Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Dba

It's asking is it an individual, a partnership, a corporation, etc., that is gonig to be doing business under a fictitious name. Each is a different form of business organization. If you didn't form a corporation, LLC, or anything else, then you're either an individual, if it's just you, or a partnership, if you have one or more partners. A detailed description of each entity type would take pages. My website has an overview of the main types - that may help you.

Re: Dba

Law students spend an entire semester learning the answer to this question. You probably don't need quite that much detail, but there is still no way to answer such a broad question on this website.

You should consider hiring a lawyer to help you through this process. There are going to be many other difficult decisions and you probably won't know how to make them without guidance either.

Re: Dba

If you are in business, you ought to know whether your business is a sole proprietorship or something else, and if the latter, which it is! You don't have to go to law school to know whether you are a partnership or not.

My suggestion would be to get one of those paperback self-help books on how to organize and operate your small business. In addition to clearly describing the different business entities you can form and use for your business, these books will give you valuable advice on recordkeeping, tax reporting, business licenses, trademarks, insurance and other things you'll need to know to be successful and stay out of difficulties with various government agencies.