[rmah]

In America today, for many types of businesses, it's still that simple. You can open a sole proprietorship business with zero paperwork and no permission from anyone. You're not required to incorporate. You're not required to have a separate bank account.

Now, if you're selling apples (and other foods), you may have to deal with health code regulations. If you open a dentist office, you'll probably fall under other regulations. You can argue if those regulations are too heavy or not.

But many products/services in do not have many (if any) regulations governing them in most states/municipalities in the US. Just say you're in business and voila, you are.

[ultrarunner]

I think this greatly oversimplifies the situation. If you find that people love your apples and are buying them too quickly, you might want to tell a friend you'll that if they'll help you sell your apples you'll give them some of the money. You've now incurred numerous tax obligations, requiring an EIN, PRWORA reporting, worker's compensation, citizenship requirements, required benefits, time tracking for overtime compliance (depending on FLSA designation), insurance obligations, and probably several other steps I'm missing (occupational licensing is a big one; let's hope your apples aren't really hair cuts).

Do all these requirements protect people from their employers? Well… maybe kind of. But no, in most circumstances you can't simply start interacting with other people without a lot of red tape.