When I started working for myself in 2013, I wanted to keep things simple. I was one person, usually working for one client at a time, typically as a 1099 contractor. And frankly, I wasn’t sure how long I would stick with it, or whether I would close up shop and go back to being an employee as quickly as I had begun this adventure. So I didn’t see any compelling reason to form a legal entity for my company. Most of my sales and marketing consisted of word-of-mouth recommendations, so I wasn’t terribly concerned with branding.