As a single-owner, there are only 2 that I see. 1) limited liability (personally a single-owner LLC is probably a better choice for this). 2) I bill my clients over a "market value wage" for a developer. Then I "hire myself" and pay myself a "market value" wage". I pay normal taxes on this, plus unemployment taxes. Any income over this "market value" wage, I can take as shareholder distributions (i.e. dividend). Those are taxed at long term capital gains, which is 5-8% lower than my tax bracket.

If you have partners, then its easy to set ownership (its % of shares), sell shares to VC, etc. Note: I am no where near this step yet, so I don't know the gritty details here.

I made every mistake possible as a corporation and have big scars to prove it. If you get some training, it won't be such a bad experience I'd hope.