After a year as a one person business, I’ve learned a ton, and I’d like to share some information I wish I had in the beginning, starting with an overview of the services I use to run my business.
Yum. SaaS software fees. Photo by Anna Zaro on Unsplash
I never intended to freelance or contract or start a business, but after the Great Layoff of 2022–2023, a former colleague said they needed my help on a freelance project. Then another former vendor did the same. That led to another and another. Before my last day of employment arrived, I was already unsteadily riding the solo bike.
Then, shit. Taxes. Accounting. Invoicing. Here’s the result of a year of fumbling around.
(There are no affiliate links below. This information is provided just to be a good human and not as financial or consulting advice.)
Business Structure
ZenBusiness. I set up an LLC and filed to have it taxed as an S Corp based on some good advice and research:
- LLC formation (registered in California, in my case)
- A registered agent
- An EIN
- Filing of Form 2553 to elect to be taxed as an S Corp
- A change of address amendment when I moved
- Annual report filings with the state
I used ZenBusiness for business formation because it has a simple interface that walked me through the process. Support has been responsive for amendments and it cost about $500. You could also use LegalZoom, Rocket Lawyer or IncFile, etc.
Business Banking
Lili, but moving to Bluevine. A business checking account definitely eases accounting when connected to accounting software because it saves headaches by keeping business transactions separate and feeds expenses into accounting applications automatically. I don’t need a ton from a business banking provider, but Bluevine pays interest on business checking and Lili doesn’t have great filters for transaction history.
Accounting
Freshbooks. So far, it has everything I need in the Lite plan. It would be nice if it did balance sheets, but that’s pretty easy to do manually once a year for taxes. Connected to business banking and payroll, this makes it easy to categorize and manage expenses.
- Expense management
- Clients/projects/estimates
- Time tracking and other invoice items against clients, projects and internal work.
- Invoicing, generated automatically from client time tracking, and sending payment receipts.
- P&L reporting (for easy tax data)
Payments
Zelle. I used WePay once to collect receivables because it was integrated into Freshbooks, but fortunately for the world at large, WePay is shutting down. Horrible. Zelle works fine. I used to work in the payments industry, and it’s all about scraping from slim margins, so the less I need to integrate the better until my clients need it.
Payroll
Gusto. This is a default because it’s what my CPA uses. Oh yeah, I have to add CPA to this list. A good CPA can reduce your taxes many multiples of what you pay them to do it. So far, with Gusto I can use my own SEP IRA provider and their brokered health benefits are serviceable. If I’m being honest, though, I don’t think you need a CPA to manage Gusto. I’m working on a deeper dive into payroll in general for a one-person business. It may be more trouble than it’s worth without the right conditions.
Benefits
SEP IRA— Schwab. A SEP IRA is like a 401k for a one person business without the filing overhead and fees. It’s nearly free and I have no desire to manage my own retirement portfolio. If you’re big on tinkering with retirement investing, you might want a more sophisticated option.
Health — Kaiser. Serviceable, convenient, directly integrated through Gusto and flexible as health needs change. If you’re young, you probably want something with a high deductible and HSA. If you have specific needs, a PPO offers more choice of providers. If you incorporate mental health, Kaiser is not strong there.
CPA
Dimov Tax Services. They were recommended to my girlfriend for complex RSAs and profit sharing, and they have covered their fee in tax savings almost 5x, so I’m happy.
Messaging and Meetings
All of these are free for basic use and integrate easily into most mail/calendar apps.
Messaging: Slack. De-facto. Everybody I communicate with uses it, and I do too. The huddles feature is also nice to create a quick, impromptu meeting.
Meeting Scheduling: Calendly. Calendly integrates with your calendar and Zoom to schedule meetings easily. It’s nice to avoid the back and forth and just let someone pick a time, and the rest is automated.
Video Calls: Zoom. There is the 40 minute meeting limit on free Zoom, but it’s easy enough to jump back on the same link if you get kicked off. And honestly, one of the key benefits of solo business is that there are far shorter meetings.
Email, Domains and Web Hosting
Email: Zoho. I’ll definitely go into more detail on each of these. I use Zoho for email ($12/year) after defaulting to GoDaddy/Microsoft when I hurriedly created my first business domain/website. GoDaddy is like 3x that cost, and, in general, I want to stay away from using them for anything because they’re always overpriced and you don’t get much convenience for the cost. I use POP and IMAP connections and email filters to manage my business email from Zoho in my personal Gmail inbox.
Domains: Godaddy. I do have my business and personal domains with Godaddy for the convenience of keeping them in the same place, but have also used NameCheap in the past and it is cheaper.
Web hosting: Vercel. If you’re not an engineer, you probably want to go with Squarespace, Hostinger, Wix or Weebly. I typically work on SaaS apps and headless CMS sites, so don’t usually use any of those, but happy to answer questions for those who just want to build their own simple content sites with a builder, just to generally be a pleasant person.
Productivity
Notion. Tons of customizable options and templates for task lists, kanban boards, sprint tracking, product planning, wikis, etc. I still use Jira for a lot of sprint/ticket work because it is comfortable and already in use for most engineering teams, but use Notion for my own business and products.
I’ll write some more posts in more detail on each section, but for now, that’s my stack.