Solopreneur Ops Kit

You landed your first client. You sent an invoice from a Google Doc. You accepted payment through your personal Venmo. You have no contract. You have no idea what your quarterly estimated taxes are or when they are due. You are, technically, running a business — and you are also one audit, one bad client, or one missed deadline away from a mess that takes months to unwind. Solopreneur Ops Kit patches the eight operational gaps that end most first-time businesses before year two. The skill covers business entity selection, bookkeeping tool choice (QBO vs Wave vs spreadsheet — with a decision matrix tied to your revenue stage), service agreement and project scope contract templates, invoice workflow with payment terms and late-fee language, time tracking setup, quarterly business review, and a tax calendar with a safe-harbor calculation worksheet. Every component is built for someone running a business for the first time. This skill does not tell you to hire an accountant before you have revenue. That advice is correct for year three. It is useless on day one, costs money you do not have, and solves a problem that does not exist yet. Every template here is designed to be installed solo, with no outside help, in a single weekend — so you are protected before your next client pays. What you get: ENTITY_BASICS.md — LLC vs sole proprietorship decision framework with state-specific filing notes. BOOKKEEPING_SETUP.md — QBO vs Wave vs spreadsheet decision matrix with a first-month setup checklist. CONTRACT_TEMPLATES/ — service agreement and project scope templates with editable clauses for deliverables, revisions, and kill fees. INVOICE_WORKFLOW.md — invoice structure, net-15/net-30 terms, late-fee language, and a three-step follow-up escalation sequence. TIME_TRACKING.md — tool selection guide and weekly logging protocol. TAX_CALENDAR.md — quarterly estimated tax schedule with a safe-harbor calculation worksheet. No paid subscriptions required beyond your chosen bookkeeping tool.