Can a group of freelancers brand themselves and work together without being considered a business?
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Can a group of freelancers brand themselves and work together without being considered a business?
Can a small group of freelancers host their resumes and portfolios on the same website, with a brand identity shared business cards, logo, letterhead, ect. without being considered a business? The idea is to attract more customers by network sharing. The freelancers decide together who works on what projects, and those freelancers then decide how to split the profits between themselves.
Asked on January 19, 2017 under Business Law, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
But what you describe is a business: it's a group of people marketing jointly, coordinating their work ("decide together who works on what projects") and then sharing the profit ("then decide how to split the profits between themselves"). That IS a business--it's no different from, say, two attorneys or accountants opening up a practice together where they share marketing, divy up the work, and split profits. So legally yes, you can do this, and you can structure it a number of ways (as a general partnership; as an LLC; as a corporation; etc.) but it *is* a business. The best thing to do would be for those interested in this to consult with a busines attorney: they can lay out what they want to do, and the lawyer can advise them on the best structure to do that.
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