Is the legal company different than the brand name you use for marketing purposes?
If so, then you are using a DBA. There are some legal issues around this, specifically around whether you need to file a DBA with the state and when do you use the DBA versus the actual legal name? We wrote blog article about when to use a DBA for your LLC, that may interest you.
This knowledge base article is intended to help folks understand when it’s appropriate to use a DBA, versus when it’s appropriate to use the legal name of your company.
I’m going to answer this by analogizing to my own name. My legal name is Laurence S. Donahue, Jr. It’s a mouthful. Instead, I have a personal DBA I use, and that is “Larry Donahue”. When I go around town and talk to people, I tell them my name is “Larry Donahue”. When I sign legal documents and contracts, I provide my legal name, “Laurence S. Donahue, Jr.”.
This is very similar to how a DBA for companies works, although there are more requirements depending on the type of entity you have. Specifically, if you have a Corporation or LLC, most states’ statutes require such companies to notify the public that they are working with or dealing with a Corporation or LLC. So, how do you do that?
To answer this question, I’m going to use our law firm as an example. Our actual corporate entity is “Slingshot, LLC, d/b/a Law 4 Small Business (L4SB)”. The legal name is “Slingshot, LLC”. The brand name, or DBA, is “Law 4 Small Business (L4SB)”. If we are interacting with folks at the L4SB level, and we care about the legal name, we’ll use “Slingshot, LLC, d/b/a Law 4 Small Business (L4SB)”.
To summarize, we have three different ways to refer to our company:
- Slingshot, LLC. This is our legal name, and what we use when dealing with insurance, banks, etc.
- Law 4 Small Business (L4SB). This is the brand name, or DBA.
- Slingshot, LLC, d/b/a Law 4 Small Business (L4SB). This is the full legal name, with DBA, used when referencing the legal name from the point of view of L4SB.
When to Use Just the Legal Name?
We use #1 above, “Slingshot, LLC“, when dealing with business issues that don’t care about a brand. This might be related to a property lease, taxes, loans, finance information, insurance, payroll and more. This is the legal name of the company, regardless of what brand we use in the marketplace.
Note that there is no firm black-and-white rule about this. Some insurance policies, and even some taxing authorities, for example, may want to know about your DBA’s. It’s possible the banks will want to know about your DBA’s, too. Every situation is different, and there is no legal advantage doing things one way or another.
When to Use Just the Brand Name?
We use #2 above, “Law 4 Small Business (L4SB)” when we’re advertising, working with clients, or anything related to “the business of our company” from a go-to-market or services perspective.
By featuring this brand name prominently, we are able to use it as a trademark. Consequently, this brand name is going to be prominently featured on our website, brochures, business cards, advertisements, etc. We don’t need to reference our legal name in most contexts, when dealing with the public at large, from an advertising perspective.
When to Use the Full Legal Name with the DBA?
We use #3 above, “Slingshot, LLC, d/b/a Law 4 Small Business (L4SB)” when the legal name is important, and we’re discussing it from the context of the brand name. What does this even mean?
We’ll use this in our customer contracts. On the footer of our website (versus the top), in the copyright notice. We’ll use this in our online Terms of Service. We’ll place this somewhere near the entrance to our building, where clients and guests enter.
The point of #3, is to show the public they are dealing with a LLC, that our brand name is tied to the legal name, and to minimize “confusion” as to whom our clients or the relevant public is doing business.
What to do if you’re not sure?
You can never go wrong with the full legal name and the DBA, although it can be cumbersome in some contexts. If you’re really not sure, and it’s important to get this right for some reason, then talk to a business attorney. We sell 30-minute business attorney consults that may help you here.
