In the last ten or fifteen years, there have been some changes in the laws that make limited liability companies a practical choice for very small and single-owner businesses.
I used to think that incorporating meant mountains of paperwork and bureaucratic rules at tax time. But now you can be self-employed, a single-owner business as it is called, set yourself up as an LLC and file the same Schedule C as you did when you were a sole-proprietorship.
But what is even cooler is that you can set up your limited liability company to have as many businesses as you want under the LLC umbrella. This is particularly handy for many self-employed people who are slash people,ie. actor/waiter, VA/party entertainer/artist--you get the picture.
And you can create and file business names for each entity under your LLC umbrella. For eg., I have a fictitious business registration for my party entertainment business that reads Ellen M Zucker, LLC d/b/a Faces & Fortunes. And I can have separate fictitious registrations for other businesses or just use Ellen M Zucker, LLC.
At any rate, you get the idea. For fine points, talk to your attorney. But if you are self-employed, in a partnership or owner of a small business, having a limited liability company is a smart way to go.
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