Sole Proprietorship

This is the easiest and cheapest form of business to start. Just get some cards, put up a website, register your business if you have to, develop whatever promotional material seems right to you, and go.

Here's what Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says about a sole proprietorship:

A sole proprietorship, or simply proprietorship (British English: sole trade) is a type of business entity which legally has no separate existence from its owner. Hence, the limitations of liability enjoyed by a corporation and limited liability partnerships do not apply to sole proprietors.

All debts of the business are debts of the owner...It is a "sole" proprietorship in the sense that the owner has no partners. A sole proprietorship essentially refers to a natural person (individual) doing business in his or her own name and in which there is only one owner.

A sole proprietor may do business with a trade name other than his or her legal name. In some jurisdictions, for example the United States, the sole proprietor is required to register the trade name or "Doing Business As" with a government agency. This also allows the proprietor to open a business account with banking institutions.

If you're just going to go for that sandwich, then this may be the one for you. You're going to do business as yourself. When you cease doing the business for whatever reason, the business ceases.

This may or may not work for you. It's simple and direct and virtually free to set up. You just do it. But it's also limiting. If you want to rent an office it's harder. If you want to have employees it's harder. If you want to build something lasting, it's harder. If you're serving a market that values buying from more permanent businesses, it's harder.

If you're a website developer working out of your home, a solo practitioner attorney, an organizational consultant working with fortune 500 company, it can work for you. You can start, then always change later. Always be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

My first business was a sole proprietorship. I was a market research consultant in Madison, Wisconsin, working from my home. I didn't want employees. I didn't want an office with all that overhead. Then I found myself not getting hired because I wasn't a "real" business. I screwed up a report because I was trying to do it all myself. I went out and incorporated as a Subchapter S corporation.

What do you think of this? The goal is to produce more skilled entrepreneurs.
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Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.