How to register your business name – and more

I was recently asked about how to register business names and the peculiar ‘fictitious business name’ and that strange term “DBA”.

It’s important because you’ve taken time to find a name that you like and one that works. Now you need to protect it.

On the surface this can seem like legal mumbo jumbo, but it’s actually quite simple and worthwhile.

In most cases, when you setup and register a corporation it will automatically register a business name. This happens when you file your articles of incorporation, statement of limited partnership, or articles of organization with the appropriate state office. You;ll have guaranteed that nobody else can take your name, within your state.

Many corporations file their legal name but trade (DBA – Doing Business As) under a different name.  For a sole proprietor their legal name  is the person’s name. For a partnership it’s the name on the partnership agreement. However, both can trade under different names utilizing a fictitious name.

Your fictitious name statement needs to be filed at the appropriate office within the state government.

Here are some examples that should make all this clear  when you register business names.

Your corporation name might be “New Business, Inc”. Your fictitious name might be “New Business”.

As an individual called “John Smith” you might want to open up a hair salon called “Highlights”. Your registered fictitious name is Highlights.

As a partnership called “Smith & Jones”, where Fred Smith is the local florist and Joe Jones is the financial backer, you decide to trade under “Smith’s Flowers”. Again, this will be your fictitious name.

Once again, hats off to the United States Government. their website, Business.gov has excellent guidelines for all this.

Why is all this necessary?

The number one reason is when a consumer has an issue with a company operating under a fictitious name and wants to seek legal redress with the owners. The other reason is potential confusion between businesses with similar names.

Not so bad. now you know how to register business names – don’t forget to consider a trademark at some point and then there’s the difficult issue of your web address or URL.