I have watched smart people make every one of these.
- Choosing from a single blog post. Jurisdiction advice ages fast; a 2019 article is not research. - Optimizing only for tax. Zero percent means nothing if you cannot open a bank account or your home country taxes you anyway. - Ignoring banking, the silent killer. If you cannot receive money, nothing else matters. - Forgetting annual costs. Setup is one-time; maintenance is forever. - Assuming privacy means what it used to. Beneficial ownership registries have expanded everywhere. - Skipping the substance question. Some places now require real local presence. - Doing it alone to save money. The filing is the easy part; getting it wrong costs multiples of what help would cost.
One habit prevents half of these: put every deadline in a compliance tracker the day you incorporate. And for the filing itself, IncorpTrack handles US registration for $49 plus the state fee, so you incorporate without the paperwork maze.