Becoming self employed

For that sort of business, you may very well need a license. It all depends on the requirements of the area you live in, so you'll want to check on that before you do anything. Something else you're going to consider is that you're going to be paying about 33% of the money you make to taxes right off the top. You can cut it down with deductions and stuff, but when you're self-employed you get the joy of paying both the share you'd pay while employed by someone else and the part that's usually paid by the employer. As far as what deductions apply, it can be tricky, so having a tax professional help you out would probably be a good move at least in the first couple of years. Once you know what you're able to claim, you can probably use a program like TurboTax for your business filings.