Sign Colorado Profit Sharing Agreement Template Online

Document type sign profit sharing agreement template colorado online

hi everyone i'm attorney aidan durham with 180 law co in colorado and you are watching all up in your business on this episode of all up in your business we're going to talk about dbas and the proper way to use the dba with your business but first don't forget to like subscribe and share and be sure to check the description for links to additional information and resources including my new business checklist which you can download for free all right so first off what is a dba dba stands for doing business as some states use different names or terms for dbas colorado for example calls it a trade name some states call it a fictitious name or an assumed name but overall a dba trade name fictitious name whatever you want to call it it's all pretty much the same registering a dba or trade name is not the same as registering a trade mark first off trademark rights apply to dbas in the same way that they apply to any other business name or brand but registering a dba or trade name doesn't confer any of the additional rights or benefits that you would get from registering a trademark with the united states patent and trademark office or even a trademark registration with your state again every state is different but typically we would register a dba by filing some kind of form with the secretary of state in the state where your business is located or registered in colorado we would file a statement of trade name to register a dba or trade name if we were registering a dba for a sole proprietorship in colorado we would use a form called statement of trade name for an individual this is because the sole proprietorship is technically the individual so it is a trade name of an individual if we were registering a trade name for a general partnership we would use a form called statement of trade name for a non-reporting entity this is because a general partnership isn't required to be registered registered with the state and therefore it's considered a non-reporting entity if we're registering a dba for an llc or a corporation we would use a form called a statement of trade name for a reporting entity because those entities are required to be filed and formed with the secretary of state and therefore they are considered reporting entities again that's just what colorado calls them each state's forms are going to be called something a little different and they're not all necessarily going to use the term trade name or dba and frankly i don't know if every state has separate forms for individuals versus reporting entities like llcs non-reporting entities basically every state's a little different so why would we use the dba or trade name in most cases as a business you would use a dba if you're going to do business as a name that's different from your business's legal name if you're operating a business as a sole proprietor or general partnership then you can register a dba so there is record of the name that you're doing business under for example if you are a business coach and your name is sarah johnson and you do business as sarah johnson then you can register a dba for sarah johnson or you can register a dba for sarah johnson business coaching or sj business coach or whatever name you're gonna do business under the dba doesn't have to include your personal name i was just using that as an example of course whatever you want your business name to be that can be the dba assuming it's you know available and you're legally allowed to use that name of course there's no real legal benefit or legal protection that you get from registering a dba in that instance it's not the same as filing or forming an llc or getting a trademark registration for example but if nothing else you get a registration for that business name with the secretary of state's office so you know if another company is thinking about registering a business for that same or a similar name they'll at least see yours there in the secretary of state's database and you know they'll know that you exist and maybe they'll decide to change their name to something else but the point is it's just getting it registered there but registering the dba or trade name doesn't give you any additional protection or rights other than what you might already have just by virtue of using that name for your business you also don't need to worry about keeping your business separate from you like you would with an llc in an llc it's important that you have a separate business bank account for example that doesn't really matter if you're operating as a sole proprietorship under a dba you certainly can have a business bank account for it and in fact i think it's you know generally a good idea just for good business practice in the sake of knowing what your business's numbers look like and for business operations but you don't have to you're not at risk of piercing the corporate veil because there is no corporate veil to be pierced you're already personally liable for anything with regard to the sole proprietorship so you don't really have anything that you need to avoid if you're operating a business as an llc or a corporation or some other kind of legal entity then you can use the dba or trade name if you're going to do business under a name that's different from the llc or corporation's name that's registered with the secretary of state for example my llc is registered as 180 loco llc and i do business as 180 loco llc so i have no need for a dba but let's say i wanted to open up a second location of my business in my state but just for fun i want to brand it under something else maybe instead of 180 i want to call it 360 law co in that case i can register a trade name under my llc for 360 locko so in other videos where i talk about llc's and avoiding the risks of llcs and piercing the corporate veil i mentioned how it's important to use the llc or similar designation because your customers and the people that your business is dealing with they need to be aware that they are dealing with a limited liability company on contracts and other legal documents it's important to include that entity designation whether it's llc or ltd limited whatever it is important to include that on those documents so it's clear that it's the llc that's entering into that agreement but that doesn't mean you have to always use llc in the name all the time you can if you want to but you don't have to you don't have to include llc in your logo for example or on marketing materials all the time if it just doesn't look right or for whatever reason you don't want to include llc in there that's okay to do and in that case just because you occasionally don't include llc in the name doesn't mean you have to register a dba for that same name without the llc it's really more about if you're doing business under a name that's different than your llc or corporation's name that's registered with the state if you want to create different brands or different lines of business all within your one llc then that's a great use of a dba or trade name you can operate multiple businesses multiple lines of business multiple brands under one entity but like i mentioned earlier it's important that the people and businesses that we're dealing with know that they're dealing with a limited liability company so that's why it's really important to register the dba or trade name for your llc so that if a customer you know goes to look up your business's information with the secretary of state they'll see it and oh this is a dba of this llc i'm dealing with an llc not an individual again using my company as an example my business name is 180 loco llc but if i want to brand maybe certain services or something as a separate line of business maybe create a separate website under this different brand for some specific services that i offer i can do that and register a dba under my llc for that other brand however the important thing to remember here is that a dba does not create a separate business or a separate legal entity it's still part of the one llc if you operate multiple lines of businesses with different dbas under one llc they're all going to share liability because it is still just one business so if the llc gets sued as a result of one of those lines of business it's the llc that's getting sued not just that one dba the dba isn't going to separate that one line of business or protect it from the liability that might arise from those other lines of businesses so you know because of that sometimes it's a better idea to create separate entities all together if we're dealing with multiple uh types of businesses or for operating multiple businesses and we don't want them to all share liability and put each other at risk so since it's not a separate entity you don't need a separate ein for a dba or a trade name you don't have to have a separate bank account for each dba you don't need multiple operating agreements for each dba it's all still technically one business and you are simply operating or doing business as one or more different names you certainly can have a separate bank account for one dba or keep separate accounting records for your different dbas and different lines of businesses but again you don't have to you won't be putting yourself at any added risk of piercing the corporate veil or personal liability if you treat all the dbas as one business because technically legally they are all still one business the llc or corporation but going back to what i said a minute ago it is still important that other people that your business is dealing with know that they are dealing with an llc or a corporation or whatever kind of entity your business is that's why again it's important to register the dba under the llc to give notice to everybody that if you're dealing with this dba you're actually dealing with a limited liability company and so in that same vein if you are operating under a dba any contracts or legal documents need to make it clear that it is a dba of an llc so in your service contracts independent contractor agreements contracts that you might sign with suppliers and vendors it should say something like llc name dba dba name if my llc is 180 law co llc but i'm doing business as 360 law co then my contracts would say 180 loco llc dba 360 locko you don't always have to do that you don't have to have your logo include the llc name followed by the dba name for example and you don't need to brand your website as llc name dba dba name you can just use the dba name on its own that's really the point of the dba but your website terms of use or terms and conditions since those are legally binding agreements it's wise to make it clear that the website is owned and operated by an llc which is doing business under a dba or a trade name so that way when your website visitors read your terms and conditions which i know we all do all the time anytime we visit a new website they'll know that this website and these terms that we're agreeing to by visiting the website is an agreement with a limited liability company so in summary a dba or trade name is typically used to register the name of a sole proprietorship or if you're operating a business entity like an llc or a corporation and you're going to do business under a name that's different from the registered name of the llc or the corporation a dba by itself does not provide any sort of legal or liability protection and doesn't need to be treated as a separate business for purposes of avoiding piercing the corporate veil or anything like that that's all for this episode folks drop a comment below let me know what you think and again don't forget to check the description for links to additional information and resources thank you all so much for watching i'm aiden durham and i'll see you next time [Music] wow