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» From: Broken Arrow, OK Dear TaxMama: TaxMama, my question has more to do with starting a business and incorporating than taxes, but maybe you can help me. Is there any resource where I can search for existing corporation names so I can make certain that the name we would like to use has not been taken? Thanks for your time and any feedback you can provide on this matter. Sincerely, Chris Dear Chris, Corporate names are controlled by your state's government. Usually by the Secretary of State's office. Aha! Yes! Oklahoma Secretary of State Business Filing Department. There's information on this page. They will probably, like most states, let you reserve a name for about 30-60 days until you get your act together and file your incorporation documents. All right now, that will take care of Oklahoma. But, if you're concerned with the name being unique in the USA, or in general? This is what I do - Go to IxQuick This search engine searches several others at the same time. Run a search for the name you want - and see if anyone else is using it. Don't get discouraged if you get a response showing lots of hits. LOOK AT THEM. Sometimes, it's just the words or phrase on the website. It may not actually be picking up a 'name.' Once you find a name you like - go to Better-Whois to see if (who) anyone is using it as a URL. Then, before anyone gets it, head off to Dotster and register it. (yes, TaxMama earns a 10% commission if you do - a whole $1.50!) The reasons I like using Dotster? (Besides the commission?) They'll let me register several versions of the name at one time. AND, if you do register several names, but only want to activate one of them for your website, you can have all those other names point to your main site for $5.00 per year (or free, if you don't mind Dotster's ad on the bottom). It would cost me about $10.00 per MONTH for URL forwarding with my webhost. Dotster is Waaay cheaper. AND, better yet, YOU can do the forwarding yourself. You don't have to wait for someone at your webhost's facility to wake up and take care of this for you, when they have time. Best wishes, Eva Rosenberg Your TaxMama  |
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