Originally Posted by Lovey81:
Hi everyone
I submitted my paperwork to become licensed finally. So on the paperwork it asks for the name of my facility. Once I come up with a name do they change it if it’s not available or what I choose is the name it will be?
I would check with your licensing office first to see if they will allow you to run under a Fictitious Business Name (or DBA ... "Doing Business As". If they do then check with your local government center to see what the process is to register for the fictitious business name. I'm sure every state/county/city is different.
I'm in CA and I had to check the California Secretary of State's online database of registered business names to see if the one I wanted was already taken (your state may or may not have a similar registry, mine was online).
Then I went to my local county clerk's office and requested a Fictitious Name Statement form. Later I found out that my county had the form online. I filled out the form and turned it in along with a filing fee.
After that, I had to publish a DBA notice in a newspaper within my county that had to run once per week for four weeks. My county clerk's office had a list of approved newspapers that met this requirement. I picked a small and less expensive newspaper. The newspaper that I chose specifically offered a DBA service and they filed an affidavit with the county clerk once my ad ran for 4 weeks. Once that was done I received my paper DBA certificate.
I had not yet applied for my license at that time (I was preparing to apply) and once I had my DBA certificate I made a copy and submitted it along with all of the other requirements and my application to licensing. I went through the licensing process and got my license and my license reads "DAYCARE NAME AKA LAST-NAME FAMILY CHILDCARE".
If I had already had been licensed to do daycare I would have had to go through the DBA process just like above and once I had my DBA certificate I would have simply had t make a copy and send it to my analyst and they would have issued me a new license with my DBA on it. No fees to pay.
Like I said, that was my process in CA so your state/county may be different. I also know that according to CA licensing regulations I cannot run a family daycare home using a DBA unless my license specifies that name and CA licensing will not change the name of your daycare to a business name if you do not have a DBA certificate. Without a DBA here our licenses automatically will say "YOUR_LAST_NAME FAMILY CHILD CARE"