Right now the money coming in is probably going straight to your personal account. That's the fastest way to overpay the IRS and the fastest way to get audited if a bank or the government ever looks closely at what's "you" versus what's "the business."

An LLC costs a few hundred dollars and takes about two days once we have your info. It's the line between your personal life and everything you're building.

Once the LLC exists, open a bank account in the business name and move every dollar of Shop income through it. Nothing personal touches this account — not your Starbucks, not your rent.

Why it matters: at tax time, your bookkeeper reads this account like a book. Mixed accounts mean guessing, and guessing means either overpaying the IRS or missing write-offs you earned.

Think of every legitimate business expense the same way you think about commission. If you're fighting for a 1-2% commission bump on a product, but you're missing 15% of your spend in write-offs because there's no paper trail — that write-off is worth more than the commission fight.

A dedicated business card creates that paper trail automatically, and the right card's perks (points, insurance, cash back) often cover its own annual fee.

This is the one almost everyone underestimates. $10K/month feels like freedom — until April, when a business with no bookkeeping owes far more than it should have.

Kelli's team sets your books up on QuickBooks, categorizes everything monthly, and builds your quarterly tax strategy so there's no scramble and no surprise bill. This is the foundation the other four exist to protect.

Once the first four are handled, the real question shows up: "I have money sitting in an account and I don't know what to do with it." That's a good problem — and it's the one this last stop is for.

This isn't a hard sell. It's a short conversation about paying down debt, building reserves, and — when you're ready — simple, low-drama investing options.