Budding Entrepeneur
 

Hi,

I'm planning on setting up an LLC in the next sixth months and had an important question.
Let's say the name of my business will be 'Wisdom Media' and I registered my business under that name.
Yet, what if I have two brances of this business, one being in film and the other in music. One wold be called Wisdom Films and the other Wisdom Music. Do I have two create separate business licenses for these branches? Could my clients write out checks to Wisdom Films or would it have to be always written to Wisdom Media regardless of the branch. Could they write out a personal check to me and could I cash it in the Wisdom Media bank account?

Any help would be appreciated as well as some other resources online or books to help understand these intricacies.

Thanks

Adam

Fictitious business names...
 

Hi Adam,

Great question! You don't have to get a separate business license for each name... Instead, you could get yourself a fictitious business name for each different name you want...

Here's an article which helps to explain it...

Doing Business As (DBA) a Fictitious Business Name
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/bu...businessas.htm

Here in Australia, you can open up bank accounts with your different business names (if you want to), which enables you to deposit checks made out to those names - I presume it's like that in the US too...

Perhaps others can also chime in...

Thanks for asking... :)

- Dien

Re: Fictitious business names...
 

Dien,

Thanks for mentioning this.

Here's how it works in Australia...

If you open a bank account in YOUR NAME you can Add Registered Business Names as payees, because Businesses are "Your Name Trading As" names. Doing it this way you can Add as many registered business names to YOUR NAME ACCOUNT as you like. And receive checks written to those names. You must also show your business registration to the bank to Prove the business exists.

BUT...

If you opened the account as Wisdom Media you cannot accept Wisdom Films checks unless Wisdom Films is registered as Wisdom Media Trading As Wisdom Films - which is NOT possible for a Business Name, but is possible for a company.

Clarification can be had by speaking with your bank - the business section.

Michael Ross