Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated: April 8, 2026

The Federal Trade Commission requires websites that earn money through affiliate links to disclose those relationships. We agree, and we want to be more transparent than the FTC requires. This page explains exactly how we make money and what that means for you.

The short version

shouldistartthis.com participates in affiliate programs. When you click certain links and make a purchase or sign up for a service, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We also display advertising on most pages. We sell digital products directly. None of these change the editorial content of the site, and we don't recommend products purely because they pay us.

The longer version

We have three sources of revenue:

1. Affiliate commissions

We're part of affiliate programs run by companies whose products and services we genuinely use or recommend. These typically include business banking (like Relay), business formation services (LegalZoom, Bizee, ZenBusiness, Northwest Registered Agent), business insurance (Thimble, Next Insurance, Hiscox, Insureon), equipment retailers (Amazon Associates), software providers (Jobber, Housecall Pro, QuickBooks, and similar), and other small business services.

When you click an affiliate link on our site and complete a qualifying action (usually a purchase, signup, or qualified lead), the company pays us a small commission. The price you pay is the same as if you'd gone directly to the company. The commission is paid out of the company's marketing budget, not added to your bill.

Affiliate links throughout the site are usually marked or made obvious by context (links to product pages and signup pages). If you want to be certain whether a link is an affiliate link, hover over it to see the destination URL. Affiliate links typically include tracking parameters or go through redirect domains.

2. Display advertising

We display ads on most articles and guides through ad networks. The ads you see are placed by these networks and we don't control which specific ads are shown to you. The ad networks pay us based on impressions and clicks.

We try to keep advertising minimal and non-intrusive. We don't run autoplay video ads, sticky footer ads, full-screen interstitials, or ads that mimic editorial content. We generally cap the number of display ads on any page at three to four.

3. Digital products

We sell digital products directly to readers, including downloadable business plan templates, structured roadmaps for starting specific businesses, and (eventually) state-specific guided products. These are one-time purchases at $0 (free), $49, or $99 depending on the tier. Revenue from digital products goes directly to us.

Our editorial commitment

We don't recommend a product purely because it pays a commission. Where there's a clearly cheaper or better path for you, we say so even if it costs us a click. The whole point of this site is honest, useful guidance for people considering small business ownership. A single bad recommendation in service of an affiliate commission would undermine that, so we don't do it.

Specifically:

  • We point readers to the IRS for free EIN applications, even though some affiliate programs offer paid EIN services
  • We tell readers how to file LLCs directly through state websites (the cheapest path), even though we have affiliate relationships with formation services
  • We recommend talking to licensed professionals (attorneys, brokers, CPAs) for legal, insurance, and tax decisions, even though those professionals don't pay us
  • We disclose when an affiliate program has been paused, terminated, or replaced

What you can do

If you find our content useful and want to support the site, clicking through to one of our affiliate partners when you'd be signing up anyway is the easiest way to help. It costs you nothing and produces a small commission for us that funds the time we spend writing and updating articles.

If you don't want to use affiliate links, you can always go directly to a company's website by typing the URL or searching for it. We won't earn anything, but the content on this site is still free for you to use.

Contact

Questions about how we make money can be sent through our contact page.