The Micro-SaaS Legal Checklist for Solo Founders: What You Actually Need (And What You Can Skip)

<article> <h1>The Micro-SaaS Legal Checklist for Solo Founders: What You Actually Need (And What You Can Skip)</h1> <p>Ask a lawyer what legal work a new SaaS founder needs and you will get a list that costs $10,000-30,000 to complete: incorporation, IP assignment agreements, founders' agreements, employment contracts, terms of service, privacy policy, cookie policy, data processing agreements, GDPR compliance, CCPA compliance, COPPA compliance if minors might use the product, SOC 2 audit preparation, and more.</p> <p>Some of that list is genuinely important. Much of it is premature. And some of it — for a solo micro-SaaS at early stage — is a distraction from the only legal work that actually matters: protecting yourself from liability while staying compliant with the rules you are legally required to follow.</p> <p>This guide tells you what is essential, what is worth doing early, what can wait, and what is almost always overkill for a solo bootstrapped micro-SaaS. It is not a substitute for legal advice — it is a framework for having a more productive conversation with a lawyer and spending your legal budget where it creates the most value.</p> <p><strong>Jurisdiction note:</strong> This guide is US-centric. The structure of legal requirements differs significantly in other jurisdictions. Non-US founders should treat this as a reference framework and verify each element against their local requirements.</p> <hr/> <h2>Priority 1: The Non-Negotiables (Do Before You Launch)</h2> <p>These are the legal elements that create serious liability if skipped. They are not optional. They must be in place before you charge your first customer.</p> <h3>1.1 Business Entity Formation</h3> <p>Operating as a sole proprietor — that is, with no business entity at all — means your personal assets are on the hook for any business liability. A customer whose data is breached, a contractor who claims they were misclassified, a user who claims the product caused them financial harm: all of these become your personal liability if you have no entity separating business from personal assets.</p> <p>The right entity for most solo micro-SaaS founders is a <strong>single-member LLC</strong> in the state where you live and work. Here is why:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Limited liability.</strong> Your personal assets are protected from business liabilities, subject to maintaining the separation (more on this below).</li> <li><strong>Pass-through taxation.</strong> LLC income is taxed at the individual level by default. No double-taxation. Simple tax filing using Schedule C or Schedule E.</li> <li><strong>Minimal formality.</strong> Single-member LLCs require less ongoing compliance than corporations: no board meetings, no stock issuance, no annual meetings.</li> <li><strong>Flexibility.</strong> If you later want to bring on investors or co-founders, you can convert the LLC to a C-corporation or restructure as needed.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Cost:</strong> $50-500 depending on your state (California is expensive at $800/year minimum; most states are under $200 to form and under $100/year to maintain). You can form an LLC yourself through your state's Secretary of State website. Alternatively, services like Stripe Atlas, Clerky, or Northwest Registered Agents can handle it for $100-300 in addition to state fees.</p> <p><strong>Delaware vs. your home state:</strong> You have likely heard that "you should incorporate in Delaware." This is true for venture-backed startups. For a solo bootstrapped micro-SaaS, it creates additional complexity (you need a registered agent in Delaware, and if you do business in your home state, you may need to register there too as a "foreign LLC"). Unless you plan to raise venture capital, form your LLC in your home state.</p> <p><strong>Maintaining the liability shield:</strong> An LLC only protects you if you maintain the separation between business and personal finances. This means: a dedicated business bank account, a business credit or debit card for business expenses, never commingling personal and business funds, and — in most states — publishing a notice of LLC formation in a local newspaper (check your state's requirements). Ignoring these requirements can result in "piercing the corporate veil" — a court finding that the LLC does not provide liability protection.</p> <h3>1.2 Business Bank Account</h3> <p>Open a business checking account in the name of your LLC before you take any money. This is not just best practice — it is essential for maintaining the liability protection your LLC provides.</p> <p>Recommended options for solo founders:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Mercury:</strong> No monthly fees, free wire transfers, excellent API for founders, excellent UI. Best overall for early-stage SaaS founders.</li> <li><strong>Relay:</strong> No fees, good multi-account support (useful for separating operating funds from tax savings).</li> <li><strong>Novo:</strong> No fees, integrates well with Stripe and other SaaS tools.</li> </ul> <p>Avoid traditional bank accounts for your LLC if you can. They charge monthly maintenance fees, have poor digital tooling, and are harder to use with modern payment processors and accounting software.</p> <p><strong>Immediate action:</strong> Set up two sub-accounts or two separate accounts — one for operating funds, one for tax savings. Move 35% of every revenue deposit to the tax savings account. Never touch the tax savings account until you make quarterly estimated tax payments.</p> <h3>1.3 Terms of Service</h3> <p>Your Terms of Service (ToS) is the contract between you and your users. It governs what users can and cannot do with your product, limits your liability for service failures, and establishes dispute resolution procedures. Without a ToS, you are operating with no contract — which means courts will apply default rules that may not favor you.</p> <p>Essential elements of a micro-SaaS ToS:</p> <ul> <li><strong>License grant:</strong> What rights are you granting users? A limited, non-exclusive license to use the software, subject to the terms.</li> <li><strong>Prohibited uses:</strong> What is users explicitly not allowed to do? Resell access, reverse engineer, use for illegal purposes, violate others' IP rights, abuse rate limits.</li> <li><strong>Warranty disclaimers:</strong> "The service is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind." This language — while feeling legally aggressive — is standard and important.</li> <li><strong>Limitation of liability:</strong> Caps your liability to the amount the customer paid you in the prior 12 months. This clause has been tested in courts and is generally enforceable in B2B contexts.</li> <li><strong>Indemnification:</strong> The user agrees to hold you harmless for harms caused by their use of the service.</li> <li><strong>Governing law and dispute resolution:</strong> Which state's laws govern, and whether disputes go to arbitration or court.</li> <li><strong>Termination rights:</strong> Your right to suspend or terminate accounts for ToS violations.</li> <li><strong>Subscription terms:</strong> Billing cycles, cancellation policy, refund policy.</li> </ul> <p><strong>How to get one:</strong> For a micro-SaaS, a lawyer-reviewed template from Bonterms or a similar source is a reasonable starting point. Services like Termly or Iubenda generate ToS documents automatically for $9-50/month. The risk with automated generators is that they produce generic documents that may not reflect your specific product and business model — and that can create problems if you ever need to enforce specific provisions.</p> <p>A middle path: use an automated generator to produce a first draft, then pay a lawyer for a one-hour review ($250-500) to catch provisions that do not fit your situation and add any product-specific protections you need.</p> <p><strong>Implementation:</strong> Require users to accept the ToS at signup — a clickwrap agreement where the user checks a box or clicks "I agree" before completing registration. This creates an enforceable contract. ToS linked only in the footer is "browsewrap" and is far less likely to be enforced.</p> <h3>1.4 Privacy Policy</h3> <p>A privacy policy is legally required if you collect any personal information from users — which you do, even if it is just an email address and payment information. Required under GDPR (if any EU users), CCPA (if any California users), and various other state laws that have passed in recent years.</p> <p>Your privacy policy must disclose:</p> <ul> <li>What personal information you collect</li> <li>How you use it</li> <li>Who you share it with (your SaaS infrastructure providers)</li> <li>How long you retain it</li> <li>User rights (to access, correct, delete their data)</li> <li>How to contact you with privacy requests</li> <li>Whether you use cookies and for what purposes</li> </ul> <p>For a simple micro-SaaS with no advertising, no data selling, and no complex analytics stack, an automated privacy policy from Termly or Iubenda is generally adequate at the early stage. The key is accuracy — the policy must actually describe what you do with data, not what a generic template assumes you do.</p> <p><strong>GDPR note:</strong> If you have users in the EU, you technically need a cookie consent banner and need to be able to respond to data subject access requests (users asking for their data), deletion requests ("right to be forgotten"), and data portability requests. For an early-stage micro-SaaS with a small user base, implementing basic GDPR compliance — a cookie banner, a working "delete my account" button, and a privacy@ email address — is achievable without significant legal cost.</p> <p><strong>Cost:</strong> $9-50/month for an automated tool, or $300-600 for a lawyer-drafted policy. The automated approach is adequate for early stage.</p> <h3>1.5 EIN (Employer Identification Number)</h3> <p>An EIN is a federal tax ID number for your business. You need it to open a business bank account, to pay employees or contractors, and to file business tax returns. Apply for one immediately after forming your LLC — the IRS issues EINs instantly online at no cost.</p> <p>URL: irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online</p> <hr/> <h2>Priority 2: Important But Often Handled Wrong (Do In First 90 Days)</h2> <h3>2.1 Intellectual Property Assignment</h3> <p>Any code you wrote before forming your LLC technically belongs to you as an individual, not to your LLC. If this matters — and it does if you ever sell the company, raise investment, or have a dispute — you want a formal IP assignment from you personally to your LLC.</p> <p>This is a one-page document stating that you are assigning all IP related to the product — code, trademarks, domain names, social accounts — to the LLC. A lawyer can draft this for $200-400. It is worth doing in your first month.</p> <h3>2.2 Contractor Agreements</h3> <p>If you use any contractors — freelance developers, designers, copywriters, anyone — each engagement needs a written agreement that includes:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Scope of work:</strong> Exactly what are they delivering?</li> <li><strong>IP assignment:</strong> Any work product they create for you belongs to you, not to them. This must be explicit — without it, a contractor may retain copyright over code they write for you.</li> <li><strong>Confidentiality:</strong> They cannot disclose information about your product, customers, or business.</li> <li><strong>Independent contractor classification:</strong> They are not an employee. This clause does not by itself make them not an employee — the actual nature of the work relationship determines that — but it establishes the intent and is required for proper tax treatment.</li> </ul> <p>Template contractor agreements are widely available (Docracy, Bonsai, and similar services) and cost $0-50. A lawyer review is worth it if the contractor is working on anything core to your product — you want to be sure the IP assignment is airtight.</p> <p><strong>W-9 and 1099 obligations:</strong> If you pay a US contractor more than $600 in a calendar year, you are required to collect a W-9 from them and issue a 1099-NEC at year end. Get the W-9 before the first payment — it is much harder to collect retroactively. Gusto or Wave can handle 1099 issuance automatically.</p> <h3>2.3 Trademark Registration (Optional at Early Stage)</h3> <p>A federal trademark registration gives you exclusive rights to your brand name and logo in your product category across the United States. It is not required to use a name — you have common-law trademark rights by virtue of using it in commerce — but registration provides significantly stronger protection and is required before suing someone for infringement.</p> <p>For a micro-SaaS at early stage, trademark registration is worth pursuing if:</p> <ul> <li>You have a distinctive, memorable name that is not a generic description</li> <li>You are confident in the name and not planning to rebrand</li> <li>You have done a trademark search and not found any conflicting registrations</li> </ul> <p>Before registering, always run a search on the USPTO's TESS database (tmsearch.uspto.gov) to check for existing registrations in your class of goods/services. Attempting to register a name that is already registered — or that is confusingly similar to an existing registration — wastes your filing fees and can result in an infringement demand.</p> <p><strong>Cost:</strong> $250-350 per class of goods/services for the USPTO filing fee (TEAS Plus). Attorney fees for a standard trademark application typically run $750-1,500. The USPTO reviews applications over 12-18 months.</p> <p><strong>Verdict:</strong> Defer trademark registration until you have $5,000+ MRR and are confident in your brand. Before that, do a trademark search to make sure the name is clear, and move on.</p> <hr/> <h2>Priority 3: Real but Deferrable (Do at $5,000-10,000 MRR)</h2> <h3>3.1 Data Processing Agreements (DPAs)</h3> <p>If your customers are businesses (B2B), especially ones in regulated industries or ones that have EU operations, they may request a DPA — a formal agreement governing how you process their users' personal data on their behalf. GDPR requires data processors to have DPAs with their data controllers.</p> <p>For a micro-SaaS with a small customer base, you will typically not face DPA requests until you are working with somewhat larger customers. When you do, your infrastructure providers (AWS, Stripe, Intercom, etc.) all have their own DPAs that you can reference. Services like Termly and Iubenda generate DPA templates.</p> <h3>3.2 SOC 2 Type II Certification</h3> <p>SOC 2 is a security compliance framework that enterprise customers increasingly require before procuring software. A Type II audit examines your security controls over a 6-12 month observation period and produces a report that you can share with customers as evidence of your security posture.</p> <p>SOC 2 is expensive ($30,000-100,000 for a first-time audit when including auditor fees, prep work, and tooling) and time-consuming. It is almost never appropriate for a solo micro-SaaS at early stage. The time to pursue it is when enterprise customers are asking for it and when you have a team large enough to implement and maintain the required controls.</p> <p>There are compliance automation tools (Drata, Vanta, Secureframe) that reduce the cost and time of SOC 2 preparation to $15,000-40,000 and 3-4 months. These are still a significant investment. Defer until the revenue justifies it.</p> <h3>3.3 Employment Law Compliance</h3> <p>If you hire employees — as opposed to contractors — you enter a complex compliance landscape: payroll taxes, workers' compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, anti-discrimination protections, leave laws (FMLA, state PFML), and more. All of this is manageable with modern payroll software (Gusto, Rippling), but it is a real obligation.</p> <p>For a solo founder, hire contractors rather than employees as long as the nature of the work supports it. The IRS's rules on worker classification are complex — the key factors are behavioral control, financial control, and the type of relationship — but for a developer or designer doing project-based work for multiple clients, contractor classification is generally appropriate.</p> <p>When you hire your first employee (which should not happen until you have stable, growing revenue well above personal sustainability), consult an employment attorney in your state. Employment law is highly state-specific, and the cost of non-compliance is high.</p> <h3>3.4 Business Insurance</h3> <p>Two types of insurance are relevant for most micro-SaaS founders:</p> <p><strong>Errors and Omissions (E&amp;O) / Professional Liability:</strong> Covers claims that your software failed to perform as promised and caused a customer financial harm. Important once you have meaningful customer concentration or customers in regulated industries. Typically $500-2,000/year for early-stage SaaS.</p> <p><strong>Cyber Liability Insurance:</strong> Covers costs related to data breaches, including legal defense, notification costs, and credit monitoring for affected users. Becoming more important as breach-related lawsuits increase. Typically $500-3,000/year for early-stage SaaS.</p> <p>At very early stage (pre-product-market-fit, small user base, no sensitive data), these policies can be deferred. Once you have meaningful revenue and a user base that trusts you with real data, obtain them.</p> <hr/> <h2>Priority 4: Things You Can Almost Always Skip (Or At Least Defer Indefinitely)</h2> <h3>4.1 Founders' Agreements</h3> <p>A founders' agreement governs the relationship between co-founders: equity split, vesting, roles, decision-making authority, and what happens if a founder leaves. Essential for multi-founder startups. Completely irrelevant for a solo founder with no co-founders.</p> <h3>4.2 Board Agreements and Governance Documents</h3> <p>Board seats, voting rights, drag-along provisions, information rights — all of this is relevant when you have investors or multiple significant shareholders. For a solo LLC with no outside investment, your operating agreement is the only governance document you need.</p> <h3>4.3 Equity Plans and Stock Option Pools</h3> <p>Equity compensation is how you attract early employees and advisors when you cannot compete on salary. It requires converting to a corporation (typically a Delaware C-corp), creating an option pool, and administering a 409A valuation. This is appropriate when you are scaling with a team and considering outside investment. It is not appropriate for a solo micro-SaaS at early stage.</p> <h3>4.4 Patent Applications</h3> <p>Software patents are expensive ($15,000-30,000 to file and prosecute), slow (2-5 years to grant), and of limited value for most SaaS products. The competitive advantage of a micro-SaaS comes from execution, distribution, and customer relationships — not from a patent portfolio. Pursuing software patents at early stage almost always represents a misallocation of legal budget.</p> <h3>4.5 DMCA Agent Registration</h3> <p>If users can upload content to your platform, you may want to register a DMCA agent with the US Copyright Office to preserve the "safe harbor" protection that shields you from liability for user-uploaded infringing content. If your product is not a platform for user-generated content, this is not relevant.</p> <hr/> <h2>The Legal Cost Budget by Stage</h2> <p>Here is a realistic cost budget for legal work at each stage of a solo micro-SaaS:</p> <h3>Pre-Launch (Before First Customer)</h3> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Item</th> <th>Estimated Cost</th> <th>Priority</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>LLC formation (state filing fees)</td> <td>$50-500</td> <td>Essential</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Business bank account</td> <td>$0</td> <td>Essential</td> </tr> <tr> <td>EIN registration</td> <td>$0</td> <td>Essential</td> </tr> <tr> <td>ToS (automated tool)</td> <td>$0-50</td> <td>Essential</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Privacy policy (automated tool)</td> <td>$0-50/year</td> <td>Essential</td> </tr> <tr> <td>IP assignment from founder to LLC</td> <td>$200-400</td> <td>Important</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Total</strong></td> <td><strong>$250-1,000</strong></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h3>First Year ($0-$5,000 MRR)</h3> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Item</th> <th>Estimated Cost</th> <th>Priority</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Lawyer review of ToS and Privacy Policy</td> <td>$500-1,000</td> <td>Important</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Contractor agreements (template + review)</td> <td>$200-500</td> <td>Important if using contractors</td> </tr> <tr> <td>CPA for first-year business tax return</td> <td>$500-1,500</td> <td>Important</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Annual LLC maintenance fees</td> <td>$50-800/year</td> <td>Required</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Trademark search (DIY)</td> <td>$0</td> <td>Recommended</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Total First Year (on top of pre-launch)</strong></td> <td><strong>$1,250-3,800</strong></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h3>Growth Phase ($5,000-$15,000 MRR)</h3> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Item</th> <th>Estimated Cost</th> <th>Priority</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Trademark registration</td> <td>$1,000-2,000</td> <td>Recommended</td> </tr> <tr> <td>E&amp;O / Cyber liability insurance</td> <td>$1,000-3,000/year</td> <td>Recommended</td> </tr> <tr> <td>DPA template and first enterprise contract review</td> <td>$500-1,500</td> <td>If selling to enterprise</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Total Growth Phase (per year)</strong></td> <td><strong>$2,500-6,500</strong></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <hr/> <h2>Finding and Working With a Lawyer</h2> <p>You do not need a full-service law firm for micro-SaaS legal work. You need someone who understands SaaS specifically and can advise you efficiently. Here is how to find them.</p> <h3>Where to Find SaaS-Friendly Lawyers</h3> <ul> <li><strong>SCORE mentors:</strong> Free mentorship from retired business professionals, including lawyers who work with small businesses. Not suitable for complex matters but good for general guidance.</li> <li><strong>State bar referral services:</strong> Most state bars have lawyer referral services that can match you with attorneys by practice area. First consultations are often free or low-cost.</li> <li><strong>Indie Hackers and MicroConf communities:</strong> Fellow founders are the best source of attorney recommendations. Ask specifically for someone who has worked with bootstrapped SaaS businesses, not just "startups" (which usually means venture-backed).</li> <li><strong>Clerky, Stripe Atlas, Gust Launch:</strong> These legal-services platforms have lawyer networks that specialize in startup formation and are familiar with SaaS-specific issues.</li> </ul> <h3>How to Use a Lawyer Efficiently</h3> <p>Lawyers bill by the hour, and the meter starts running when you first contact them. Every efficiency you build into the engagement saves money.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Come prepared.</strong> Before any meeting or call, write out exactly what you need: a summary of your business, the specific legal question you have, and any relevant documents. Send this before the meeting.</li> <li><strong>Do your own research first.</strong> Lawyers should not explain basic concepts to you. Read the general materials on a topic before you meet. Reserve the lawyer's time for your specific situation.</li> <li><strong>Use templates as starting points.</strong> Give the lawyer a template document to review and modify rather than asking them to draft from scratch. Review-and-modify is significantly cheaper than draft-from-scratch.</li> <li><strong>Batch your questions.</strong> Do not send emails with one question at a time. Accumulate three to five questions and send them together in a well-organized email. You will pay for one response instead of five.</li> <li><strong>Ask for flat fees where possible.</strong> Many routine matters (LLC formation, standard contract templates, trademark applications) can be handled on a flat fee rather than hourly. Ask explicitly.</li> </ul> <hr/> <h2>The Compliance Calendar: What to Do and When</h2> <p>Legal compliance is not a one-time event — it has ongoing obligations. Here is a simple compliance calendar for a solo micro-SaaS LLC.</p> <h3>Annual Obligations</h3> <ul> <li><strong>LLC annual report:</strong> Most states require annual or biennial filings to keep your LLC in good standing. Deadlines vary by state. Missing them results in penalties or dissolution. Set a calendar reminder.</li> <li><strong>Federal income tax return:</strong> Due March 15 for an LLC taxed as a partnership; April 15 for a single-member LLC filing Schedule C. File an extension if needed — extensions give you more time to file, not more time to pay. Pay estimated taxes quarterly.</li> <li><strong>State income tax return:</strong> Varies by state. Some states have no income tax. Some have a minimum franchise tax on LLCs regardless of income (California's $800 minimum is the most notorious).</li> <li><strong>1099-NEC issuance:</strong> Send to all contractors paid more than $600, due January 31.</li> <li><strong>Privacy policy and ToS review:</strong> Review annually and update to reflect any changes in your data practices, product, or applicable law.</li> </ul> <h3>Quarterly Obligations</h3> <ul> <li><strong>Estimated tax payments:</strong> Due April 15, June 15, September 15, January 15. Calculate using Form 1040-ES or have your CPA calculate.</li> </ul> <h3>Event-Triggered Obligations</h3> <ul> <li><strong>Hiring a contractor:</strong> Get a signed contractor agreement and W-9 before the first payment.</li> <li><strong>Data breach:</strong> Depending on your state and the nature of the data, you may have a legal obligation to notify affected users and, in some cases, state authorities. The timelines vary (California requires notification "in the most expedient time possible," generally interpreted as 45-72 hours for certain breaches). Know your obligations before a breach happens, not after.</li> <li><strong>Receiving a cease and desist:</strong> Do not ignore these. Forward to a lawyer immediately. A C&D is not a lawsuit — it is a warning — but ignoring it can be used as evidence of willfulness if litigation follows.</li> <li><strong>User submitting a data deletion request:</strong> You are legally required under CCPA (California), GDPR (EU), and a growing number of state laws to process these requests. Build the capability to delete user data into your product from the beginning — retrofitting it later is expensive and disruptive.</li> </ul> <hr/> <h2>Common Legal Mistakes Solo Founders Make</h2> <h3>Mistake 1: Using a Personal Email for Business Contracts</h3> <p>When you sign contracts as "[email protected]" rather than "[email protected]," you may be signing personally rather than on behalf of your LLC. Use a business email address for all business communications and contract execution.</p> <h3>Mistake 2: Not Keeping Records of Who Agreed to Your Terms</h3> <p>If you ever need to enforce your ToS or defend against a claim that a user did not agree to it, you need a record of when they agreed and which version they agreed to. Store this in your database at signup. Most auth providers (Clerk, Auth0) can capture this with a custom field.</p> <h3>Mistake 3: Ignoring Jurisdiction When Setting Up Payment Processing</h3> <p>Stripe and other payment processors have geographic restrictions on what types of products can be sold in different jurisdictions. If you plan to sell internationally, read Stripe's restricted businesses list and, if your product touches anything on it, understand what documentation and compliance is required.</p> <h3>Mistake 4: Copying Another Company's Terms</h3> <p>Many founders copy ToS language from other SaaS products verbatim. This is copyright infringement — ToS documents are copyrightable. It also risks including provisions that do not apply to your product and omitting ones that do. Use a template or pay a lawyer to draft original language.</p> <h3>Mistake 5: Assuming an LLC Provides Complete Protection</h3> <p>An LLC protects your personal assets from business liabilities — but only if you maintain proper separation of business and personal finances and do not do anything that would constitute fraud or gross negligence. It does not protect you from personal liability for your own torts (intentional wrongdoing, professional malpractice), from personal guarantees you have signed, or from situations where courts find the LLC was set up as a sham.</p> <h3>Mistake 6: Not Having a Written Agreement Before Starting Work</h3> <p>Verbal agreements and email threads are technically enforceable contracts, but they are much harder to enforce and much easier to dispute than a signed written agreement. Get every material relationship — with contractors, with co-marketing partners, with integration partners — in writing before work begins.</p> <hr/> <h2>The One-Page Legal Checklist</h2> <p>Print this out and check it off before you launch:</p> <p><strong>Entity and Banking:</strong></p> <ul> <li>LLC formed in home state</li> <li>EIN obtained from IRS</li> <li>Business bank account opened</li> <li>Personal and business finances fully separated</li> <li>Tax savings account opened (35% of every deposit)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Customer-Facing:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Terms of Service published and clickwrap accepted at signup</li> <li>Privacy Policy published and linked</li> <li>Cookie banner in place (if tracking cookies used)</li> <li>User data deletion capability built or documented</li> </ul> <p><strong>Intellectual Property:</strong></p> <ul> <li>IP assignment from founder to LLC executed</li> <li>Trademark search completed for product name</li> <li>Domain and relevant social handles owned by LLC (not personally)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Contractors:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Written agreement with IP assignment clause for every contractor</li> <li>W-9 collected before first payment</li> </ul> <p><strong>Compliance:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Quarterly estimated tax dates on calendar</li> <li>Annual LLC report date on calendar</li> <li>CPA engaged for first tax year</li> </ul> <hr/> <h2>Conclusion: Legal Clarity Is a Business Asset</h2> <p>Legal setup is not glamorous work. It does not feel like progress in the way that shipping features or acquiring customers does. But the founders who skip it or defer it indefinitely are building on an unstable foundation — one where a single contract dispute, a data incident, or an IP challenge can undo years of work.</p> <p>The good news is that the legal foundation for a solo micro-SaaS is genuinely simple and affordable. A properly formed LLC, a bank account, a sound ToS, and an accurate privacy policy cost under $1,000 and can be assembled in a few days. Everything else on this list can be added as you grow, in order of priority, as the business generates the revenue to fund it.</p> <p>Build the foundation first. Get the basics right. Then build the product.</p> </article>