Can 2 sole proprietorships operate under the same name?

[TheEventress]

Hey ya! Hope I'm posting in the right area. New here and needing some advice for getting off the ground.

Background: A friend and I started doing wedding planning as a hobby/super small side business 4 years ago in the area we both lived. 1.5 years ago I moved a few hours away and continued to do events with her, traveling home frequently. I've since decided I want to formalize the business and try to launch it as a full-time gig in my new town. She's totally cool with this and plans to continue operating on a PT basis in her area. We both want to keep using the brand we've built together since we've already got a basic business structure in place (website, business cards, community recognition) but we don't necessarily want to operate as a single entity since we will be putting vastly different amounts of work into the business and essentially both want to be paid based on the events we do, not some percentage of ownership.

Question: Struggling to define this business structure. Ideally, I'd like to tradmark the business name, logo, etc and put an agreement in place that says we can both use the brand but nothign else will be shared and neither of us will have a say in how the other operates their business. Aside from the reputation arguement (I'm not concerned about her driving the name into the ground and vice versa), is this possible/legal and how would you structure it? Can we both just start our own sole prop or does it need to be more complex than that? If it matters we're both in different counties and in our state a sole prop is only registered with the county.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I'm confused. You actually have a partner but want to run it as a sole-prop? You're describing a partnership.

 

[DaRK9]

Same question as MJ.

Why would counties, trademark or any of that matter if you already run it as a partnership?
If you aren't worried as you say, keep it as is.

 

[TheEventress]

Well to clarify, we aren't a formal partnership now. As mentined it was more of a hobby - we don't advertise, we do a 3-5 events a year and there was really no active business management to it, and until now, we've always worked the events together. Now, I'm looking to grow and target a different market and don't want to muddle through all the sticky aspects that come with a partnership. Neither of us want to combine business accounts or be responsible for the other person's events primarily becuase of the distance between us, and I don't want to subject her to the liability that comes with running a larger operation - contracting for corporations and a non-profits for months at a time is a whole different ballgame than a one off wedding.

I guess I'm not totally opposed to still working together, I just don't see much benefit for eitehr one of us -- I feel like its higher risk for her and it doesn't seem fair to put her in that spot when she doesn't stand to gain as much as me. Maybe I'm having tunnel vision here. Why do you feel we should continue to operate as a partnership?

 

[ZCP]

You incorporate it. She gets to use the name. You handle the admin. She gets what she sold - admin - small markup. She can leverage your people / marketing / insurance / etc. You are not committed to her. You both make more money.

If she gives ANY resistance, cut bait and start your own entity. Doesn't sound like you have a lot of brand loyalty here, so the phone numbers are probably more important than anything.

 

[TheEventress]

I'm confused. You actually have a partner but want to run it as a sole-prop? You're describing a partnership.

What I was trying to describe is that I'd like to split from my partner so I avoid the risk of ruining our friendship over a business because we're going different directions. We aren't competing for the same business so I guess what my question boils down to is can two businesses in different areas operate under the same name or is there some entity that is going to say "no, theres another business with that name so you can't have it"?

 

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[CarrieW]

sole proprietorships usually go under the names of the owners. are you talking about a business name like a dba? doing business as name?

I would say you can both file a dba change it slightly. there aren't corporate/business police. this kind of thing usually polices itself. by someone saying hey shes got my name and needs to stop then they go to court. unless its an actual corp then they can say no someones got that name already etc...

is there a reason why you both want to use the name? maybe change it slightly like I said xyz for home/small events and xyz for corporate/bigger affairs. or xyz of whatever town usa and xyz of your town usa?

there isn't any formal paperwork so you can pretty much do what you want. but whatever you agree to do write it down so there isn't any questions later.

I don't think it is as big of an issue as you think it is