IAM User Confusion

I understand your confusion, and I'm happy to help clarify the process for setting up an IAM user for your situation. As a one-person company, you're right to want to use an IAM user instead of root credentials for day-to-day management of your AWS account. Here's a simplified guide to help you set this up:

1. First, sign in to the AWS Management Console with your root account.

2. Navigate to the IAM (Identity and Access Management) service. You don't need to worry about regions for IAM as it's a global service.

3. In the IAM dashboard, select "Users" from the left navigation pane, then click "Add user".

4. Choose a username and select "AWS Management Console access" for the access type.

5. Set a custom password or let AWS generate one for you. You might want to uncheck "User must create a new password at next sign-in" if you're the only user.

6. On the next page, you can either attach existing policies directly or add the user to a group with the necessary permissions. For full administrative access (similar to root), you can attach the "AdministratorAccess" policy.

7. Review and create the user.

8. After creation, you'll see a success message with a sign-in URL. This URL is specific to your account and is what you'll use to sign in as an IAM user.

The sign-in URL will look something like: https://123456789012.signin.aws.amazon.com/console (where 123456789012 is your AWS account ID)

Save this URL, as you'll use it to log in to the AWS Management Console as your IAM user. You don't need to create separate IAM users for different regions, as this user will have access to manage resources across all regions.

Remember to secure your root account by enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) and store the root credentials safely. Use your new IAM user for all your regular AWS management tasks.

This approach provides you with a secure way to manage your AWS resources without using root credentials, while still maintaining full control over your account.
Sources
Troubleshoot IAM - AWS Identity and Access Management
Need to create an IAM User with access to S3 and AWS CLI | AWS re:Post