Reply To: Ethics/legality of freelance title?

Just to add to Nick’s excellent advice–

When a business is registered, a search is done to make sure no one else is using the name.  It also stakes your “claim” to that name, so someone else can’t use it in the future.  

Every state is different– but in mine the registration of a name does not have anything to do with the company structure.  Your state may be similar, which means you can stay as you and still protect your “brand”.