Can I file an LLC myself, or do I need a lawyer?

You can absolutely file it yourself. Indiana's INBiz portal was built so a regular person can form an LLC without a lawyer, and the Articles of Organization ask for the kind of thing you already know: the name, the address, who's responsible. The state's fee runs about a hundred dollars. Twenty minutes and a coffee is a fair estimate of the work.

When is a lawyer actually worth it? When there's a second owner and money between you. When you're buying property, taking on real debt, or writing an operating agreement that has to hold up if the friendship doesn't. Those are the hours worth paying for — not typing your own name into a form.

What most people are really buying from a "formation package" is the feeling that somebody did it right. Fair enough. In a barn raising we prepare every field and stand with you while you sign it — and the state's fee goes straight to the state, in the open, on the ledger.

Builders, not lawyers — for anything with a partner or a mortgage in it, buy the real hour.