Question: Do I Need a D/B/A (Fictitious Name) for My Business?
The terms d/b/a, trade name, or fictitious name all refer to a name by which a company is doing business and the name it presents itself to the public.
Answer:
The term "d/b/a" stands for "doing business as." A d/b/a, trade name, or fictitious name is a registration that is needed to let the public know who is operating a business. If you have a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation and you are doing business under the same name, you do not need a d/b/a. If your company is doing business under a name that is not the same as your company name, you need a d/b/a.
Here are a couple of examples to make this clearer:
- You have a sole proprietorship for Chad Martin, and your business name is Chad Martin Plumbing, you probably don't need a d/b/a because everyone can tell who is the owner of the business.
- You have an LLC called Strickland Enterprises LLC and you run a restaurant called Zippy's Pizza. You will need to register a d/b/a so everyone knows who owns Zippy's Pizza.
- You own a corporation called The Planted Ground Corporation, which owns greenhouses and nurseries in several locations; each one has a different name. You will need to register the d/b/a of each of these entities, to show that The Planted Ground Corporation owns each one.
Registering a d/b/a
To register a d/b/a, go to the county registrar and ask to register a business name. Your county may have a different name.
