DBA (doing business as)

[milkshakelake]

I've tossed the idea of rebranding my company and changing the name. It has a pretty boring name (something like XYZ Engineering) and I thought about spicing it up. I wouldn't do this on my own; I'd hire a brand consultant.

Does anyone have experience with the logistics of this? How does that work in terms of signing/sealing stuff and official building department forms? And tax filings? I'm in New York City, USA.

 

[phamENG]

Don't know, but I'm curious. If I ever bring on a partner, I'll probably be in the same/similar boat (I use the old school '<Last Name> Structural Engineering' format).

 

[skeletron]

My experience as a sole practitioner:
-Business license is under the DBA
-Regulators force me to grab my permit to practice under my own name, but does identify the DBA in the registry
-Insurance documents were all under my own name and I needed to advise them to include the DBA under the policy
-Tax filings are still under my own name (re: sole proprietor)

I think the brand consultant is a good, but probably expensive, option because they can handle all the transition, updating, etc. and make it consistent right off the hop. I worked for a company that went from "<NAME> <INDUSTRY HANDLE> LTD." to "<NAME> <MODIFIED HANDLE> LP". There were some hiccups in the transition period, but I think the branding consultant helped out. Biggest hurdle from our department was having about 1000 calc pads + dozens of Excel design tools + binders of standards with the old letterhead, and it was perceived that everything needed to be changed overnight for legal reasons.

Maybe it's my pronunciation, but "STRUCTURAL" is a hard word to decipher and spell over the phone to people. Also it's 10 letters which takes up some intense real estate in the URL. Just some food for thought.

 

[BrianPetersen]

One of the first things I wanted done when I joined the company that I'm in now (it was previously a sole-proprietorship run by the person who started the company), was to incorporate under the actual name that we do business as.

One of the things involved in doing this, involved a name search to ensure that the proposed incorporated business would not have any naming conflicts.

We knew going in that there was another business with a similar name out there, and we had crossed paths (and swords) before. In fact we pointed this out to the lawyer doing the name search, to make sure he was aware of it.

Well, well, well. It turned out that the other business was a numbered company "doing business as", which of course did not turn up in the name search, because the "doing business as" name was never registered.

And now, we're registered with that name (and have been for 13 years at this point), and anyone else who wants to use that name, can talk to our lawyer.

If you're going to change the name ... change the name!

And yes, we had to get new registration with the licensing board, even though our new corporate name was the same as the old "doing business as" name was, because it was a different business entity.

 

[JohnRBaker]

About 30 years ago my wife got a DBA for her front-office consulting business for dental practices (at least back then, doctors went to school for years learning their profession yet got almost nothing about running a business). Now she had no insurance or licensing issues, but the DBA did give her a bit more credibility in terms of it being an actual business, something of course which she was trying to instill in her clients. She never had more than one customers at a time, and generally took jobs which lasted anywhere from 6 to 18 months, or until she felt that she could turn the front office over to a qualified office manager. One of her primary tasks was to either train the person already there or go out and hire one. She charged a flat monthly rate plus a percentage of the increase (the delta) in collections, as that was often their biggest issue, billing and collections, whether it was directly to the patient or their insurance company. This was often where she added the most value, properly billing the insurance companies and knowing how they worked when it came to getting the paperwork right so that you actually got paid for what you were owed and getting it in a timely manner.

She kept the DBA active until she retired about 13 years ago.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[MotorCity]

I'm sure there are an infinite number of credible DBA's out there, but every time I hear "DBA" I cringe. What I really hear is "My name and/or my business name in the industry is tarnished and I want to start over with a clean slate and abolish my previous reputation". None of my preconceived notions relate to the engineers or engineering firms, more so from small contractors with shady reputations. I guess the real question is what the motivation is for doing business in disguise.

 

[milkshakelake]

@skeletron Sounds good, I don't mind filing forms with the real company name and not the DBA. The DBA is just for marketing purposes. And since you mentioned that the brand consultant is expensive, I might just do it on my own. After all, branding can't be as hard as engineering. Might just take a bit of learning, reading, and bouncing ideas on Reddit or something.

@BrianPetersen I wouldn't want to change the company name outright. Too much headache with forming a new company, registering with building department, taxes, and mountains of paperwork. It was hard and expensive enough the first time around. I'd just register the DBA officially, if there's a way to do it; will research.

@JohnRBaker Thanks, my primary purpose would be similar: to sound more legit.

@MotorCity My only motivation is to make the branding better. It's actually a bit of a hurdle since I'd have to inform 100+ clients of the new name. Starting over is the opposite of what I want to accomplish.

 

[phamENG]

You'd have to register your DBA name with the board, too. So you'd likely still be looking at those mountains of paperwork.

 

[KootK]

I did the DBA thing and disliked it very much. I'm can't recall all of the nuisances that it caused me but I'll try to hit some of the big ones:

1) For my insurance to be linked to my contracts, every contract where I listed my firm name had to say JFK Engineering doing businesses as Killer Bees International. This confused my clients and neutered any potential marketing benefit.

2) Because I had to list both names on my contracts I regularly received checks to both names. In theory this should be fine but, sometimes, it would freak out my bank and it uglied my accounting in ways that I did not enjoy.

3) In a number of states and provinces, you need an individual license, a permit/COA, and registration with the department of commerce in order to offer engineering services there. This should also be fine in theory but, in practice, I'd usually find that at least one of those things would be complicated by my trying to do business under DBA.

4) For myself and my employee to have workers compensation etc, we had to get paid by the legal business name to which my workers compensation policy was attached. And they did not want to attach it to my DBA.

It's a curious thing to me. I researched the DBA thing pretty thoroughly I thought. It's my impression that most prominent companies are working under DBA's. I'm guessing the whole thing is a lot easier when:

a) You have staff accountants.

b) You have admin people in general.

c) You're not selling engineering services.

I'm with BrianPeterson, if you're going to change your name, change your name. More for your own sanity than anyone else's

 

[KootK]

Now for some funs stuff.

I wouldn't do this on my own; I'd hire a brand consultant.

Meh. At the least, I wouldn't bother until after you've read this. I tried really hard to choose a great business name and, in the end, still made a bunch of terrible mistakes that this book would have saved me from.

A great way to cheat the system is to take a look at what your clients are doing for branding and, more or less, mimic it.

 

[milkshakelake]

@KootK You've saved my life once again with that branding chart. Will immediately make some changes to the colors. And thanks for the book recommendation! Will save me a pretty penny.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the examples you explained about DBA have turned me completely off from doing a DBA. If I rebrand, I'll change the company name.