Do Website Businesses Require a Fictitious Name Statement?
Do Website Businesses Require A Fictitious Name Statement? And Where Do You File One, State, County or Federally?
The County Of Santa Clara requires that business owners register a fictitious name for the Office of the County-Clerk. Any business that you start has to have a fictitious business name, which expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk, and it also expires 40 days after any change in the facts of a business that has been established. You have go verify the status of the code you are researching, with the state legislature or using Thomas Reuters Westlaw. A fictitious business name statement has to be filed in order to do business at all. You do a search to see if your fictitious name has been chosen yet. You have to file your name before you make any other changes, or it expires in forty days. https://scccroselfservice.org/web/
You need to start a business name with a name separate from your own. The fictitious business name connects the owner to the business and is an actual law besides. The filing fee ranges from $10 to $100 according to this article on The Balance.com. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-file-a-fictitious-business-name-statement-3514833. The name has to be published in a newspaper for several weeks.
Business have to register with the Secretary of State in your State, as a corporation which becomes a separate filing process, while furnishing other proof you have filed a fictitious name statement. Each business name has to have a fictitious name statement filed for it if you are going to do business using it. This is called a DBA or Doing Business As statement. Since I live in California, I’m going over California business rules in this piece. The fictitious name however does not create a business entity on its own. The California Secretary of State website goes into detail.
While looking at the problem step-by-step, the California Secretary of State https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/starting-business/, requires that you start with a business plan or a blueprint of how your business is going to provide the product or service it will create. Some businesses require a brick-and-mortar location if you are going to need an office or a store. You choose a business structure, and you also have to look for legal as well as tax advice. You need a tax/employer identification documents so that you can do payroll if you have employees. Businesses require permits that you have to look for, if that is a requirement you need to have to start your business.
In addition to permits, a business has to have fictitious names that are unique in nature so as not to be confused with another business having a similar name. Names can always be changed. A bank can open an account for a fictitious business name only if the name is filed. I have an Etsy store account that I’ve never used for my T-shirt business idea, and one problem I have with my businesses is that I have too many ideas to work on, that I’m trying to work on all at once with.
California State Law under the California Business and Professions Code Sections 17900-17930 will require a registration with the Clerk of the County where your business conducts main operations. There are no limits to the amount of business names you can register. I have discovered that business recording fees are $10, which with my meager income I can pay. I live in Santa Clara County, in San Jose, where there is easy access to pertinent offices that I need to use to file any business I’m going to have under.
For my county, one fictitious business name statement is $40. A statement of abandonment when you give up is $30.00, and a Statement of Withdrawal from a partnership is $37.00.
There is a lot of paperwork that goes into starting a business and filing the fees you have to register with properly. Getting a business license is the first step you really need to take though. A business license is also a business tax of sorts. One City of San Jose Business license costs $150, this was information I have been looking for, for a while. http://www.establishmybusiness.com/business-basics/san-jose-business-license/
If you have financial hardship though, the price can be lowered to $35 as a processing fee. You can only get this discount if your business is a sole proprietorship, which my writing company is, have no employees, which I don’t have, and income should be at the poverty level when the tax is due. You can get a business discount and then what you have to do is to go get your fictitious business name statement with the County, if you want to open a bank account so you can start doing business. You can start and sell a business website for profit if you want to, and this is one of my goals with some of my ideas, so I’m citing Income Diary https://www.incomediary.com/sell-a-website since you have to be prepared to sell your domain name as well as your mailing list. You have to attract the right buyers, and investors, and then you have to negotiate the deal itself. Your website itself has to make enough money to interest the buyer, because if not it is pointless to sell it. I was totally ignorant on how to sell a website until I found Income Diary.
Businesses come away with manuals, processes, and procedures because of a copyright held on materials made over the years such as images, advertisements or even website content. You have a list of subscribers you are eventually going to sell in addition to the content itself. Social media engagement is something that is not defined as having followers but with actual engagement instead. You can even sell custom software, and data on customers. Adwords PPC campaigns are valuable to be sold also. My goal is to start and sell my business ideas to someone who can make more use of it than someone new to the field like I am. This is why I’m trying to find a business partner who can help me with financial stuff, and the actual running/programming of the site itself. I have learned from Income Diary that it is possible to create a good website sale for yourself within the requirements of what the buyer actually wants to buy your website for. I have multiple website ideas that I need to sell. In fact, Income Diary has taught me that my images in my head of what price to sell my websites for is actually somewhat accurate if they quote $600,000 as a price for a website that could actually work with some of my ideas.
My website ideas may be worth more money than I imagined. I didn’t know. I mean I had some idea, but really, my business knowledge is limited to library books right now because I do not have money to take a community college business class. I can’t even take a SCORE business class, as my income is just non-existent. I have various plans to make money in my head but I’m currently low income on government-subsidized health care.
It is money I paid into the system myself through working for a year. I have a blog at iriavp.com where I’m trying to make money off of that. At the very least, I’m looking to make $100,000 a month. Yes, a dream right? I suppose I could have multiple monetized blogs, one for my stage name/pen name that I keep separate from my real name. My ideas to sell my website ideas weren’t too far off according to the Income Diary pages I have been reading today. I have found a reference on ProBlogger about selling websites. Your website has to have a set price in order to sell it because you have to decide how much to value the site at.
My websites are not built yet-they only exist in a business plan. The business plans sit on my USB drive. As I’m a writer, I know that copywriting on a website is important and can make a difference in the amount of income you generate for your website. My blog has been monetized since 2017 give or take. To have a successful website, you have to generate income. https://www.incomediary.com/sell-a-website. If blogging can also generate income, that’s what I’m trying to do with my blog at iriavp.com.
I’m doing heavy research on blog guest posting. I want to write blogs for companies that need blog writers. It is the Textbroker.com slow down time period of the year. There is less to limited to no work on the website. It means I have to scramble and look for other income making options. I’m to the point where I’m done being low income and need to generate substantial income for myself as I have some idea how to do so. But anyway, yes, you have to do register any business you start with the County, and I will eventually have enough money to do so for every business idea I have, some of which are on my infamous list.
iriavp 