Teacher looking to expand, question about when I need to become a business

[TeachingBizNoob]

Currently teaching a local course in Ohio with between 20-40 students per year. Although I handle every aspect of the course, it's contracted through a local non-profit org.

I'm looking to expand my course online through a website called Teachable (or some other alternative as I haven't tested it out yet) so I can bring in students from across the country.

The goal is to eventually have my own website and not rely on any other organization or company to help support my courses.

What I am wondering is when I need to think about applying to become an actual business. While I'm teaching on Teachable or some other online teaching template, I'll be making my own income yet I'll be doing through that website which is it's own company. So I assume I won't need to do it while I'm on there. However, when I make my own website and out on my own, what threshold is there that I need to cross before I apply to become a business?

Is there like a certain amount of income I need to bring in before I have to become a business? Or is there some other requirements that I must meet before I need to apply to become a business? I tried to google but it seems hard to find the exact information I'm looking for.

Thanks!

[Harold Mansfield]

It's really up to you. If you need to separate business and personal assets, or are entering some sort of partnership...those are the most common reasons that people incorporate.
But as a one man show you can run as a sole proprietor for as long as you want. As a sole proprietor you merely report the additional income. You can continue using your SS# or apply for an EIN from the IRS.
https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Sole-Proprietorships

That's the cliff note version. I'm sure others will chime in.

[TeachingBizNoob]

It's really up to you. If you need to separate business and personal assets, or are entering some sort of partnership...those are the most common reasons that people incorporate.
But as a one man show you can run as a sole proprietor for as long as you want. As a sole proprietor you merely report the additional income. You can continue using your SS# or apply for an EIN from the IRS.
https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Sole-Proprietorships

That's the cliff note version. I'm sure others will chime in.

Ah, thanks for the link.

[MosheC]

If you're going to be making money, you need to be a business and to pay taxes. As far as teachable I've heard great things about them. And even when you have your own website, it's probably best to keep using them. You don't want to burden yourself too much with the maintenance of the course on your own site. Following payments making sure everything is running smoothly. Sounds like you have a lot of work to do regardless of that.

[BNB]

You don't "need" to become a "business". In a technical sense, that doesn't actually make sense. You can work as a contractor all you want without registering anything new. The benefit to incorporating would be to separate yourself from your business, usually for liability and some tax benefits. Generally speaking, there is a certain income level where it makes sense, I believe usually around $40k of income from contracting. But you would want to speak with an accountant about that.

If you incorporate, you not only have your costs to incorporate, but additional accounting as well unless you wish to learn it yourself. It's not terribly difficult but possibly not worth your time.