Bertha,

As a sole proprietor, a DBA is a way for you to advertise and conduct business under a fictitious name (also commonly referred to as a Trade Name).

Let’s say for example you wanted to have a tax preparation company out of your home, without having to deal with the costs and maintenance of a corporation or LLC. You could then call yourself (thus your business) Ms. Tax, and your customers would make their payments to “Ms. Tax”. With a DBA, you could open a bank account and cash your (Mr. Tax’s) payment checks.

A DBA would also be used if you had a company (Corporation or LLC) that wanted to have smaller business structures (such as separate websites) underneath it, again, without the costs and maintenance of a Corporation or LLC.

DBA’s offer business opportunity with generally lower costs. However, DBA’s offer no protection regarding assets or liability. Please feel free to search our ‘Incorporation Answers’ section for other DBA related topics; you will find a plethora of information.

I hope this answer was helpful.