Legal Question in Business Law in California

You can't unless you get an office. Many areas have operations that offer "virtual offices." That may be an option.

Technically, you adopt a fictitious business name, then register it with the County Clerk.

The registration form is specified by statute and can be found at http://www.lavote.net/GENERAL/PDFS/FICTITIOUS_BUSINESS_NAME.pdf on the Web along with the instructions.

There is no provision in the law for registering without specifying a fixed location, as one of the main reasons for the registration requirement is to make it possible for people to locate you. If you don't comply with the instructions honestly and fully, you could be making trouble for yourself later on. Note down there by the signature line where it says knowingly giving false information is a crime.

I would recommend using your home address in preference to a virtual office, although if the virtual office arrangement has some real substance (i.e., you have a key to it, you pay for some limited rights, and you make some regular use of it) it should be OK. Another option is to incorporate the business or set it up as an LLC, with the corporation or LLC being named exactly as the proposed fictitious name would read. The true names of corporations and LLCs are not fictitious names and do not require local registration. Also, they can use registered agents anywhere in the state and can use P. O. Boxes for the business address so long as the registered agent has a street address.