Register your business name with confidence

A business name is a name or title that you operate your business under. In other words, it is the name your clients, customers and public identify with your business.

For example, if you’ve called your business ‘The Bloom Bakery’ then ‘The Bloom Bakery’ is your business name.

If you are an Australian business you are required to register a business name if you’d like to conduct a business as mandated by the government. This is applicable only when it is a name other than your own.

The only instances when you are not required to register a business name is if:

• You are operating as an individual and your operating name is the same as your first and last name;
• You are in a partnership and your name is the same as all the partners’ names or
• You are a registered company in Australia and you operate under your company’s name.

So if your name is Joan Smith and you are trading as ‘Joan Smith’, then you do not need to register a business name. However, if you’d like to trade as ‘Joan Smith & Company’, then you will need to have this registered, as the business name is not the exact same as your first and last name.

You can check whether your proposed business name is available with us at Lawpath.

If it is available, you can continue on with the application. If it isn’t available you’ll need to select a different name that’s available.

In order to register a business name, you’ll first need an active Australian Business Number (ABN). If you do not currently have an ABN or it has been deactivated, then you’ll need to apply for a new ABN or reactivate your existing ABN.

You can apply for your ABN here!

Once you receive your ABN, then you can apply for the registered business name. On our form, you will need to provide your personal and contact details as well as your main business address.

For one year registration, Lawpath charges $145. If you’d like to register the business name for 3 years, the cost is $219.

The form takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Once that is done, we will send the information off to have the name reserved for you. It then takes around 3 to 5 business days for ASIC to review the application and approve your business name. Once this happens, we send you the registration details.

You can use your new business name as soon as you receive the registration details from us! When you get this information you can start using it as you see fit, like printing your new business cards and developing your website.

Yes, absolutely! There is no restriction to the number of business names that you can register.