How to Setup Your Business as a Creator
We all see the glitz and the glamour of the creator business, but behind the scenes, there are a lot of logistics that go on that are so incredibly important to nail down early on to avoid headaches down the road.
But setting up a business is a daunting task (which is why so many people don’t do it correctly or at all), but it’s necessary to ensure you’re legally running and can focus on doing what you do best: creating.
But starting a business isn’t a walk in the park - there are a lot of logistical tasks behind the scenes that can be tedious, confusing, or downright frustrating to figure out.
Today, I’m sharing the things you need to know about getting your creator business set up. I’m sharing a great tool with you that I highly recommend you check out to make this entire process so much quicker and easier because if I’m honest, getting your business setup can definitely be a stressful feat. This is exactly why I love Tailor Brands, the AI-driven, one-stop shop for aspiring small business owners, with everything you need to successfully start your business.
Get your business legally setup
This is one of the most important steps to ensuring that you’re legally registered as a business with the government. If you are operating a business without registering, you can run into a lot of legal trouble, and no one has the time or energy for that.
Your business will need to be registered legally in order for you to open a business bank account (and trust me, you’ll want to do that so you’re able to keep your personal and business income and expenses separate to make tax time a breeze).
One option is an LLC or a “limited liability company”. This type of official business structure is a popular choice among small business owners since it is relatively inexpensive to form and simple to maintain.
If you’ve decided that an LLC is the best option for you and your business, you can save time and file your LLC with Tailor Brands in just a few clicks. By doing this, you’ll be able to have more protection for your business, make customers more likely to have trust in you, and make smart money decisions regarding taxes.
Yup, the way that you’re registered can actually help you make smarter financial choices. The way that your business is registered will affect how you pay your taxes and your liability.
For me personally, I was registered as a sole proprietor, but after a bit, my accountant told me that I would be able to save a huge chunk of money by becoming an LLC, so that’s what I did at the start of 2022.
You can click the link down in the description to get started forming your LLC on Tailor Brands. Once you’re on the site, you’ll choose your LLC state to get started. You’ll be able to enter in your desired business name to check if it’s available, and if it is, you’re off to the races!
The process looks a little something like this:
Tell Tailor Brands about your business by answering a few quick questions so your LLC filing is done just right.
Get LLC recommendations from Tailor Brands just for you, so that you can form the LLC in the way that’s best for your business.
Form the actual LLC! Tailor Brands handles all of the paperwork for you so you can save time.
See how your application is progressing and its status after purchase and submission.
While doing this solo can be an incredibly confusing process, you can let Tailor Brands do it all for you hassle free. They’re the only platform that offers literally everything you could possible need to start your business all in one place. They offer domain registration, trademarking, logo creation, business email address registration, website building, and digital business cards.
Receive a limited time discount on Tailor Brands plans. Time is money, baby! I love to share any ways to help you save time in your business.
Next step? Let’s keep our money on track.
Start tracking your income and expenses
Before I was a content creator, I was a photographer. I started my photography business my first year out of college and had one to explain to me the importance of keeping track of your business’ money. I mean, I knew it was important, but I have no idea what I actually needed to do.
First, let’s talk about WHY you need to track your income and expenses.
Of course, it’s important for you to know how much you’re making and how much you’re spending so that you can ensure you’re on the road to becoming profitable. You want to make sure you’re not spending way more than you’re making. You also want to know how much you’re profiting, so that you can know where you stand as a business.
But, it’s also incredibly important to track your income and expenses for tax purposes.
The money that you’re spending on your business expenses can help to offset the amount you’re paying in taxes. Some examples of businesses expenses as a content creator might be photography props, studio rentals, editing software, photographer payment, etc.
I make sure that I keep receipt of everything I purchase for my business so that I’m not missing out on any tax breaks possible. I use a software that I connect to my business credit card and debit card to ensure I’m tracking all transactions and classifying what they are (ex: supplies, contractor payments, travel, income, etc) so that I know exactly how much I’m bringing in and how much I’m spending on every type of business expense.
Overall, it’s hard for you to grow your business and get to a place of strong profitability if you don’t know where you stand financially. Getting a good tracking system nailed down that works for you will be more important than ever.
Establish your brand identity
You might be thinking “Kristen, I’m a content creator, not a brand. I don’t need a brand identity,” and my friend, you’d be incorrect.
When someone comes to your page or your website, you want them to instantly know it’s yours. For example, when y’all come to my website, my Instagram or my TikTok, you know you’re going to get bright colors and a retro vibe.
It helps you to associate certain things with me so that I’m more top of mind. It can actually help people visit your page more, DM you more, or feel more connected to you.
It also helps brands to get a better understanding of the content that they’d get from hiring you which actually helps more brands actually hire you - they feel more confident about the outcome.
If you’re looking to get started on your website, you can use Tailor Brand to find the perfect domain for you and get it registered as well as build your website using one of their DIY templates or their automatic website builder to create a beautiful, eye-catching site.
But, the one thing that I wanted to dive into further with you today is the ability to build beautiful logos on Tailor Brands so quickly and easily.
You start off my entering information about your brand like the name and type. Then, you choose three styles that you love out of the 15 that they offer so that they can understand your style more.
After that you’ll be faced with a ton of gorgeous logo options that you can choose between and customize. They even show you the logo on things like t-shirts or websites so that you can get a better feel of what they’ll look like IRL.
Conclusion
Overall, being a legitimate creator with an actual business is a process, but if you’re really serious about building a creator of this, it’s what you need to go through. Thankfully, having a coach like me and a tool like Tailor Brands by your side really does make things simpler.
Don’t forget that linked here are limited time discounts for Tailor Brands plans so that you can get things done RIGHT the first time. You’ll get 20% off limited Tailor Brands Plans to get you going.
What questions do you have about getting your business started? Leave them in the comments so that I can help you out!
