First: the foundation (do these before anything else)
1. Form the entity. An LLC in the state you work in, with an operating agreement that says who owns what. This is the container everything else goes in.
2. Get an EIN. Your federal tax ID number. Banks, payroll systems and commercial clients all ask for it. It is free from the IRS and usually arrives within the week.
3. Open a business bank account. Separate from everything personal, from the first deposit. This is not bookkeeping tidiness — mixing funds is one of the main things that undermines the liability protection you just paid for.
4. Get insured. General liability at minimum, and workers' compensation once you have employees, which most states require. Commercial clients will ask for a certificate before they sign.
Second: permission to trade
5. Get licensed everywhere you work. Not just where you live. Many cities require their own business licence for anyone working inside their limits, and some trades need a state contractor or speciality licence on top.
6. Register your tax accounts. State withholding and unemployment if you will have employees, and a sales tax account if your state taxes what you sell. Materials are commonly taxable even where labour is not.
7. Write down what you sell. A service agreement, an estimate template and a change order. Almost every payment dispute in a service business traces back to nothing being in writing.
Third: know your numbers
8. Start real books. Monthly bookkeeping with an actual close, from the first month. Reconstructing a year later costs more and tells you less.
9. Price from your costs, not from what the other guy charges. Work out what a job actually costs you — materials, fuel, labour, equipment wear, the drive — and what you need to earn. A surprising number of owners discover they are well under where they should be the first time anyone does this properly. That is what projections are for.
10. Get paid properly. Invoicing with terms, deposits on larger work, and a payment method that does not depend on a cheque arriving. Cash flow kills more profitable businesses than unprofitable ones.
Fourth: keep it running
11. Build a compliance calendar. Annual report, licence renewals in every city, insurance renewals, tax filing dates. Each one is small; together they are what quietly goes wrong. Someone has to be watching it.
12. Prepare for your first hire before you need one. Handbook, offer letter, classification, payroll. Hiring in a rush with none of this in place is how a good decision becomes an expensive one.
That is the list. It is not complicated, but it is twelve different systems that have to connect to each other, and doing it one piece at a time from twelve different providers is how most owners end up with gaps. That is the whole reason Whitelow exists — one partner, one connected system. See how it works.
The short version
- Entity, EIN and a separate business bank account come before everything else.
- Insurance and licences are what let you legally take the work you want.
- Get a licence in every city you work in, not just where you live.
- Start real books from month one — reconstructing later costs more and tells you less.
- Price from your actual job costs, not from what competitors charge.
- A compliance calendar is what stops small deadlines becoming large problems.
- Set up the hiring paperwork before you need it, not during a rush.
Whitelow Legacy Group is not a law firm, an accounting firm or a registered investment adviser. This guide explains how things generally work so you can ask better questions. Rules differ by state and by situation, and anything specific to yours should go past an attorney or a CPA.
Frequently asked questions
What is the very first thing I should do?
Form the entity and get the EIN, then open a business bank account before you take another payment. Everything else — licences, insurance, books, contracts — attaches to those three, and the longer you trade without them the more there is to untangle later.
How long does all of this take?
The filings themselves take days to a few weeks depending on your state. Getting all twelve genuinely in place, connected to each other and running takes longer, which is why we treat it as a launch rather than a form submission. We give you the realistic dates for your state when we start.
Can I do this myself?
Yes. Every item on this list is something a determined owner can work out. The question is what your time is worth and what it costs when one of the twelve gets missed — which is usually the licence in the city you only work in occasionally, or the books nobody started.
What if I have already been running for a few years?
Then the work is an audit and a catch-up rather than a launch. We look at what exists, what is missing and what has lapsed, get it current, and bring the ongoing pieces onto one system. That is what the free business checkup is for.