Selling without an LLC
Stripe, Shopify Payments, Substack, Ko-fi and Teachable all onboard individuals. You use your own name and SSN, report income on Schedule C, and you're in business. For a newsletter or a course with a few hundred customers, this is fine.
When an LLC starts to make sense
Liability (you sell something that can go wrong), a co-founder, a business bank account that won't take a sole prop, or a platform that requires an entity. Google Play developer accounts and some marketplaces want a registered business with a verifiable phone.
What becomes public
| Filing | Public? | Asks for a phone? |
|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization (state) | Yes, searchable | Some states |
| Registered agent | Yes | Sometimes |
| EIN application (IRS) | No | Yes |
| Google Business Profile | Yes | Yes, and may call to verify |
| Stripe / Shopify account | On statements | Yes, required |
State filings are scraped within days by lead-gen companies. If your cell is on the form, expect calls from "business funding" and website sellers for years.
The order of operations
Get a business phone number first. Then file. Use the same number on the EIN, the bank, Stripe, and your Google listing. One inbox for all of it, one greeting, and your personal number stays personal.