This is part two of a series of posts on bypassing the middle man as a creator so that your fans can fund you directly, which is preferable to using a platform like Patreon that takes a sizable percentage for itself, and also has the power to cut you off from your fans, and your funds, at any time.
You can read part one here, which is a quick overview of the process without any steps detailed. Some people might need only that, and can teach themselves the rest on their own. Some people might need more help though, and that’s where this post comes in. Even though this is a more thorough version of the first post, I suggest reading that one first no matter what, just so that you first have a basic idea of what the entire process will be.
It’s important to note that this will not be a literal ‘click here’, ‘okay, now click here’ type of guide—I’m going to assume that if you need that, you know that you can just find video tutorials for everything you’re trying to do.
Starting an LLC
Even if you are just one person, you should have an LLC. ‘LLC’ stands for Limited Liability Company. My studio, Kill The Lion Films, which is basically just me, is an LLC (Kill The Lion Films, LLC).
Having an LLC protects both me and the money that comes in. For brevity’s sake, I will not get into the details of why—plus, I’m not a lawyer! Just do a search and read up on it, and of course, consult a lawyer if you have any questions.
The process of starting an LLC is fairly simple. Your state will have a website with the information to do so. There will be filing fees, and then you’ll be approved pretty quickly, and then you’ll have to do this stupid thing where you have to publish in some newspapers that your LLC has begun. For that I suggest using a service that does that for you, as it can be quite frustrating to call up and email newspapers to find the cheapest rates. Better to just pay a service to do it for you, which is cheaper than doing it yourself, because they already know the cheapest rates, and will be charging you that plus a little extra for their time.
Starting a Business Checking Account
You will need a business checking account for your funds to end up in after it goes from your fans and through the payment processor that you will be signing up with next. It is not wise to just use your personal checking account for these funds—for tax purposes especially, it is better to keep them separate.
The free basic checking accounts are all pretty much the same. Once it’s set up, you’ll usually have to put $25 in to start.
Signing Up with a Payment Processor
I chose to use Stripe—the most well-known ones are Square and Stripe. It’s free to sign up, and you basically just put in the info of your business checking account and whatnot, and create ‘products’ or ‘services’ and prices for them. Anything as far as implementation on your website so you can accept funds, you’ll need someone who knows coding for.
Your payment processor will take a transaction fee—this is standard, just deal with it. All the payment processors basically charge the same amount. If you really have an issue with it, just up the price of your stuff accordingly to offset it.
That’s About It
I understand that this doesn’t have much detail. You don’t need much detail, trust me—this is all a really simple process. Anything you need more info on, you can find out plenty of other places.
Hope this helps!
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