Currently, I own 100% of my sole proprietorship, but I am exploring the possibility of forming an LLC. However, I want to share a small percentage of my ownership with an essential employee in the future.

I am very ignorant in this area of business ownership and looking for feedback/guidance on how to proceed with this process.

It's been a couple years since I started but pretty sure forming LLC doesn't set up shares. It just creates the entity in eyes of state etc. Business agreement/docs that your lawyer creates can create shares. You need a lawyer. Have them set up the business. Keep it simple. Shareholders meet 1x/year. How things are run such as how many members must approve things like taking on debt. Write in that you have first right of refusal should your employee shareholder decide they want to sell theirs. They will start with say 100 shares. Then when you bring on said person the lawyer will help with business addendums etc. You need a CPA as well who is aware so they can appropriately get your K1s for all shareholders.

You may want to look into an S-corp if you want to divide the ownership. Especially if you want to percentage of ownership (shares) to be variable. There are some requirements and you have to set up corporate guidelines, have a formal shareholders meeting etc, but a lot of the tax implications are similar to an llc. I'd talk to a CPA and an attorney that specializes in small businesses.