Brainstorm Your Business Name
The first step in developing and registering your business name is brainstorming your name. Try to think of names that indicate the goal and character of your business. Your business name should be attractive to your customers and exude credibility. Here are a few examples of good and bad business names
- Dream Builders Inc. – EXCELLENT NAME! The name tells clients what they want to hear. You build dreams.
- Tri-State Home Buyers – GOOD NAME! Tells people exactly what you do and where you do business.
- Trademark Properties and Investments – EXCELLENT NAME! Once again good description and credibility.
- Sell Me Your Home, Inc – It’s up to you, but I just don’t like this name. Maybe others do, but I feel it doesn’t exude credibility and professionalism.
- New Jersey Real Estate Solutions, LLC – DECENT NAME, but not my cup of tea. Ten years ago this would have been an excellent name. However, recently everyone and their dog has “real estate solutions” in their name. Come up with something more unique that will stand out and make people remember you.
Grab a piece of paper one evening instead of watching that Friends re-run and write as many different business names as you can think of. From there, go through the list and pick your 5 favorite business names. Show that list to 10 or 15 of your friends or co-workers and ask them for their opinion. That will help you find out what people like. Make your decision from there and commit to that name fully. One thing we don’t want to do is not start your business because you can’t settle on a business name. The key is to make decisive decisions and go with them.
Get Your Business Name Registered
If you are starting your business as a corporation, LLC, or Limited Partnership you will need to register your name. (We highly suggest using one of these business entities rather than a sole proprietorship for safety and tax reasons. How to choose a business entity type<<)
Remember, you can’t use a business name that is already registered by someone else or violates trademark and copyright laws. You will need to check your states business registry to make sure that the business name you want to use isn’t already registered by someone else. Sure, if you want “Home Buyers Inc” and someone else already has “Home Buyers LLC”, legally (in most states) you can use that name. However, I would rather that you come up with a business name that isn’t extremely close to another business name. Be unique.
To perform a name search you will need to go to your states “Secretary of State” or “Business” website (I think every state has one). At some websites you will find automatic search features where you can simply type in the business name you want and see if there are any names similar to yours. Others will either give you a form to fax in or provide you with the phone number to call that will help you with your name search. It is very simple and shouldn’t take much time. Once you have found a business name that is available act fast to register it and ensure it isn’t taken by someone else. If you aren’t quite ready to register your business but like the name, you can usually pay $10 or $20 to reserve the name for a certain period of time.
Registering your business name and entity is usually simple, however, confuses almost everyone the first time. You can go about registering your business name two ways. You can do it yourself or you can hire someone to do it for you. There are positives and negatives about each method.
- Registering your business name and entity yourself is extremely cheap (around $50-$100) and can be easy if you have someone to guide you through it that has done it before. It is very confusing for most people the first time, but after that it is rather simple. It gets a little trickier if there is more than one owner or you decide to use a corporation. For those people who aren’t comfortable with it, I would just buck up the money to have a professional do it for you.
- Having a professional register your business is a little more expensive. However, it is much faster and you know that it is done right (that is, if you hire a reputable firm). You can get a professional service or attorney to do it for you anywhere from $100 to $1000+. The price will depend on the extra features that you want done such as writing the company bi-laws, a company seal, etc.
It is really up to you whether you feel that you are comfortable enough with the legal jargon and requirements or not. If you are forming a domestic LLC and you are the only owner, I might say to consider trying it yourself with some guidance. An LLC is simple especially if you are the only owner. However, if you are forming a corporation or Limited Partnership with multiple owners I would seriously consider hiring an attorney or firm that specializes in the business registration process. We have reviewed several online business registration firms that have excellent track records and offer their services at a good value. They will have your business registered in no time flat so you don’t have to worry about it or use it as an excuse as to why you haven’t started your business yet. The top three that we found are:
To help you save a bit, we negotiated a Rebate Program with each of these companies if you buy through the link below. To claim your rebate,
- Bizfilings.com – Great resources on their site and excellent value.
Whether you decide to register your business yourself or not, you will need to decide which business entity type is best for you. Part 3 of the “Forming a Real Estate Investing Business” checklist is Choosing an Entity and Organization Type. It will help you decide which type is best for you and your business.
Being a newbie in the real estate market, I kept listening to people say that when you’re first starting you really don’t “need” to form/register a business. While that might be true for some of us, it’s becoming clear to me that I “want” a formal business. I will explain why. We all started as newbies in any market that we are or were in. Now, I believe the time I am going to spend learning the ropes and doing business, that time becomes vital for purposes of experience and credibility. So why not start from jump with a formal, registered, formed business and start building on credibility for your business from the very begining? Credebility is a big advantage in any business. Where I want to get to is that in my opinion, everyone should start a business officially and build credibility from day one. Here I am four months into real estate business and I haven’t register my business yet. So many times the ocassion has come up when I wish I had registered my business long ago. That brings me to the topic of this post, “how to create and register your business.” If it’s a website, a report, a real estate deal or transaction, a title company, the bank, the homeowner/seller, forms, contracts, applications, etc., how many times have you wish you had a legally formed business that you can refer to during any process of this business? For me, almost 95% of the times. I wish that at the time of signing that document instead of my name was my business name what I put on that space. Other times I could be talking to homeowner, banker, lawyer, or another company and I wish I could of just said “…xyz company;” or while talking to a prospect/homeowner, “…my company xyz service homeowners facing or about to face foreclosure and we can ….” Ooopppsss!!! But I can’t because in all reality I don’t have a company or represent anything other than myself. So, how confident do I think homeowners feel when talking to a real estate investor that hasn’t made mention of representing xyz company? I don’t know if for anyone else reading this comment it makes sense the point I am trying to get across here, but this area here in this webpage is becoming more and more critical for me. In fact, I am making it my business to set this as a goal to be accomplished by no later than the end of this month. By the way, I am open for any critics/comments/suggestions that anyone else might have. Trevor, thanks for all the information you continue to make avail to the general public and not exactly like so many others wanting something back in return for their use of information or materials posted on their website.
So, I have a land surveying business (an LLC w/ an EIN) and I have a couple properties (LLC’s). Should I have separate EIN’s for each property I purchase?