Table of Contents
Written by : Ali Lamberton |
Current : 7562 |
Write a comment |
Write a comment
hi everyone i'm attorney aidan durham with 180 law co in colorado and welcome back to all up in your business in this episode of all up in your business i'm going to explain how you can go about changing the name of your business but first don't forget to like subscribe and share and check the description for links to additional information and resources and i have a really exciting announcement we have merch now that's right now you can show off your love of trademarks and support your favorite youtube lawyer with exclusive products from our inherently distinctive line i am rocking the inherently distinctive flowy women's tank complete with rocky logo on the back of course or turn heads with our classic all up in your business line featuring our auiyb mascot rocky what can be better than rocky's face on your face or rocky's ugly mug on your mug i mean come on scroll down or check the merchandise tab on my channel page to check it all out and start shopping okay now on to changing your business name there are a lot of reasons you might want to change the name of your business maybe you've grown tired of your business name or you've changed the types of products or services that you offer and your business name no longer you know really reflects what you're doing or maybe you didn't do a thorough enough search before you started your business and now you find yourself in some kind of a trademark infringement issue or maybe you're like me and you named your business after yourself then got divorced and now you want to change your business name from the law office of aiden h kramer to 180 law co whatever the case may be for a lot of small businesses there will come a time when you decide it's best to change the name of your business first word of warning as with most things having to do with your business every state is different the rules and procedures for changing a business name will at least be slightly different in each state and states use different terminology the names of forms and terminology used in the forms will be different so just know that the stuff i'm talking about is generally true for all businesses but the specific details and process may look different for you if you're operating as a sole proprietor this is usually a very easy thing to do let's say you're a sole proprietor so you're running a business on your own and have not registered as an llc or a corporation and you've been doing business under your legal name if you want to change that and do business under a different name or brand it's really just a matter of filing a trade name or dba registration for the sole proprietorship you would do this by filing the appropriate form with the secretary of state's office in your state in colorado this form is called a statement of trade name but like i said other states will call it something else or let's say you are already operating under a dba or a trade name that's not your legal name if you decide you want to do business under a different name again it's really just a matter of registering that new dba or trade name so just like with the first example you would file a statement of trade name or whatever the form is called in your state the only difference here is that you will then want to withdraw the previous trade name or dba registration the process is pretty similar if you have an llc or a corporation and you're operating under a dba or trade name llcs and corporations are permitted to operate under a name which is different from the name of the llc or the corporation just like with sole proprietors the llc or corporation would file a statement of trade name to register the dba then if you want to later change that you would file another statement of trade name to register the new dba then withdraw the previous registration you can use this same approach if the llc or corporation is not currently under operating under a dba if you want to change the name that your business is operating under or your business's brand you can do so by registering the dba or trade name of the llc a few important things to note here first it's important to understand the difference between the entity's name and a dba or trade name a dba does not actually change the name of the entity itself a dba means doing business as so it quite literally means that the company is doing business as a different name an llc or corporation can have multiple dvr dba registrations it's not like you're limited to just one so when i say that a company can change its business name by registering a different dba or trade name i really mean that you can change the name that you're doing business under but you're not actually changing the name of your business second the forms that you'll use may be different if you're registering a dba for an entity versus registering it for a sole proprietorship in colorado for example we would use the statement of trade name of an individual form for a sole proprietor and the statement of trade name of a reporting entity for an llc or corporation again the specific forms are going to be different in every state the process is a little different if you're operating as an llc or corporation and want to actually change the name of the entity itself i mean actually changing the registered name of the llc or corporation not changing or adopting a new dba or trade name first we need to check the company's operating agreement or bylaws to see if there are any specific requirements or instructions or anything related to changing the company's name for example many llc operating agreements will require that the members consent to the name change if your company's operating agreement or bylaws address it then you need to do whatever they say most often they'll say something like the company may conduct business under any name which the members determine and there will be some kind of requirement for either a majority or a unanimous unanimous vote if that's the case then it is important to document that vote so you can easily demonstrate that you have complied with the operating agreement this is typically accomplished with meeting minutes or a written consent in lieu of a meeting even if your llc's operating agreement or corporate bylaws don't address the name issue your state's laws most likely do every state will require some form of consent by the businesses owners or officers in order to change the business's name check the description by the way i am going to link to a sample written consent in lieu of a meeting so you guys can get a better sense of what that is so once we've got the consent portion out of the way we can actually get to changing the name we'll typically do this by amending the llc's articles of organization or the corporations articles of or incorporation this by the way is why the states require consent to change a business name we're not just changing a name we're changing the company's formative document which governs the entire existence of the company in colorado we would file amended or amended and restated articles of organization with the secretary of state to change the name of an llc again th
Thanks for your comment Yang Skogen, have a nice day.
- Ali Lamberton, Staff Member
hi this is Joe from how to change her name comm and we're going to change your name in the state of Wisconsin now if you are on a video player you can just go right in the description and catch up with us and we're gonna scroll down to the bottom and just with the five steps to change your name in Wisconsin yeah it's pretty pretty simple you just want to download and completely fill in the Wisconsin name change petition which is right here at this link this will be the official application for changing your name you will need to have this form notarized so you want to make sure that you do not sign this form after you've completed it because you're gonna have to sign it in front of a public notary and you can find a notary pretty much at every branch bank in the United States you'll have to submit your forms at the court location in your County and if you don't know where that is you can just scroll right down here and we have all the links to all the court locations in Wisconsin and you got to pay a hundred and sixty four and fifty Cent filing fee and you will be given a court date for your hearing and you'll get a Wisconsin notice of name change and this is really where it gets fun you're gonna have to submit your new name in the newspaper that circulates in the county it's not obviously going to be a big ad but you just submit this wisconsin notice of name change that the clerk will give you and they'll even probably direct you to where at the newspaper you want to call but even if you just got this form and you called the newspaper that circulates in your county they'll know exactly what you're talking about and they do this all the time and your ad will have to run for at least once a week for three consecutive weeks and once you're all done doing that the newspaper will either send the clerk a public notice affidavit or they'll give it to you either way you want to make sure that this is being taken care of because this is the only form that states you in fact did publicize you're a new name and you want to go to your hearing if no one shows up to object to your name change chances are you'll get your Wisconsin order for name change and this will be the official form that you'll use to change your name at the DMV Social Security office passport agency bank pretty much everywhere else I mean this is the form that you're really looking for it'll be signed by the judge and that's how you change your name in Wisconsin
Thanks Delora your participation is very much appreciated
- Ali Lamberton
About the author
I've studied type theory at University of Western States in Portland and I am an expert in forensic developmental psychology. I usually feel confused. My previous job was credit analyst I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about wine tasting and nature diary. Huge fan of Beto O'Rourke I practice horse racing and collect artist trading cards.