Shore Thing

If you’re the only member of your LLC, you might assume an operating agreement is something for businesses with partners — a document to divide equity and settle disagreements between people who aren’t you. Since there’s no one to disagree with, why bother? Here’s why. It’s not really about disagreements. It’s about proof. An operating agreement spells out how your LLC actually operates — ownership, management structure, how decisions get made, what happens if you bring on a

Here’s something most people don’t realize: the moment you start doing business and getting paid, you are a business. The government already considers you one. If you never filed anything, never picked a structure, never made a single official decision — congratulations, you’re a sole proprietor. You didn’t choose it. It chose you. And that’s the part I want to talk about. Because being a sole proprietor by default is not the same as deciding it’s the right structure for you.