Hello

I'm looking at starting a small retail business. I've pretty much decided on going with the LLC. I have a name picked out for my store but I want to make my LLC a different name because I want to open up more stores in the future selling different services. Can I do this? And how do I go about listing them differently. I've read similar post about this but haven't seen a specific answer for my question. Thanks

You just do it with the state. Have your LLC register a fictitious name (ie: "My Store") with the state. Your Secy of State office has the forms. You then operate the store as "My Store" on the store sign. You file your tax return as My LLC d/b/a My Store or just as My LLC if you have more than one store. "d/b/a" means doing business as.

This is common for franchise operations. I have a "Gold's Gym" that operates under that name but the corp tax returns and paperwork show "Corp Name, d/b/a Gold's Gym". My client only owns one Gold's Gym but you see other Gold's Gyms and signs all over the USA. If someone whated to sue my client's corporation all they have to do is go to the Secy of State Office and see the name of the real owner at that location.