You've started hosting murder mystery events on evenings and weekends, and the bookings are coming in. Somewhere between the third private event and the first public ticketed night, a practical question shows up: do I need an LLC for a side business like this, or can you keep running it under your own name? The honest answer is that it depends on how much money is moving through the business and how much risk you're carrying at each venue, not on how official you feel you should be.
This isn't legal advice, and you should talk to an accountant or attorney about your specific state before you decide anything. But here's the practical version, based on how small event businesses actually grow.
What does an LLC actually protect you from?
An LLC, or limited liability company, keeps your business's debts and legal problems separate from your personal bank account, house, and car. If someone at a private event trips over a prop and sues, or a venue claims your event damaged their space, an LLC generally means they're going after the business's assets, not yours personally. Without one, you're a sole proprietor, and there's no legal wall between the two.
That separation is the whole point. It's not about looking more professional on paper, though that happens too. It's about what's exposed if something goes wrong at a booking.
Do I need an LLC for a side business running events?
Legally, no. Nothing stops you from running private events, selling tickets to public events, or licensing games under your own name as a sole proprietor. Plenty of people run a side business this way for years without issue, especially while they're still testing whether the business will grow into something bigger.
Where it starts to matter is when you're signing venue contracts, collecting deposits from customers you've never met, or bringing on someone else to help run the door. At that point the risk isn't hypothetical anymore, and the cost of forming an LLC is small compared to what you're protecting.
What happens if you skip the LLC?
As a sole proprietor, your business income and losses go on your personal tax return, which is simpler at tax time. But every contract you sign is signed by you personally, and every liability is yours personally. If a private event booked through your pricing and availability page goes wrong in a way that leads to a claim, there's no business entity standing between that claim and your own finances.
For a handful of events a year at low dollar amounts, some people accept that risk on purpose. It's a real choice, not a mistake, as long as you've actually thought about it rather than just not gotten around to the paperwork.
When does it make sense to actually form one?
A few signs it's time: you're running public ticketed events regularly rather than the odd private booking, you're taking on contractors or part-time staff, you're signing repeat contracts with venues, or you've started looking at running games under a licensed brand in your own city rather than one-off nights. Any of these means real money and real contracts, and that's exactly when the separation an LLC provides starts to earn its cost.
Forming one is usually a state filing fee and some paperwork, not a major project. Most people who wait until they're busy wish they'd done it a year earlier.
Does an LLC replace event insurance?
No. An LLC limits what's exposed if you're sued; it doesn't stop the lawsuit or pay for the claim. You still need general liability insurance for events, and many venues will ask to see proof of it before they'll let you book the space at all. Think of the LLC and the insurance as two separate layers, one legal and one financial, and get both if you're running events at any real scale.
What's the simplest path if you're just starting out?
Start by getting clear on which of the three ways you'll make money: private events booked at a customer's venue, public ticketed nights you sell tickets to, or running a licensed operation in your own area. Check the frequently asked questions for the practical details of how bookings and licensing work, then decide on the business structure once you know what you're actually running. The paperwork should follow the plan, not the other way round.
If you're looking at your own city and wondering whether there's already demand for this kind of event, it's worth checking public events by city to see what's already running nearby before you commit to a structure at all.
Once you've got a real answer to how often you'll be booking, signing contracts, and taking money from strangers, the LLC question tends to answer itself. And if the plan is to stop running occasional private nights and instead run games regularly under an established brand, that's a different business altogether, one where the training, the game library, and the booking system are already built for you.
That's what the licensee program is for. You bring the venue and the audience; the structure, the games, and the support are already in place. If that sounds closer to what you're actually trying to build, the licensee application is the place to start, or you can contact us with questions first. There's more on running this kind of business on the blog.