Business Name vs Domain Name

Do they have to be the same?

[twist]

Just got off the phone and have all the legal mumbo jumbo worked out on what steps I have to do to operate a business in my city/state. Now here comes a difficult decision. It's going to cost a few hundred dollars to set up my business name and set get all the licenses under that business name.

So, since I plan on having more than one website I probably shouldn't set my business name to my website name right? Or am I going to end up with 20 business names, one for each website?

My other concern is that lets say I call my business SuperWidget but my website is called GadgetExpress. What if a company gets the name GadgetExpress for their business, will they be able to take away my GadgetExpress website?

Whats everyones here experience with this?

* Disclaimer, my website or business name is neither SuperWidget nor GadgetExpress in case either of those really exist.

[diamondgrl]

It's a legal liability issue and accounting complexity issue. You can run 1 million web sites under one company name. No prob.

However, if one gets sued, it could bring down all others since it might sink the corporation. Separate them and you have a lot accounting complexities trying to sort out expenses and coming up with a system that will in fact give you the legal shield. If you have terrible accounting and don't really differentiate, a lawyer could argue that they may be in theory different corporations but in fact they are treated as one and that damages against one should be borne by all if the one tries to get out of paying by filing for bankruptcy, etc.

[kwirl]

Making your business name the same as your web site name will be a smart move in terms of SE strategy. The relevance will only help you and make keyword targeting simple.

As for domain name usage, if you use the alternative domain names for your business, then as long as you abide with fair business practices, you won't really encounter a problem. Copyright protection extends to your domain name as soon as you begin to use that domain for your business, and you can't have your domain taken by another business created after-the-fact.

Be sure that you do not attempt to misrepresent your business in these domains, and do some research to be sure that nothing exists that is currently competitive with similarities, and you won't have anything to worry about.

[smokey99]

Another thing to consider is merchant accounts and payment acceptance.
Who does the customer pay?
Do you have a bank acount in that name?
You don't want 20 bank accounts, for 20 sites (do you?)

Does the customer care if they buy from widgets.com, and are billed by kadidle corp.?

Something I am running into
Scott

[twist]

smokey99 are you saying that I shouldn't have 20 websites are that I should name my business something like "business co websites" so that I want have to tell the affiliate to deposit money into the "widgets.com" company name for my "sprockets.com" website?

Or are you trying to say that I should stick to less websites like 2 or 3 and have seperate accounts for each because it's easier to tell them to deposit money from "sprockets.com" into the "Sprockets" company?

Another question, can you even register a business under a website name?

i.e. Business name "sprocket.com" and site name "sprocket.com"?

Although I would imagine that amazon.com has the name amazon.com registered.

[twist]

Another quick question, on the forms I was looking through to get the business license it said I could list alternate names for my business, does anyone know if this means I could have my business name be "Widget", "Widget.com", "Widget.net" and so on?

or

Does it mean that I could have my business name be "joes websites" and also register the name of each website I use like "widget.com" also?

Considering that everyone here probably has websites and most are generating some sort of money it seems I should have plenty of replies, unless of course everybody is doing this under the table?

[diamondgrl]

Depending on expected revenue, you may want to set up different accounts. If it's just a handful of transactions, you can just keep separate accounting in your Quickbooks or other accounting software.

But just as it is highly recommended by the IRS that you keep a separate business account from your personal account, you could run into jeopardy having only one account for several businesses. If, say, one gets sued, or one gets a purchase offer made, it does no good to say, "Well, I don't know which company that particular expense belongs to. I can't find the receipt ..." or whatever.

It's more trouble and it's more expense but the financial discipline that separate accounts creates may be what you need. I have set up three different businesses that way.

[twist]

Thanks diamondgrl, I never thought of it in a selling point. With each site having its own identity it would be easier to sell as a complete package.

[smokey99]

Twist
I am not telling you which way to go, just something to consider.
If you intend on accepting CC check with merchant card account provider, they may have more answers.

"Another quick question, on the forms I was looking through to get the business license it said I could list alternate names for my business, does anyone know if this means I could have my business name be "Widget", "Widget.com", "Widget.net" and so on? "

Is this a municipal business licence or registering your company with the Gov?

I am Canadian so things may be different
but if it is a business license with municipality they are probably asking for other names you operate under
or DBA "do business as"

If you are registering your company name with the Gov.
It is likely a place for a second name choice in case the first name is already taken.

[twist]

After a full night of sleep I came to this conclusion,

I do my websites from my house and one deals with the local area and the last thing I need is some drunk guy from my town showing up on my door at 2:00am to tell me his opinion on my website or maybe getting phone calls from local business's at all hours asking my tips on making websites.

For this reason I am planning on moving domains to godaddy and add the privacy feature they use through that proxy company. I guess that would all be completely useless if I turn around and name my business "example.com" or "example" and my public business license has my name, phone number and address on it.

Since it is perfectly legal to use the "doing business as" and this pretty much means I can run as many business's with as many different names as I want while still staying anonymous might just be the way to go.