You Probably Do Not Need Any of This
Sources last read 2026-07-02.
Short answer
You almost certainly need none of it. No company, no tax number, no name filing. If you sell things or do jobs under your own name, you are already a business. The word for it is sole proprietor. There is no form and no fee, and it starts the first time somebody pays you. Nearly every page that tells you otherwise has a button at the bottom selling you the paperwork.
You already have one
If you sell things or do jobs under your own name, you are running a business right now.
The word for that is sole proprietor. One person. No company. Nothing filed anywhere.
Nobody sends you a certificate. There is no form and no fee. It started the first time somebody paid you, and you probably did not notice.
That is the default setting in every state. It is not a starter version of a real business. It is what most small businesses in this country actually are.
So what would a company even do
A company is a separate thing from you. That is the whole idea of one.
The kind people mean is a limited liability company (LLC). Those three letters get said like they mean serious. What they really mean is a wall.
The wall stands between the business and you. If the business owes money, the people it owes can come after the business. In most cases they cannot come after your own things.
That is what the fee buys. Not respect. Not being official. A wall.
Why the wall usually has nothing on either side
Here is the part the other pages leave out.
A wall is only worth building if there is something on each side of it.
On the business side, that means debts. Money owed to a supplier. A loan. Rent on a unit. Think about what your business owes today. For most people reading this, it is nothing.
On your side, it means things worth taking. Savings that took years. A car. A house.
If both sides are close to empty, you have built a wall in an empty field. It cost you money and it is not standing between anything.
That does change for some people. It may change for you one day. It has almost certainly not changed yet.
The three things you will be told to get
A tax number for the business. The tax office lists the reasons you need one and they are printed further down this page. One person, no staff, no fuel or tobacco taxes. You are on none of that list.
A name filing. Texas explains what one of these is worth in its own words below. Short version: somebody else can file the same name, and filing it gives you no right to it.
A licence. This one is a real maybe, and the answer depends entirely on your city, your county and what you do. There is a whole page here on whether you need a licence, and it starts by telling you there is no national licence to buy.
Why every other page says the opposite
Search this and look at the bottom of the pages you land on.
There is a button. Start your business today. A price, then the words plus state fees.
Those sites sell company formation. The article is the shop window. That does not make them liars, and some of what they write is right.
It does mean nobody working there was ever going to write the sentence you actually needed, which is that you probably do not need this.
An example, to show the shape of it
Darren is 15 and mows nine lawns on a regular round. An uncle tells him he should get an LLC before somebody sues him.
He looks it up. The filing fee plus a service he found comes to a few hundred dollars, then a yearly cost after that. He nearly pays it.
Then he works out what the wall would be sitting between. His business owns a mower he borrowed from his dad and a strimmer. He has no debts. Nobody has ever sent him a bill.
He kept his money. What he did instead was tell his parents which houses he goes to, and start writing down what each job paid.
What is actually worth doing
None of this costs anything, and all of it is more use than a filing.
Write down money in and money out. Every job, every cost. A notes app is fine. You will want this later and you cannot make it up afterwards.
Keep the business money apart from your spending money. Not because a rule says so. Because you cannot tell if this works if the two are mixed.
Tell an adult what you are doing. Not for permission. Because at some point somebody will need to sign something next to you, and you want that person to already know what this is.
Check your own city. One search, done properly, once.
Before you spend money on any of this
Rules change and they change by state, sometimes by county. This page was last checked on the date at the top.
If somebody, a relative or a website, is telling you to file something, ask them one question. What is it standing between? If they cannot answer, you have your answer.
The tax office, on when a business needs its own tax number
You need an EIN if you: Have employees; Will need to pay employment, excise or alcohol, tobacco, and firearms taxes; Withhold taxes on income, other than wages, paid to a non-resident alien.
IRS, employer identification number
Those three letters, EIN, stand for employer identification number. It is a tax number for a business. Read the list of reasons you would need one. Staff on a payroll. Taxes on fuel, drink, tobacco or guns. Paying somebody who lives in another country. A one person mowing round hits none of those, so it does not need one.
The federal small business agency, on licences
The licenses and permits you need from the state, county, or city will depend on your business activities and business location.
Small Business Administration, apply for licenses and permits
That is the federal small business agency, the Small Business Administration, saying there is no single answer. Not one national licence. Not one fee. It hangs on what you do and where you are. Anybody who tells you the price of a business licence without asking where you live is guessing.
Texas, on what a business name filing is worth
there may be multiple assumed name certificates on file with the secretary of state for the exact same name... It does not give the registrant any right to use the assumed name
Texas Secretary of State, name filing questions
An assumed name filing is the thing people call a trade name. Texas is saying two useful things here. Other people can file the same name as you. And filing it gives you no right to the name at all. It is a notice, not a fence. It protects nothing.
Questions people actually ask
If I have no company, whose business is it?
Yours. Completely. A sole proprietor and the business are the same person in law. That is the trade you are making. You keep every bit of it and there is nothing to set up. You also carry it yourself if something goes wrong.
Does it look bad to customers if I have not set anything up?
Almost none of them will ever ask. People buying a mowing round or a set of prints care whether you turn up and whether the work is good. If somebody does ask, the honest answer is that you run it yourself, and that is a normal way for a small business to be.
Somebody told me I need a company before I can get paid.
That is not where the wall is. The thing that actually blocks people under 18 is that most apps will not put money in your name, whatever paperwork you hold. There is a page here on every app and how old you have to be, and it is worth reading before you spend a dollar on any of this.
How do I check whether my own state is different?
Search your state's name plus the words business licence, and stop only on a page whose address ends in .gov. Then do the same with your city and your county. That is where the answer lives, and it takes about twenty minutes.
When would I actually need one of these?
When there is real money or real risk. Staff. A lease. Tools that could hurt somebody. A customer who wants a company to sign with. Those are real reasons, and none of them describe most people starting out. If you get there, take it to an adult first.
Where this came from
IRS, do you need an employer identification number
irs.gov
Small Business Administration, apply for licenses and permits
sba.gov
Texas Secretary of State, name filing questions
sos.state.tx.us
Texas Secretary of State, business formation questions
sos.state.tx.us