“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” - Mark Twain

Small Farm

A man owned a small farm.
 
The State Wage & Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
 
“I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent.
 
“Well,” replied the farmer, “there’s my farm hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week, plus free room and board.
 
The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay him $150 per week, plus free room and board.
 
Then there’s the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.
 
“That’s the guy I want to talk to — the half-wit,” says the agent.

“That would be me,” replied the farmer.

Smallbizsurvival has a good article on the times when you should NOT be a sole proprietor or partnership including:

Ownership - if you want to bring in a partner
Liability - if you have the type of business where you are more likely to be the target of a lawsuit
Taxes - if you are going to do so well financially that taxes are going to be an issue
Investment - if you want to be able to bring in other people in an ownership position
Selling - if you want to sell the business and make it easy to transfer to new owners

Actually, since the LLC has become so popular, there are few if any reasons not to incorporate or form an LLC with the exception of a few states (California) that have a large yearly tax on these entities ($800 minimum). Learn about incorporating or forming an LLC right now.