An Anderson County DBA Needs a Notary Before It Gets Recorded

If you're running a lawn business or a roadside stand under a name that isn't your own, that's a DBA, an assumed name, and it doesn't grant you a license or a trademark. It's a public record of who's actually behind the name. The County Clerk records them for $23, but the form has to be notarized first; an unsigned, un-notarized form won't be accepted across the counter.

A sole owner, general partnership, or other county-level filer records the DBA where it keeps a business office. With no business office, it files in each county where it does business. A corporation or LLC files with the Secretary of State instead.

One thing the filing does not do: lock up the name. Recording a DBA doesn't prove you have the exclusive right to use it, and someone else in the next county could be using the same name. You can print the form from the clerk's page or pick one up at the office at 500 N. Church Street in Palestine; recording hours run 8 to noon and 1 to 4.