I use Wise to receive USD, GBP, AUD, and many more currencies - It's amazing!

My Wise account gives me my own bank details in these currencies, and I have them as my bank account info on my invoices.

That means a client based in the US can pay me by doing a local transfer to my US (Wise) account. It's a real banking revolution! 

A personal account is free, and a business account is currently a once-off $30 to set up, and you can be receiving funds that same day.

I've been using it since 2019, and I love it!

I used this super slick and unintimidating service in September 2022 to register an LLC in Wyoming (you can also register in Delaware).

From start to finish it took less than 3 weeks to get my company docs, my EIS from the IRS, and be able to open a traditional US bank account.

It cost $399 once off and requires an annual $99 to keep. If you want an official US physical address to receive your mail (which is sent to you electronically and allows you to have a bank account) it's an extra $35 a month to maintain. You could likely find easy alternatives to this.

The two major reasons to set up a US entity (especially as a South African), are you can have a Stripe account (without any shady workarounds that are not legit), and if you plan to become a digital nomad or immigrate, your business is not South African.

Go ahead and begin your registration process.

I've used Stripe since 2017, and love its interface. It can get addictive getting Stripe notifications and checking your sales.

Most "Rolls-Royce" all-in-one digital business platforms use it is their primary payment processor, and so it becomes necessary if you want to be in the "big leagues".

A newer feature of Stripe is that you can send payment links directly to clients for once-off payments out of your Stripe account and you can create product payment links for subscriptions.

Unfortunately for South Africans, you can't use a South African business and address and register a Stripe account. It's not that Stripe won't work if you are in South Africa, it's that you can choose South Africa as a place of business or personal residence.

There are many people simply giving an address of a friend or relative to get an account, but I wouldn't recommend following this approach long-term. But, technically it works.

Rather use a service like Firstbase and get your own company registered officially, with an address.

If you are using a friend or family "address hack", the work around is that you can send your Stripe funds into your Wise bank account. 

So, another win for Wise!