But what you describe is a business: it's a group of people marketing jointly, coordinating their work ("decide together who works on what projects") and then sharing the profit ("then decide how to split the profits between themselves"). That IS a business--it's no different from, say, two attorneys or accountants opening up a practice together where they share marketing, divy up the work, and split profits. So legally yes, you can do this, and you can structure it a number of ways (as a general partnership; as an LLC; as a corporation; etc.) but it *is* a business. The best thing to do would be for those interested in this to consult with a busines attorney: they can lay out what they want to do, and the lawyer can advise them on the best structure to do that.