The psychological benefit of an LLC and an e-mail

​In my book, my general philosophy towards administrative stuff is to do as little as possible and only after you've taken care of the important steps first (figuring out your 1099 rate, implementing a strategy to get your first gig, etc.).

While I do think you should register an LLC, it's not strictly necessary, and you can probably get away with not doing it at all.

That being said, one non-trivial benefit you may get from registering an LLC right away is that it creates a psychological separation between yourself and your business.

Dale the person may feel weird about aggressively negotiating with a program manager for a higher rate, but Dale LLC knows it's just part of doing business.

Dale may feel weird using his gmail.com e-mail to reach out to cold contacts, but dale@dalellc.com has no qualms about setting up coffee meetings with business strangers.

It doesn't actually take long and isn't too costly to set up an LLC (maybe $100-$200 for the LLC registration and $6/month for an email) so if it helps you feel more confident about going 1099 and less amateurish, go for it.