Registering Your Business and Business Name

If you have a business named anything other than your own legal name, you basically must file a DBA or “doing business as” form. This applies to virtually all business formations—a corporation, an LLC, an LLP and an LP, as well as a sole proprietorship or general partnership whose operating entity differs in name from its formation entity.

Corporations, LLCs and specialty partnerships are considered registered by the filing of their respective Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Organization, certificate of compliance, or statement of limited partnership. However, these formation entities still must file a DBA for any operating entity with a different name. A sole proprietorship or general partnership not using the legal names of its owners is considered registered by the filing of a DBA.

Protecting the public is the main reason you’re required to register. (You canreserve a business name without filing a DBA, but at some point you must also file a DBA.) For a corporation, LLC or specialty partnership, a DBA discloses the owners behind the operating entity; for a sole proprietorship or general partnership, trade name registration clarifies ownership of the business whose name is different from the operating name.

Let’s say that you, Johnny Jones, intend to open a business as a landscape architect. Since your business is called Johnny Jones Landscaping, there’s no need for you to file a DBA. Your bother, Jerry Jones, also plans to launch a landscape architectural business, but he wants to use Yardmasters as his business name. It is mandatory, therefore, that Jerry file a DBA for the business he calls Yardmasters.

For a sole proprietorship, this is accomplished only through DBA registration. Business name registration, in this instance, is the same thing as business registration. A DBA generally must be filed with the court clerk of the county in which your principal place of business is based. Once your DBA is filed and published in a local newspaper, your business and business name are considered registered.

One of the two main reasons for filing a fictitious business name statement is for purposes of basic business operation. Sole proprietorships or partnerships won’t be able to collect revenues, open service accounts or enter into contracts using their fictitious business name until a DBA is filed and/or published.

The second reason is branding, or building your business identity through marketing. Often the principals of a company select a trade name that identifies in only a few basic words the product being manufactured or sold or the services offered. (Bear in mind that a DBA is not a substitute for a trademark.) Connecting your name to what you make or vend ultimately grows your business. The more common your name becomes in the marketplace, the more your customer base is likely to expand—and the greater earnings you’ll realize.

If your trade name reaches the level of being recognized not just by your industry colleagues but by the public at large, then your business will indeed have succeeded.