Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Registering Domain Names

There are many opportunities to begin your own home based business through the internet. This trend is sweeping the nation and some experts predicted that sixty percent of the work force will be working from their home within the next ten years. Many of the companies are multi-level dealerships and others are stand alone free businesses. Many companies encourage the new business owner to name their company.

My husband and I started our own dealership and gave our company a name to place on our business cards. When I was talking to a tax consultant he asked me if I knew about registering domain names. I think he could tell by my silence that I did not know what he was talking about. He explained that when you name a company you can protect the name from anyone else using it by registering domain names with the state in which you live. He said that it was not necessary to do this, but many people have found that registering domain names can save them hassles in the future is someone else would use the same name. He also cautioned not to fall into schemes that charge money. Registering domain names is something that the business owner can do with the secretary of state’s office in the state you reside in. This can be done on line in most states, and involves filling out a form. Some people on the internet will run ads claiming that they will register you business name for a nominal fee. People will give them the business information and then the person will go on line and register the name for free and pocket the money that they charge.

There are many advertisements on the internet that make claims of registering domain names cheap, or for a nominal amount you can have the registration taken care of. I was glad that the accountant told me that registering domain names is free and easy to do, or I probably would have answered one of the ads and paid someone to do it for me. As I bring new business owners into our company I pass this information on to them. One of my business partners wanted to go through the process of registering domain names because she was quite proud of the name that she came up with for her company. She went on line and followed the directions of the state’s official website. She said that it took her less than fifteen minutes to complete the process.