There are several food and agriculture businesses that are a sole proprietorship or general partnership that operate as a DBA. For example, my own cattle business is really Cari Rincker d/b/a Rincker Cattle Co. My parents’ cattle operation is Curt & Pam Rincker d/b/a Rincker Simmentals. DBA’s are ubiquitous in the food and agriculture industry. However, have you cross your T’s and dotted your I’s? Did you file a Certificate of Assumed Name with the County Clerk?
Just last week, I went to the Champaign County Clerk and filed two Certificate of Assumed Names for “Cari’s Farm” and “Discover Illinois” for two new entrepreneurial efforts of mine. The process was very straight forward. I had a typed up Certificate of Assumed Name but the Clerk wanted to use its own form — it took the name, address, and purpose of the DBA and the name/address of the owner(s) (i.e., yours truly). I had to pay $5 for each entity and then they gave me a Certificate of Publication for each entity. I literally just took a photograph of each Certificate and emailed the Champaign Gazette for the legal notice. Illinois requires a publication for three successive weeks with a county paper. New York does NOT have this requirement- check the law in your state or speak to an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.
After I publish the notice in the paper for 3 successive weeks, I will then take the affidavit of publication to the County Clerk’s office for the Certificate of Assumed Name. I can then take this to a bank an open up a new farm account for Cari’s Farm or bank account for my Discover Illinois blog. Additionally, I can transact business and enter in contracts under this DBA.
If you are farm or food business in Illinois who hasn’t gone through this step, please let Rincker Law, PLLC help you. If you forget this step then it can hinder your company’s ability to enforce contracts entered into under your business’s name.
Hey- I get it. It’s annoying. I had to take a morning off work to run errands like this. I had to go to the courthouse for a matrimonial action and discovered that the county clerk was in a completely different building about 10 minutes away (really????). But I’m glad I have this done. However, no matter the size of your business, it’s important to finalize these types of details.