Setting Up as a Freelancer: Legal & Business Basics

This workbook turns the course into a fully set-up freelance business. Work through one section per module: choose and document your structure, complete your registrations and tax IDs, build your banking and bookkeeping money system, then assemble your contracts, insurance, and a compliance calendar. Fill in every field and template, because a half-finished setup leaves gaps that surface at the worst moment, when a client is ready to pay. By the end you will have made every decision and produced every document needed to take on your first paid engagement with confidence.

Decide between sole proprietor, LLC, S-corp, or limited company by scoring your own situation and committing to a structure you can revisit as you grow.

Rate each factor from 1 (low) to 5 (high) for your situation. High scores on liability, profit, or a client requirement push you from sole proprietor toward a formed entity. There is no total to beat; the pattern tells the story.

From the course, an entity is justified when you can name the reason in a single sentence. Write your strongest reason, or note that you cannot complete the sentence yet, which usually means sole proprietor is your right start.

Turn your scores and reasoning into one committed, dated decision. This is what the rest of the workbook builds on; you can revise it later, but commit now.

Make the business official: choose and clear a name, complete the right registration for your country, and obtain the tax identifier and sales-tax awareness you need.

Record the result of each availability check for your preferred trading name. If any check fails badly, repeat the process for a backup name before you commit.

Using the country lesson, write the concrete steps you must take. Be specific about which office, form, and fee applies to you so registration becomes a simple to-do list.

Record the single sales-tax, GST/HST, or VAT threshold that applies to you and your current standing against it, so you register at the right moment and not late.

Build a clean financial foundation: a separate business account, a bookkeeping tool tracking deductions, a tax-savings holdback, and professional invoices.

Plan and record your banking setup. Aim to open a true business account once you have a DBA or entity; route every business dollar through it from day one.

Pick one tool and list the expense categories you will actually track. Connecting the tool to your business account makes categorising painless.

Decide the terms that protect your cashflow, then set them as the default in your invoicing tool. Send yourself a test invoice to confirm it works.

Assemble the documents and protections every engagement needs, confirm your licensing and insurance, and build a calendar so filings and payments never lapse.

Decide the values for the clauses that matter most for freelancers, then transfer them into your reusable contract and scope-of-work templates so the documents are ready to send.

Work through the three licensing levels for your specific work and location, and get an insurance quote. The goal is to buy exactly what you need and skip what you do not.

Enter the recurring dates that apply to your structure and country. Set a reminder one week before each. This single calendar prevents the costly, avoidable failures of missed payments and lapsed filings.