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I have been building a bootstrapped SaaS business for the better part of a year working late into the night most nights per week. I have never spent anything aside from my own time and a few negligible expenses to get this system where it is now. Now that I am gearing up to launch my SaaS to the public, I need to start hiring out certain things like logo design, mobile add-ons, etc., as well as prepare to accept recurring payment for monthly services.

As I live in California, what steps must I take to "do it the right way" from a business/legal/financial perspective if I plan on continuing to be the only person working on this project?

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Doing it the right way means not doing it the wrong way and there are lots of ways to do things wrong but here are some that come to mind:

  • Make sure that your agreements with people doing work for you are clearly describe the relationship as an independent contractor and not an employee. You also need to treat the person as an independent contractor and I recommend googling to figure out what that means.

  • Make sure that your contracts state that you own all IP rights to anything created for you. E.g., logo, software, etc.

  • Don't take credit card numbers from people. That is too much risk for one guy. Use PayPal or something similar for payments.

  • If you need to keep something secret, make sure you have people sign non-disclosure agreements.

  • Register an LLC in California and make sure that you have a separate bank account for it. Don't mix personal funds with business funds.

  • Make sure your business/product names don't infringe someone else's trademark.

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excellent tips, thanks – Christian Jul 7 '11 at 13:14
Curious: why not take credit cards from customers if you're a single-person LLC? to what risk are you referring? – ron M. Jul 7 '11 at 15:10
@Ron -- PCI compliance is exceedingly hard & expensive to implement. The punishment for screwing it up is a hefty fine. – Wyatt O'Day Jul 7 '11 at 15:40
If I'm optimistic about raking in the dough, but like most things in life it isn't guaranteed, do you think it's best to form a single member LLC (from a license cost and tax perspective)? – Matt Beckman Jul 7 '11 at 18:08
@Matt, I don't know what license costs you are talking about. Do you mean fees to register LLC? LLC is probably cheaper than other options but varies by state. I don't know tax. – user6603 Jul 7 '11 at 18:21
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I am doing the exact same thing as you are doing: taking an idea to a bootstrap SaaS to be beta launched in the months to come. Few resources that really helped me with graphical design, templates is the "Envato Marketplaces". It's a collection of centrally owned market websites to adhere to several needs of web entrepreneurs. They offer excellent web templates, code snippets, forms, videos, and even music soundtracks for that "demo" video many web applications need to have today to capture attention.

http://themeforest.net/ - That is the "Web Themes" landing page. Scroll down to see the types of services they offer.

Regarding logos, I recommend http://99designs.com/ - which is an online marketplace where designers and potential customers meet. You define the work you need, set a price (typically $200 and up) and literally dozens of professional designers compete for your money, suggeting you logo drafts for you to choose. When you pick the winning design, the designer gets paid.

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