Ready to start a new business? You’re busy with the office, the furniture, staffing, strategies, marketing, production. Is there too little time for legal paperwork? Unfortunately you cannot ignore the paperwork, unless you complete all the formalities you may be breaking laws by conducting business with a fictitious name.
According to the regulations, a person is allowed to conduct business on his or her own name without mandatory registration. This is because the identity of the business owner is clear and there is no ambiguousness. If you are Mr. John Doe and you run a business called John Doe Consultancy, you don’t have to register your business.
When you pick up a different name for the business than your own name, say Friendly Consultants, etc., then you are conducting business under an assumed or fictitious name. In this case the identity of the business owner is not clear, that is why the rules say registration is mandatory. The registration aims to remove ambiguousness and clarify who is the person running the business.
If you want to register a business name, typically you would approach the local county. In some states you would have to register your fictitious name with the Secretary of the state. There will be some forms to fill, and some requirements to fulfill. In many places it is discouraged to pick a name similar to another business in existence. In this case you may be asked to pick a different name for your business. A search is conducted for similar sounding DBA and if one is not found similar enough, you may be allowed to use that name.
Many states also ask you to publish an ad in the newspapers that you will be conducting the business under the fictitious name when you file DBA. This is further an act to re-affirm business ownership. The entire exercise is to affix liability and to protect the people who have dealings with your business.
The best thing about having a unique DBA is that you can use it as a promotional too. You can build your brand identity around you DBA. So once you have picked and registered a DBA make sure you conduct all your business under it and make every effort to popularize it.
When you file DBA application, you will be asked to provide a lot of information, lot of it will sound like legal mumbo-jumbo. That is why many business owners take the help of a consultant or a lawyer to help file the DBA application. That way they can be assured that the application is filled correctly and is not rejected on the ground of lack of information.
Many consultants are also providing this service online these days. Picking an online consultant has the advantage of experience, specialization and low-cost. The online DBA registration consultants work out much cheaper and quicker than a lawyer whose main job is not business registration.
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