advertising a different biz name than what is registered with the state

[john1]

Hey guys, Looking to advertise my business to add "& Signs" onto it to be more appealing. 6 years ago when i registed it it just was my initials and Graphics which to me was good enough then but now i want to change things up.

Is it legal i guess you can say to advertise the name with "& Signs" added onto it?

Thanks!

 

[jnataros]

I, from personal experience, would file a DBA on top of your business... takes almost no time or money, and makes sure there are no issues.

Josh

 

[FireSprint.com]

I'm pretty sure it depends on your state, but the only real thing you need to worry about is your bank in my experience. If they take checks written to "& Signs" then you need not worry so much.

If you want to go legit with it, at least here in Nebraska, you need to file a "Trade Name" application. It was a simple one page form, cost $100 and is good for 10 years. If I remember right, we also needed to "Publicly Announce" the new name. We did so by filing with our local business newspaper (Midlands Business Journal). They were used to getting these so they had a simple form letter to complete and even handled mailing the proof back to the state for us. Total cost was about $145 and it took a total of about and hour of my time. Of course, this was only important because we completely changed the name of our business from TargetOmaha Marketing (& Signs) to FireSprint Printing.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Looks like this is what you need:

http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/nameappl.pdf

 

[john1]

Thanks!