.
So think about how you're gonna separate that out. Like do you wanna start your L L C when you leave a full-time job? Do you wanna start your L L C from the very beginning? Um, do you want the protection or benefits of an L L C or do you always wanna use an e i n? Are there, sorry, are there certain things that, hi.
Hello, hello? Sleep. , are there certain things that you wanna think that you want in terms of money protection or that you want in terms of separating things with your business bank accounts? There's a whole bunch of things to think about in terms of goals for your business and how you actually want that LLC to like provide that.
And like I said, I'm not a lawyer and our an attorney or a tax person or cpa. So if you have more questions about that stuff, I would ask someone who. Yes. Hello. I hear you making noise. Go back to your hava hole. I would ask them about that. I would go find a CPA who works with freelance writers or creative businesses.
I would talk to an attorney about this stuff. Um, because I'm giving you my own experience. I'm giving you like things that I know about it, but like obviously I don't have as deep of knowledge as they do. Go back to your HaBO hole. So I think for me the goal is like, how serious are you about it? And not necessarily a, a number of dollars per se.
Good girl. Wow, Barry, you really raked that all over the place. You really, you like raked it all the way under your body. Here you go buddy. Good job. Oh, nice and gentle. What a soft bug. You need a high five. Good job. Other one? Other one. Other one. Good job there you. Good job, everybody. Um, let's see. Uh, there's also the, the goal of like, where are you taking your business?
So if you really wanna take your business into, um, investigative journalism or you feel like you're gonna be. Working on a lot of like difficult topics or things that are sensitive or interviewing people like, like let's say you worked at a paper or you worked at a magazine where you did a lot of investigative stuff, or you dug up a lot of things that people don't want dug up.
Then I would get an LLC from the very beginning because. You all, you are moving from being on staff to being on your own. And, uh, you could still work for that paper or you could still work for that magazine. And it's really important to have that extra protection if you feel like that's what you're gonna be doing.
Um, the other thing is that I've had students who get an L L C immediately, like they haven't earned any dollars yet, but they get an LLC because it just allows them to feel like they're a business. They feel like they're actually being serious about freelance. And it gives them more of like freedom to try things cuz they're like, well I have a business.
Like I actually have to do something now. So if you're the type of person who feels like you need something like that, like you need, um, not permission, but you need something that's actually serious, you're like, I'm taking this seriously, and you feel like that's gonna help you move forward in your business and move forward with freelance writing.
Um, the cost of the LLC depends on your state. So like, I think I remember looking back a long time ago and Delaware is like the cheapest place to create an LLC in like California and Washington I think are the most expensive. Or Washington. Yeah, California and Washington I think are the two most expensive.
I will, I know you're upset cuz he's raking over there. Barry, do you need help? You raking around? All right, hold on.
Don't you lay down buddy. I'm lay. I know you've kind of raked yourself into a corner there. You've raked yourself into like a weird clump. There you go, buddy. Good job. Put a gentle beast. Can you go back to your hollow hole? Thank you. Good job. You look great today. You look super. You look super. Good job everybody.
Hey. . Good job. Good job. So I would take that into consideration is the cost and your state. And like, um, one of, I remember, um, one of my students in California said, there's like permits or something that you have to do for your llc. So I don't remember if that's still the case, but, um, look around in your state and see what's required as well.
So when you're thinking. Setting it up, like how much money does it cost? Do you have that money? It's a renewal thing too. Like I renew, um, my Northwest registered agent stuff every year to manage. They are the registered agent of my L L C. Um, so that's something that you also have to pay for, is that you have to pay for someone to be your registered agent.
Um, hi Wu. We'll go back to your Haun hole, you're ish today. Do you wanna come up here and say hello? Do you wanna come say hello? Oh my gosh, you're so funny. So you just go to position two, you just like put your whole butt on the ground. Ugh. Okay. Yeah. Look up costs in your state, look up costs or look up permits or look up what you need to create an L l C.
Go back to your, have a hole. Oh, we almost took the whole operation down there, Minnie. Um, and see if that's worth it to you. Like there's a lot of times too where I talk to freelance writers and they're like, I have no money. and uh, and I'm like, all right, so go out, figure out if this is right for you.
Figure, figure out if freelance writing is right for you, then you can save some money and create the llc. Right? The other thing too is that, um, this is one of the reasons why I think it's important to keep your full-time job so that you can set this kind of stuff up and you have money coming in and you have your business actually set up so that when you leave your full-time job, you can just scale things up and it's a lot
You can hear them grumbling of. . Woo. We'll go back to your huddle. Um, I think that stuff kind of helps you give, like stability to your business. If you're setting these things up and you have money coming in already from either your business or from, um, like your clients or from your full-time job, I think that helps much.
All right, so that's two. If you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up if you wanna learn more about building a freelance writing business that you adore. S. Okay, let's talk about three. Go back to your hava hole. . I wanna like, there's gotta be a count sometimes where like how many times I say go back to your hava hole?
Sometimes I like, one of the reasons we were talking about this in the beginning is like wrangling them sometimes is a thing. Like for example here, so let me go back. So today Barry was asleep. Like I thought he wasn't gonna be here until like at the live stream at. because he was still sleeping. Okay.
He's almost 16 and a half . He's almost 16 and a half years old. He's a giant dog. He's 60 pounds ish. Uh, and he's lived like longer than any dog I've ever owned. And, um, . And he was sleeping, so I was like, okay, he's not gonna be here. But then eventually, like, right when we're gonna go on, come on here, he's like, I'm gonna wake up and I wanna be part of everything and I need my blanket and I need my support.
and I need all my stuff. And so then you have to get him ready. And Charlotte's in here and she's like, I would like a blanket too. And it's always like a little adventure with them sometimes. So sometimes there's a lot of pup maintenance, there's a lot of pup stuff that has to be done, right. Is that true?
Is that true? Is that what you would say? Hmm? You guys are like, we just want snacks. You're like, we just want you to give us some snacks. All right. I'll give you a little more snacks. And then we gotta. Get back to our topic here. Snack for you. All right, Charlotte, can you do a round for everybody? Yeah. I know you can do high five.
Can you do a round? A round? A round? Come on, Charlotte, around. Come on. . Charlotte around. No. Come on around. You can do it. You did it last week around. I know you just wanted to give 'em a high five. You're super cute. . Char around around. You can do it. . All right, Charlotte. Alright, maybe not right now. She's like, no, I just want that snack.
She's like, put it in my little jolly, oh, where are you going? Go back to your haa hole, you sass. She's like, immediately gets up and she's like, all right, this is where we're going. It's cuz Beau is encroaching on her space. See how far away she sits? She's like really likes to have her own little area.
3) How does your freelancer LLC affect your business bank account, business insurance, and legal?
She's a very independent dog and she doesn't like it when Bo's like all up in her space. Okay, let's talk about three. Let's talk about number three here. So when we're creating our llc, let's talk about all the things I mentioned before, business bank accounts. Let's talk about, sorry, business insurance and legal stuff.
So again, not a lawyer, not an attorney, not a tax person, c p a, giving you advice for my own experience. Okay. So when we're creating our llc, this is, um, giving us the. Paperwork and the authority to create a business bank account. So this helps us separate our personal and business finances, that if something were to go wrong, um, your only your business finances under your LLC can be seized or like attacked, um, versus your personal finances.
So that's really important. We wanna make sure we separate those. We also wanna separate them just for, um, you know, actually having separation for taxes. other stuff with the government. Um, and it shows that we're a real business. So there's a lot of times where, um, freelance writers don't do a good job of showing their freelance stuff and then they get audited , um, because they're not separating things out, like they're not doing a good job of tracking everything and we don't wanna get audited, so we wanna make sure things are separate.
FA says. You're bringing up some important things. I've been on the fence about starting an L L C for a while, and this is very helpful. Sometimes I think starting an LLC would help my mindset. Yeah, that's something to think about is will it help you, um, move forward in your business? And I is if the cost isn't that, like, if it's, you know, I think here in Texas, like Fedra, you know, Fedra and I, um, here in Texas, I think, um, it, it was like, 350 bucks plus the e i n fee, which I forget what that is right now, but that was like, wasn't a ton.
So like, let's say it's like 500 bucks to set up your L L C. If you have the money and you feel like it's gonna help you take your business seriously, or it's gonna relieve some stress, or you're gonna be like, Hey, I have a real thing now. Like I can move forward. Like, and you feel like that's something where you're gonna continue in your freelance business, whether you're doing freelance writing, content strategy, brand messaging, messaging and positioning, marketing consult.
Um, founder and startup consultation cause I know Fedra and I work for similar clients. Um, that kind of stuff can really help you just move forward. And then now you're able to do what we're talking about now, which is start your business bank accounts, get everything set up, um, have your, um, papers so that you can get business insurance, which I didn't have for a long time.
And I had to get business insurance for a. So, um, there's actually a couple different places that offer business insurance. Um, and I can't remember them off the top of my head. So mine are through, like, I got business insurance through Insur, and then my policies are through The Hartford and Philadelphia.
But there's a whole bunch of new startups and new places that are popping up with, uh, business insurance, like general liability and E N O, which is errors in o. For freelance writers. Specifically for freelance writers. So years ago when I was getting mine, so like seven years ago, when did I get it? Six years.
No, five years ago-ish. You're wooey today. Why are you so wooey? What's going on? Go back to your hava hole. So when I got business insurance about five years ago, I had to get it. Like I had to explain that. I was like, I forget what they put me. on the form, but, um, there, it was like a whole thing. It took forever for me to get a policy because everyone's like, we don't ensure freelance writers, like, we only ensure people who work at like, uh, newspapers full-time, or like, we, your authors, or like, whatever.
Like they didn't, there was no content marketing, content writing. Like every time I called a different company, they were like, Nope, we're not gonna do that. So now there's a lot more options. Like there's a lot more content creators, like people on TikTok or Instagram or whatever, um, or people on YouTube who need to secure and save that content.
There's more freelance writers, there's more people who work in our industry. Um, and there's a bunch of stats too about like, like whatever it was like 40 to 60% of the workforce is gonna be freelance within the next like 10 years or so. Um, so there's a lot more opportunities now. So I used insur, but there's, um, I forget what it, I'll go look it up.
I had a student who got a policy, um, that I'm thinking about switching to them from what I have. Um, so I'll, I'll put that in the description below. But there's a bunch of different places that you can go to to get these types of policies. For business insurance and you're looking for general liability, which is like if someone, you know, general, like just think about general liability in the case of like all the liabilities, right?
Like if someone trips and falls on your property or if something weird happens or whatever. E n O is actually the important part for us. The errors in omissions, so like this is. This is the policy that covers things like you misquoted someone or it's libel, right. Or, um, it's like defamation or like actual stuff that pertains to our content writing,
uh, in Shion. So I'll put it in the chat. It's, but Fedra. Um, Fedra. We Vesna and a few other students have gone through other places and I shared some things in the community. So Fedra is one of my students, one of my freelance writer Wealth Lab students. Um, and Fedra, if you go into our community, in our freelance writer, wealth Lab community, um, and search for business insurance.
Vena and I shared a couple of other companies that are not in Shion, um, that I'll link to in this video, but if you go in there and look for them, those are other options that are. More cost effective and they actually cover more things that we do as a freelance writer. So I would look that up. Oh, the company for my llc, that was, um, this northwest registered agent.
Good. It would help if I could spell. There we go. Northwest Registered Agent is the one that I put in to, um, start my LLC and Fedra. You have a link to that. So within, I think it's module six or module seven, within Freelance Writer Wealth Lab, you have a link to Northwest registered agent in the teachable course material, go back to your ho Holy sas.
Or I'm or I'm gonna share you with everybody. Come here, ham. Come here. Ham. Come on. Oh my goodness. Go back to your ha hole, go back to your hale hole. Um, so that's business insurance. So you want both a general liability policy and you want e n o errors and omissions. There you go, buddy. Um, and those things are later in the process if you choose, or they can be earlier in the process.
But having an LLC. can help you get those policies and it can also help give you extra protection. So your business insurance, your L L C, are giving you extra financial and legal protection. Um, and it's also like I've had a couple clients like ask, like one my first, I had a client, like I said, five years ago or so, who was like, you need to have business insurance.
And I was like, okay. Um, and then now I've had a couple clients since then who are like, yeah, do you have business insurance? And I'm like, yep. Um, where'd you go? There you are. Um, so think about that, like, think about, um, Where you kind of wanna combine your LLC and where you, if you really want business insurance, if you're gonna be a freelance writer for the long term, like, you're like, this is the thing I wanna do, this is how I wanna make money.
This is like, I, I wanna, you know, um, whatever your financial goals are, whether you wanna make an extra 20 or 30 K for your family, or you wanna make over six figures, um, if you really are taking your business seriously, I definitely recommend getting business. Um, sooner rather than later. Like, I didn't even know it was a thing.
Like when my client asked me about it, I was like, I don't know anyone who has business insurance. Then it turned out I went in back and asked a couple of my friends who were, uh, like a few years, like further in the process of a business than I was, and they were like, oh yeah, I have business insurance through this thing, and it was really hard to get.
And I said I was a consultant, or I said I was an author versus a freelance writer. And I'm like, okay. So your business bank account is number one that's gonna help you with, by having your llc, you have a piece of paper that you take to the bank and you're like, I have an llc. I can get a business bank account.
Two is your business insurance, your general liability, and your e n O, your errors and omissions, e n o. Um, there might be another policy in there that you have to get. It depends on like how they separate out liabilities and Arizona emissions and. Um, and then the other thing is that your LLC is pro protecting you in legal matters, right?
So like someone can sue your llc. Um, and that doesn't, you know, it's, you've already separated your business and personal assets, so that helps with anything that legal that comes up. Oh, very. Hold on, we have a lost snack. Here you go. There you go. Um, so it does provide legal protection in the event that something.
Most of the time when you're thinking about legal stuff, like I said, like almost every case that I know of is like someone did investigative journalism. Someone did something where um, they're like, Hey, we're gonna expose you. Then thi then people get sued, right? Then people get sued and things, you know, go to the courts.
Um, but most of the time what we are dealing with, bless you. , most of the time what we're dealing with is like giving refunds, like your client is unhappy or something happened and you're gonna give a refund instead of going to small claims court or instead of something happened. And the, uh, most of the time, like your client being sued over content is just really unlikely.
So this was something I used to fear, excuse me, fear a lot when I was starting. Ooh, hiccups. And I used to be really afraid that something bad was gonna happen. And like that I didn't know enough and like I should know all these legal things and horrible stuff was about to befall me. And the deal is like, it just doesn't happen.
Like it just is, is really rare. And most of the time, like the effort, like the amount of time and effort and money it takes to sue someone or to go to court is like more than most people are willing to. . So that's why it usually ends up being a big case, right? Like it ends up being a big situation where, um, it's investigative journalism or someone's exposed, or they're like, you're defaming me or you're doing this.
And it's just really not common for us as freelance writers to have legal proceedings. It's not common. However, we wanna be proactive and we wanna protect ourselves. That's why we create the llc. That's why we have the business. I. Um, that's why we separate our business and personal finances with our business bank account.
Um, I'm using Novo, that's another thing. Um, business bank account. So I like Novo, N O v O. They're kind of a newer, I, they're, um, I can't remember how old they are, but I had a student recommend them and I love, love, love them. I used to have, um, B B V A before it got bought by pnc, which was a huge disaster.
Um, and now I have Novo, but there's also other places like Lilly or Blue Vine, um, or there's a bunch of like, basically banks that operate how we operate our freelance business, right? It's not like a giant bank where they're like, you have to keep $2,000 and you're, ooh, we almost had a cookie bonanza here.
Um, you have to keep $2,000 in your bank account all the time, right? Or you have to keep 5,000 or 500, or there's no minimums. There's nothing like, You pop in your money, you have, um, you can also set it up like Profit First, which is how I run my business. So if you haven't read Profit First by Mike Malowitz, you need to, or, um, I think it's Malowitz.
Yeah. Um, so Profit First by Mike Malowitz. And I have, um, five different, um, basically like buckets in my, um, Novo account. So like it's, I still have one. Basically one account, it's just separated into different buckets cuz they allow you to do profit first, which is fantastic. So all my tax stuff there, my operating expenses and how I run my business is all through Novo and in these different buckets, which helps me manage my money a lot better.
Um, and it makes things just a lot simpler. So Novo actually operates in the way that we normally run our. , um, and kind of similar with BlueVine and Lilly and there's like a, a couple others, so I can link to those below too. So I'll link to the business insurance stuff, um, and Northwest Register agent. And, um, business bank accounts.
This is also stuff that we go to, like what I was saying to Fedra. It's also stuff that I go more in depth to in the course. So like within Freelance Writer Wealth Lab, we have a whole module about all the different nitty gritty things about like, what does this actually cover and what does this mean and how am I operating my business bank accounts?
Like how am I actually putting things in like profit? and why are these business bank accounts allowing me to do the stuff I need to do? Like how does this actually operate? Um, so that's something that we go to in depth to in the course is like here on the live stream. I'm able to give you kind of like a, like a general overview, but um, like I was mentioning to Fedra, like within Freelance Writer Wealth Lab, it's something that we go into depth a lot more because it's something that's really important for our business, especially when it comes.
Um, fees or bank account stuff or, you know, keeping more of our money or dealing with taxes or how we separate things out, um, or how we're gonna deal with our LLC and our business insurance, all that kind of stuff. So what we're thinking of here is number one, right? Business bank accounts. Number two is your, uh, business insurance.
And number three is going to be, um, anything legally. So, hold on. Those are kind of the things that I wanted to mention in terms of this topic. But if you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. Um, and if you want to subscribe to this tiny ham, no. If you wanna, uh, run a better freelance writing business or hit six figures or build a business, you adore, subscribe, go back to your hole, you sass.
Good job. All right, here you go, buddy. All right, Charlie. Girl. Other one gentle you're trying to grip on. Good job. All right. We had a good . You guys look so sassy. Back up, back up, back up, back up. More. Good job. All right.
Good job. Good, John. Okay, so if you've been on the fence, last things I'm gonna stay here is if you've been on the fence about an L L C, really think through your goals. Like, where am I going? Am I just trying freelance writing and doing a couple magazine assignments, or am I going to do this full-time? , if I'm gonna do it full-time and I'm really into it, do I feel more comfortable having an llc as I start out, do I feel like I am more protected?
Or do I feel like it gives me a weight off so I can move forward? Or can I kind of try this a little bit before I create an actual business that I will have to work to dissolve afterwards? Um, how am I gonna set up my money? How am I gonna handle my money with, do I need business bank accounts? Am I really serious about freelance?
Do I need business insurance? Like we need to think of all of these kind of things that run in the same group. So your LLC is not just your llc, it's like your llc, your business bank accounts and your business insurance and like legal stuff, right? So they all kind of run in the same little like little party together and it's, you know, it's a big step too.
Like it's money and it's important. I. I will, um, it's money out and it's important. Woo. Why are you so spicy today? Why are you so spicy? Um, it's money to think about putting into your business. It's also money in business insurance cuz you're gonna have to pay for that either annually or every month. Um, you're gonna have to make sure you pick the right business bank account for you like that.
Doesn't give you a ton of fees and allows you to keep like a zero balance in one of your accounts. How you run profit first, like you have accounts with money and accounts with no money, , um, and kind of have to think that whole thing through. So really think about the future of your business. Think about how you wanna run it, think about the benefits that you're gonna get or the complications that come with that.
Um, and I think for me, I wish I started my L L C sooner. So if you really are gonna take your business seriously and you really wanna like move forward with freelance, , just create the llc, get everything set up, and then move on with your life. Like set all your business stuff up, set your LLC up, your business bank accounts, your insurance, make sure you understand all the tax things.
Um, and it's just, um, I feel like it's kind of just like a weight off and it, it provides something that if you really are gonna do freelancing even for a few years, I feel like that's kind of useful. Fedra says, , do you happen to know if it's complicated to dissolve an LLC in Texas? I don't know off the top of my head.
I just know that there have been a couple of writers that I've known over the years who have dissolved their LLCs in a bunch of different states, at least five different states. I don't know if Texas is one is or not, um, but I just know that some of them, it was like a huge process to dissolve the LLC and it was a huge headache.
Um, I, I don't know how it is in Texas and TE Texas is pretty Oh, that was a nice little sad noise. Um, I hear you. Woo. I hear you. So, um, Texas is pretty business forward as a state. Like they're pretty, um, pretty friendly to entrepreneurs. It like consistently is like one of the best states to start a business.
So I would assume that if it's the best state to start a business, that it's also a really good state. . Like if you have to start a lot of businesses in Texas, right? If it would, a lot of people are gonna start businesses. It would be easier to dissolve something in Texas. That's my assumption. I don't actually know.
Um, hold on. What's on here, Barry? What's on you? Okay. But yeah, I would just Google it. Like it could be easier in Texas. It could be more complicated. I don't know off the top of my head, but I do know that the writers who have dissolved LLCs in the. Uh, some have had very complicated processes to do it, or there was like, uh, a waiting period, I think, if I remember right.
For one, like there was like a, it was like a many month process before it actually was fully dissolved. So I would look into that. Um, okay. So I hope this has been helpful. I hope it kind of helped you see like whether an LLC is right for you or not, or what kind of goes with an llc, um, and how to like put all your little pieces together.
Holly says this definitely. Me decide what I wanna do when I was very unsure before. Good. I'm glad. My gosh. Why are you so wooey today? Come here. I'm gonna pick you up. I'm gonna show you to everybody. Come here. You ham. Come here. Ham. I know you're just gonna make a noise. You're gonna make a sad noise.
Good. I'm glad that that helped you, Holly. I feel like it's, um, you know the decision, you're gonna be kicked out if you keep up your. You're not gonna get any more snacks if you're gonna be a SAS bean. Charlotte, go back to your ho hole. Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah, Holly, I'm glad that it, I know Holly, that you're just starting out.
Holly's another one of my freelance writer Wealth Lab students. So Holly's just starting out, getting all her ducks in a row. And uh, that's part of it is getting your ducks in a row when you're starting out is like, is this right for me? Should I wait a little bit? Am I gonna do this for a long time? How does this work?
So I'm glad that this was helpful. Go back to your hava hole. We've done this like eight times. Go back to your hava hole, you sass. Nope. Go back to your hava hole. Um, Fedra says, I'll do some research and see. I have a friend who certifies women owned business, so I'll ask her. Yeah. Certifying a woman owned business is a different process, but they probably know a lot about LLCs and dissolving and making things and whatever.
Okay. I'm glad that this was helpful. And we're here every Friday, so every Friday I do a livestream at 12:00 PM ct. You can just go to, I don't even know if I have a link in here. I don't think I do. But if you just go to mandy ellis.com/live, it'll pull up this page and you can join the livestream every Friday at noon Central.
If you ever have a question, you could go to mandy ellis.com/question and submit it. I had a question come in, but we're not gonna do it today cuz it's like off topic like this is a way different topic than that. Um, so we'll do it later, but if you go to mandy ellis.com/question, you can put in a topic that you want a live stream about, or you can put in a question and I'll answer it live.
And if you haven't gotten my free pricing guide that I updated recently, you should get it. So it's free. Go to mandy ellis.com/pricing guide and you'll get my free pricing guide for freelance writers and content strategists. And then you'll also get my weekly emails with tips and tricks. So I do a tips and tricks email every week, plus a livestream every Friday. All right people. I hope everybody has a good Friday and I will see you next Friday. Bye.
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