Name Change for Business

October 11, 2010 10:18 AM

I have a small company in which I want to change the name of it. I work in NY and it's a small production LLC in which I want to turn into a company for my music publishing. How do I go about doing that?
posted by InterestedInKnowing to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: I take it that you already have the relevant paperwork establishing the LLC taken care of and now just want to change the name of the company?

I think the simplest solution would be to file a DBA (Doing Business As) rather than changing the name of the company.

You go from InterestedInKnowing LLC to InterestedInKnowing LLC DBA InterestInKnowing Music Publishing. You can than simply refer to the company as "InterestedInKnowing Music Publishing" and will only need the official company name for official documents (Taxes, bank accounts, etc). As far as any of your customers are concerned, your company is InterestInKnowing Music Production and nothing else.
posted by VTX at 10:40 AM on October 11, 2010

Best answer: If you want to change the name officially, you need to file with Secretary of State of the state where the LLC was formed (maybe NY?)

the general website for NY (it is called the Department of State in NY) is:

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/

Official name change form:

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/corps/llccorp.html#damend

if you want to do as VTX suggests, NY requires you to file a Certificate of Assumed Name:

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/corps/assdnmins.html
posted by lvanshima at 11:54 AM on October 11, 2010