Hello everyone,

Thank you for looking into my post. First and foremost I want to let everyone know I do a lot of research before asking a question, I'm aware most information is here in the rest of the forums.

I am now looking into business licenses and DBA (Fictitious Business Name) registration.


Domain and DBA or Fictitious Business Name legal connection

I read at the GOV site that if I'm doing business as my name I don't have to register DBA but does having a Domain name automatically mean I'm DBA that domain name and therefore I MUST register it as such?

Or can I be DBA my own name and simply the domain name is not important here, therefore I don't need to register anything?


Now, do most of you work under your legal name when only working independently and not subcontracting?

What are your thoughts, any would help!



Thank you!

__________________
Your Virtual Assistant--Bilingual
www.AssistantOffice.com

Mariana,

Your DBA and domain name are two separate entities and having a domain name does not mean it is your DBA. It is simply an address for people to find you, similiar to a PO Box or street address.

With that said, your domain name should reflect your business name. For example if I am Lee Drozak Consulting I would want my domain to reflect that leedrozakconsult.com or ldconsulting.com. I would not want AdminisourBusiness.com because it is too far off the business name.

You do not need to do a DBA if you are comfortable doing business as yourself. However, if your brand is going to include a "dba type name" then you need to take the necessary steps now to get it done right.

For example: I wanted to do business as MY OFFICE ASSISTANT but many local clients and potentials know me as LEE DROZAK. Therefore I am LEE DROZAK dba MY OFFICE ASSISTANT. I did register my DBA with my state (I believe it was $40 to do so) so I am legally known as such.

My official domain is myofficeassist.org however I also bought leedrozak.com, myofficeassist.com and MOALee.com (my account names on many social networking sites) that all point to my main site. So you can have many domain names to direct traffic to one business name.

Hopefully I did not confuse you with all this but I wanted you to get the point that your business name and domain name are two separate schools of thought.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Lee,

Thank you so much for your elaborate response. You have clarified things for me, I really appreciated. :-)

Things are clear now! thank you again for taking the time to respond with so much detail.


Much Luck!

__________________
Your Virtual Assistant--Bilingual
www.AssistantOffice.com