Independent consultants often find that the United States is their largest potential market — and one of the hardest to access. American companies buy enormous volumes of specialist consulting services, but administrative friction routinely gets in the way of hiring international providers. Cross-border wire transfers, unfamiliar contract structures, and EU-governed invoicing slow down or kill deals that would otherwise close. A US LLC removes most of that friction entirely.
The Background
Marie Dubois is a Paris-based consultant specialising in helping SaaS companies expand into Europe. With deep experience in go-to-market strategy, localisation, and European distribution, her work is directly relevant to US startups targeting the UK and EU markets. Her LinkedIn content and conference speaking had begun attracting significant attention from US founders and growth teams — but converting that attention into paid engagements was proving harder than it should have been.
The Challenge
Despite clear demand for her expertise, Marie was encountering the same friction points that block many European consultants from landing US work at scale.
- US companies preferred domestic invoices: Many US startups' accounts payable processes were built around domestic vendors; foreign invoices triggered additional approval steps, procurement reviews, and delays that wore down momentum in the sales cycle
- International wire transfers created payment friction: Sending payment to a French bank account required manual wire instructions, SWIFT codes, and currency conversion — introducing delays and administrative overhead that US clients found frustrating
- EU-governed contracts slowed legal approvals: Contracts referencing French or EU law required US legal teams to review unfamiliar jurisdictions, slowing approval times and occasionally killing deals entirely at the contracting stage
The net result was that Marie was winning interest from exactly the clients she wanted to work with, but losing a disproportionate number of engagements in the final stages — not because of price or capability, but because of structural friction that made her harder to work with than a US-based alternative.
The Strategy
Marie formed a Wyoming LLC through our service and began invoicing US clients through the US entity using Stripe, with a Mercury business account to receive payments. Contracts were rewritten under US law with a Wyoming governing clause — a straightforward change that US legal teams could review and approve without escalation.
Alongside the structural change, Marie repositioned her consulting services more explicitly for US SaaS companies entering the European market. Rather than describing herself as a European consultant available to international clients, she presented as a specialist in US-to-Europe expansion with the operational setup of a US vendor — the expertise of someone deeply embedded in European markets, with none of the administrative friction of working with a foreign entity.
The positioning change and the structural change reinforced each other. The LLC made the positioning credible; the positioning made the LLC commercially meaningful.
The Results
Within twelve months of forming the LLC and repositioning her practice, Marie's business had shifted substantially.
- US clients grew to 60% of revenue — up from a small fraction of her client base before the restructure
- Average project value tripled — US engagements came in at significantly higher rates than comparable European work, reflecting both the size of US startup budgets and the elimination of the discount she had previously needed to offer to compensate for payment friction
- Sales cycles shortened dramatically — removing the invoicing, wire transfer, and contracting obstacles meant deals that previously stalled at the commercial stage now closed cleanly
What Made the Difference
Marie's case is not unusual. The pattern — strong expertise, clear demand from US clients, friction at the commercial stage — is one we see consistently among European consultants, freelancers, and service businesses trying to build US revenue. The friction is rarely about the quality of the work. It is almost always about the mechanics of doing business across borders.
A US LLC does not make you a better consultant. It removes the obstacles that prevent good consultants from being hired by the clients who need them. For Marie, that meant a US bank account that accepted Stripe payouts directly, invoices that US accounts payable teams could process without extra steps, and contracts that US lawyers could approve without needing to review foreign law. The work remained exactly the same — the path to getting paid for it became significantly shorter.
Is This Relevant to Your Situation?
If you are a UK or European consultant, freelancer, or service business with US clients — or actively pursuing them — it is worth assessing honestly whether administrative friction is costing you work. The indicators are usually visible: deals that progress well but stall at the invoicing or contracting stage, clients who express interest but go quiet when payment terms come up, or a consistent pattern of losing to US-based competitors whose expertise is no stronger than yours.
Forming a US LLC is a relatively low-cost intervention with a direct commercial impact. Our Wyoming LLC formation service handles the process entirely remotely, including the EIN application. Once your LLC is in place, opening a US bank account through Mercury or Relay and connecting Stripe takes a matter of days. For the full list of what you will need, see our banking documents checklist.
Ready to Remove the Friction?
We help UK and European consultants and founders form US LLCs and obtain EIN numbers — entirely remotely. Our Enrolled Agent Richard Williams handles IRS paperwork directly and can advise on the tax implications for your specific situation.
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