Ethics/legality of freelance title?

[G. Ryan Smith]

As a currently-underemployed urban designer (landscape architect/city planner), I’ve been doing some freelance and pro bono work on the side. Thus far I’ve just been doing this as an independent contractor but I’d like to use a title (similar to a firm name) other than my name to brand the work. It’s not a legal entity or anything at this point (no LLC or copyright) although I might like it to be at some point.

 

My question is, is there any problem with using this brand without it being an official legal entity, incorporated business, etc.? My own name would appear on any legal documents (contracts,paychecks), I’d mostly be using it for a website and advertising materials. I’d like to take this route for professional identity/branding purposes, but I don’t want to do anything that’s illegal or that would appear to be unethical.

 

Basically, you could think of me as an independent consultant at this point who has a brand he might like to build towards an official business. I’m not at the point where I’m ready to do so yet, so I’m just wondering if it’s too soon to use the name or if it’s perfectly acceptable.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

Thanks.

[nca]

From my limited experience–

 

Sure, you can use your own name or even “your name DBA (doing business as) ________” However, you’d be considered a ‘sole proprietor’ and any legal liability would fall directly on you personally, meaning that if you omitted something from a plan or built something which led to you being liable for restitution/damages the court could go directly to your personal assets, ie house, etc.

 

Starting a legitimate business entity isn’t that hard. As far as I can remember all I did when I did design-build in years past was register my business name with the state and pay a lawyer $300 to incorporate. You can pay estimated quaterly taxes or more likely pay at the end of the year if youre just starting out. I’m sure others here can tell you more about this.

 

Otherwise, I think what youre asking is whether you can use a business name or not. I don’t think it matters. I’ve had my former business name as my primary checking account for a long time. You can either write checks out to me or my former business name, but that really doesnt mean anything, except I pay fees every month that I really dont need to.

 

I would stick to using your name and possibly DBA for now and think about registering with the state.

[mark foster]

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”.

 

 

[G. Ryan Smith]

ah ha. thanks for the tips. i wasn’t planning on doing any kind of construction specs until i get insured, just some visualization graphics/concepts and a planting plan or two to keep me in the ballgame…

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Registering a “doing business as” (d/b/a) is simple, but you do have to do it. I believe it is the same everywhere. All you need to do is go to your town or city hall and fill out a “doing business as” form that allows you to use the name of your chosing. That’s it. It is illegal to use a different name, if you do not do that. Either way, you are operating as a sole proprietor.

 

However, if any services or goods that you are selling are taxable, you need to register with your state to get a license to do so whether or not you are using your own name or d/b/a. If you have any employee, you’ll have to register with the feds and the state, regardeless of what name you use.

 

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