Look, nobody got into the trades because they love paperwork. You got into it because you’re good with your hands and you figured you’d rather be the guy cashing the check than the guy waiting on it.

But at some point you’ve got to make it official, and most guys either overpay somebody to do it or put it off until a client’s attorney or a bad job forces the issue. Here’s the short version of what you actually need, in the order you need it.

File the LLC with your state

An LLC is what puts a wall between the business and your house, your truck, and your kid’s college fund. If a job goes sideways and somebody sues, they’re going after the company, not everything you own. (It’s not bulletproof. Mix personal and business money or do something negligent and a judge can pierce that wall, so act like a real business.)

You file Articles of Organization with your Secretary of State, usually online in about 20 minutes. Fees run anywhere from under $100 to around $500 depending on the state, and most states charge an annual report fee to keep it active. Miss that annual report and your state can dissolve your LLC without telling you twice.

Put it on the calendar. And don’t confuse this with your contractor license. The LLC is the business entity; your license and insurance are separate, and you still need both.

Registered agent

‍Every LLC has to name a registered agent: a person or company with a physical address in your state who’s available during business hours to accept legal papers and state mail. You can be your own agent, plenty of guys are. The catch is that your address goes on public record. You can pay for a registered agent service runs roughly $50 to $300 a year and keeps your home address off the public filing, but it's not worth it, and it's not that big of deal.

Operating agreement

This is the rulebook for your LLC: who owns what, who makes decisions, what happens if a partner wants out or dies. Most states don’t make you file it, and a handful require you to have one. Do it anyway. If you’ve got a partner, this document is the difference between a clean split and a two-year fight over who gets the skid steer. Even as a one-man shop, banks and lenders will ask for it, and it backs up the fact that your business is separate from you. There are solid free templates out there; if you’ve got partners, spend a couple hundred bucks and have an attorney look it over.

Get your EIN, and get it free

An EIN is basically a Social Security number for your business. You need it to open a business bank account, hire employees, and hand out W-9s without giving every GC your personal SSN.

You get it straight from the IRS at irs.gov, and it costs exactly zero dollars. The online application takes about 15 minutes and you get the number on the spot.

There are a ton of websites built to look official that’ll charge you $150 to $300 to fill out the same free form. Don’t fall for it. Once you’ve got it, open a separate business checking account that week and start running jobs through your business bank account.

DBAs

A DBA (“doing business as,” also called an assumed or fictitious name) lets you operate under a name that’s different from your legal LLC name. Say your LLC is “Smith Holdings LLC” but you want the truck to say “Smith Roofing & Gutters.” That’s a DBA.

Depending on your state, you file it with the Secretary of State, the county, or both, and it’s usually cheap. It’s also handy if you want to run a second line of work, like decks and fencing, under its own brand without forming a whole new company.

Just know a DBA isn’t a separate entity and gives you no extra protection; it’s a nickname for the LLC you already have. Before you get attached to a name, search your state’s business database and do a quick Google check so you’re not about to repaint your trucks over a name somebody already owns.

Do these five things and you’re legit: protected, paid into the right account, and looking like the real business you already are. It’s maybe a day of work and a few hundred bucks.