Starting my own business

It's been a long while since I did it, but starting a business isn't that hard and I certainly wouldn't pay for it. If you go down to your local city/county center, they'll probably walk you through it. I imagine you'd just need to file a DBA ("Doing Business As") as a sole proprietor (with state and municipals) and maybe a sales tax license (for collecting/reporting on sales) and a sales tax exemption (for purchases). You should be able to use your SSN for all of that. They'll give you grief if you say it's a home business and you're not zoned for it; probably moreso if you say you're a manufacturer. Most of the time it won't matter if you make clear that you won't be disruptive (no loud machinery or increased traffic).

I'm not a lawyer nor a tax advisor, but if it were me, I probably wouldn't worry with it until I was ready to make a large cash outlay I wanted to deduct, or I started making money. From what I remember, there were federal tax laws covering hobbies (an activity that makes less than some dollar amount -- I think it was $600 last I checked). I think those laws cover individuals engaging in business-like activities so they don't have to do all the paperwork/junk with getting set up as a company. Maybe your state also has similar rules. If so, you'd probably need to only comply with those rules for the first little while and could dispense with all the bueacracy until you were sure it was worth your while.