If another business decides that they want to use your DBA as their own name, many states allow them to do just that. The state of Ohio includes more protections for DBA names than most states do because, in most states, there is no exclusivity for a DBA. For instance, if you own an Ohio-based plumbing business called “Cleveland Plumbing,” and you want to expand beyond Cleveland, you can register a DBA for “Cincinnati Plumbing” and use that name in the Cincinnati market. It could also be helpful if you decide to expand your local business into a new market. In this circumstance, you could register a DBA for “Flip-Flops by Fine Footwear,” and you can use this name to market your new products, while your original product line remains unaffected if your sandal side business fails. If you decide to also start a new product line that sells inexpensive flip-flop sandals, you might want a way to differentiate this brand from your core business. Let’s say that you own a business called “Fine Footwear, LLC” that produces high-end shoes. One popular reason is to differentiate a new product line from a company’s existing offerings. In addition, for informal business entities that don’t have exclusive business names (like sole proprietorships and general partnerships), a DBA can be a great way to inject some additional professionalism into a business venture.īut let’s talk strictly about LLCs, shall we? Why would an LLC want an additional business name? There are several potential reasons, although they obviously vary considerably depending on what your business does. The DBA allows you to create alternate business names for your entity, which you can then use interchangeably with your LLC’s official business name. Instead, you can think of a DBA as an add-on feature of sorts. One point of confusion we often hear about is that a DBA is not a business entity, like an LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, general partnership, etc. To begin, let’s quickly run down what exactly a DBA is.