Ask HN: At what point is it best to create a business entity?

[aebit]

I've noticed some say it's the last thing they do as r&d is worked on, while others seem to have a catch-all company entity LLC to do contract work under. I guess I'm looking at examples of the ways people decide to approach the business side of things at an early level.

I like the concept of having a legal entity to work under- something that I can have on a card to give out. But that's mostly for side work I would do. Is there anything bad about doing that that I might not have thought about?

[patio11]

You want to take investment, you want to invoice a megacorps, you want to employ someone, you operate in a business with substantial risk, or you are told to by your lawyer or accountant.

Five years later I'm still a sole proprietorship with a DBA. Aside from making certain declarations to Immigration excessively complicated, there's no major downside to it for me. (You can put pretty much whatever you please on a business card.)

[aebit]

Thank you for the personal perspective. I make the assumption that by sole proprietor you have it structured as an LLC? This seems by my research to be the best general way to create a simple business entity.