Hi! I want to start my own puppet theater company for doing shows at schools and churches and things like that. Can anyone tell me exactly what Licenses and official certifications I need to go about this and profit from it "legally"? Someone said get incorporated, but what else and what should I be checking out to make things easier on myself. I am not rich and I don't expect to get rich with puppetry, but it's a hobby I'd like to share with people and at the same time make a profit with my shows. Any info would be quite helpful..I live in the state of Oregon if that helps.

I don't know what it's like in the US, but here in Australia there's no need for certifications or licenses. The only things we do here (if doing shows at schools) is perhaps get a police background check, and make sure we have public liability insurance.

Setting up an actual business name/model, or registering as an incorporation depends entirely on how you want to run the administrative side of things. For instance, incorporating a business here is only useful if you want to be a not-for-profit organisation and you want to apply for NFP funding/philanthropy. My company never bothered because it cost way too much to file the papers, so we just set up as a for-profit organisation. (Again, take this with a HUGE grain of salt, since I have no knowledge of how things work in the US)

Na is pretty spot on with things.  There really is not need to incorporate and I think as a rule that even in the US people only do it if they are a not for profit. If you are doing shows at schools and such then it is a good idea to look at liability insurance.   You don't even need that legally in most areas, it is just a good idea although some school systems or libraries do require it. 

It would make sense to just  establish yourself under a "Doing Business As" DBA registration. It doesn't cost anything but gives you what you need when it comes to doing taxes etc. And I would suggest getting liability insurance through Specialty Insurance company - I have found it to be the most reasonably priced and they are very easy to work with. www.specialtyinsuranceagency.com They keep up with the current requirements for most places. I would also highly recommend using a contract with ALL clients. Unfortunately my experience has been that sometimes churches are the worst when it comes to getting paid and if you have a contract for everyone it protects you. There are many here who can give advice but I thought I would just give you a bit of my experiences.

You don't even need that legally in most areas, it is just a good idea although some school systems or libraries do require it.  

Really? This seems too wrong to be true. Practically every theatre, performance space (that is, a hired church, scout hall, etc), as well as all schools, require at least at $10mill policy here. Although it's not illegal (as far as I'm aware) to perform without it, it's very difficult to avoid having a policy if you're a responsible touring show business. ('Responsible' being key here, as hinted at below)

I can think of about 100 different things that you need PL insurance for, and that's doing shows for adults where you have people who (at least should be) aware enough to not touch anything they're not supposed to.

I can't imagine doing shows without insurance - although I seem to be in a minority even within my own industry in Melbourne, as too many people just assume 'ah it will be ok'. That kind of complacency easily gets you in trouble, especially if you're on tour and things go wrong.

If you do decide to get insurance or any other kind of registration, bonding, etc., Make sure you take advantage of it as a marketing tool. Letting people know that you have this kind of protection tells potential clients that you are serious and responsible about what you are doing.

I believe that if you incorporate, it helps protect you personally. I don't think someone could take everything you own if they sued you. Also be ready to pay taxes on what you make. Where I live, they have both state and county taxes to be paid.  I'm not sure if www.legalzoom.com can help you.

I'm not sure if it's the same in the US, but here if you incorporate, it doesn't give you protection over being sued. It just means the 'company' is sued, rather than the 'individual'. If there's only a handful of people in the 'company', then it becomes a moot point. At any rate, that's why you get insurance...