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When information technology comes to businesses, non even the heaven is the limit—you lot can have as many business entities as yous want. Only if yous have several businesses going, information technology can be difficult to manage all of them effectively. One way to simplify your businesses is by organizing them all under one LLC. Done right, this tin simplify your legal and fiscal paperwork so you can focus on actually running your businesses—but the set-upwardly procedure can get a picayune catchy. Here, we've compiled answers to some of your most common questions about operating multiple businesses nether one LLC roof.[1]

  1. i

    Yes, you tin operate equally many businesses equally you desire under one LLC. Since an LLC can serve whatsoever business purpose, that means information technology can also serve every business service you want it to. Even if yous have many different businesses, yous can technically run them under the aforementioned LLC. This makes LLCs particularly versatile for freelancers, contractors, and other entrepreneurs who may accept several things going at once.[two]

    • For case, suppose you started an LLC for your freelance web design services. If you lot later decided y'all also wanted to start a graphic design business concern creating logos, you lot could run that under the aforementioned LLC. Want to expand even further and offer social media support or brand management? You could also run these under the aforementioned LLC.
    • As long as yous accept a single-member LLC (in other words, you don't accept whatever partners), y'all can expand indefinitely. If yous have other partners, though, you'd typically have to get their approval. It depends on the construction you've laid out in your operating agreement.

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    Create DBAs to use unlike business concern names. If you're running multiple businesses out of a single LLC, registering a DBA with your state allows your LLC to operate under unlike names. The DBA is an official acquittance that your LLC is "doing business organization as" something else.[3]

    • For example, suppose you created an LLC called "Carolina Graphics, LLC" for your graphic design business. If y'all decided you as well wanted to branch out into spider web design, you might make up one's mind to register "Carolina Web Pattern" as a DBA. The total, official title would be "Carolina Graphics, LLC, d/b/a Carolina Web Design."
    • Your DBA name wouldn't have "LLC" after it, because you haven't formed a separate LLC in that name.

  1. 1

    No, merely split DBAs can brand marketing and promotion easier. With separate DBAs, you tin create specific names to distinguish each business in the minds of the general public. Yous can also open separate depository financial institution accounts to keep the money for each concern separate.[iv]

    • For instance, suppose you formed an LLC called "Sunshine Services, LLC" for bookkeeping services. If you decided y'all also wanted to offer tax grooming services, you could annals "Sunshine Tax Prep" as a DBA. That would permit you to reach tax prep customers separately.
    • If you're using a name for your business organization that's unlike from the proper name of your LLC, you lot do take to register that DBA with the state where the business organisation is located—even if you haven't set upwards a carve up banking concern account.[v]

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  1. 1

    File a registration grade with your state's secretary of state. Each state has its own procedure for registering a DBA, typically handled past the secretary of land's function. The course simply requires y'all to list the name you lot're using and the engagement you started using it, as well equally basic information virtually yourself and your business organisation. You take to pay a fee to register your DBA. Although the corporeality of the fee varies depending on where your business organisation is located, information technology'southward usually less than $fifty.[6]

    • Before you file your DBA form, bank check your state'southward business name database and make sure the proper noun you want isn't already in use. You tin commonly admission the database through the website of your state'southward secretary of state.
    • If you're setting up the DBA within your LLC, listing your LLC on the registration grade as the entity using the proper name. You might also need to provide a copy of your LLC's arrangement documents.

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    Multiple DBAs come with a greater liability run a risk. Your LLC is liable for all of the debts and legal problems that arise within it, regardless of how many DBAs you take. The more businesses yous accept running nether a single DBA, the more adventure that LLC is potentially assuming. However, this all depends on the types of risk that confront each concern.[vii]

    • For example, suppose you lot have an LLC to run a restaurant and so add a DBA under that LLC to manage a rental holding. If a tenant sues over problems at the rental holding, they could potentially come later on the restaurant every bit well.
    • On the other hand, if you lot're running a web design business organisation and add on graphic design and social media support, you lot might not be expanding your risk that much because all of those businesses are in the same sector.

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    Multiple LLCs don't share risks every bit DBAs exercise. If y'all run all of your businesses as completely dissever LLCs, all of them are considered distinct entities. This means that if one of them has a problem, none of the other LLCs can be forced to cover that trouble. With DBAs, on the other mitt, all of your businesses are considered one and the same.[8]

    • Remember of a DBA equally a sort of nickname. No matter how many nicknames your LLC has, information technology's nonetheless the same LLC and it'due south still responsible for everything.
    • In contrast, if you make every business a split LLC, each 1 is insulated from the others' risks. As an farthermost example, if one of your LLCs went bankrupt, its creditors wouldn't be able to come up after the avails of the other LLCs because they're separate entities.

  1. one

    Yes, the primary LLC acts as a holding company for the other LLCs. When you make full out the paperwork to course your LLC, y'all would listing your master LLC as the sole member of the new LLC. This makes the chief LLC the parent, or belongings company, and the new LLC the subsidiary. Technically, you tin can have as many subsidiary LLCs equally you want.[9]

    • With this structure, your primary LLC typically doesn't do any "business" of its own, autonomously from managing and organizing the other LLCs. This is why it's known as a property visitor—it merely holds the others. You might also hear it called an "umbrella company," because all of the other businesses exist under the "umbrella" of the main LLC.
    • An LLC can as well exist a partner in another LLC, although this gets a fiddling more complicated. For instance, if you and your brother wanted to open a eatery and y'all already endemic a restaurant through an LLC, you lot might brand that LLC a partner with your brother in the other LLC that operates the new restaurant.

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    Peradventure, depending on the taxation nomenclature you choose. LLCs are created under state law, so you can choose whether you want to have your LLC treated as a corporation for federal tax purposes. If you lot choose to care for your LLC as a "disregarded entity," meaning that it isn't treated every bit an entity separate from its owner, it might non need an EIN for federal tax purposes. However, your land might crave one or you might want to get one for financial purposes.[10]

    • You lot'll withal need an EIN if your LLC has employees, fifty-fifty if it is treated as a disregarded entity for taxation purposes.
    • Any of your LLCs that yous elect to have treated every bit a corporation for tax purposes must accept their own EIN.

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    A belongings company construction is best if you're trying to spin off of your original business. If all of your businesses are in roughly the aforementioned sector but you want to keep them separate, you might consider using one LLC equally a belongings company with multiple LLCs under it. That way, each LLC remains split from the others, only they're all run by the same entity.[eleven]

    • Real estate developers frequently use this model, creating an LLC for each property. That way, each holding is shielded from responsibleness for the debts or liabilities of whatsoever of the other properties.
    • Talk to an accountant or attorney who specializes in business germination virtually your plans. They tin can look over your situation and advise y'all on what structure would all-time suit your needs and the needs of your businesses.

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    A holding visitor gives yous flexibility and centralizes command. If you're trying out different business ideas, having them all owned by a single LLC allows you to quickly disband the ones that aren't working. It as well keeps all of your separate businesses insulated from liability if 1 of the businesses happens to fail.[12]

    • If each of your subsidiary LLCs is passing money to the holding company, that besides allows y'all to more than easily transfer money between your businesses if 1 of them runs into temporary cash menstruation issues.

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    A holding company comes with circuitous tax and legal issues. If y'all have your subsidiary businesses also organized as LLCs, they'll be considered separate entities from the property visitor. In practice, this ways that you lot'll have to file separate formation documents, get separate licenses, and potentially file separate taxes.[13]

    • Ultimately, this isn't that much unlike from having several separate LLCs that simply operate independently of one some other. You lot even so accept the same tax and legal requirements to continue up with.
    • If your subsidiary LLCs are structured differently or there are other partners involved, you lot can run into pretty significant tax and legal complications.

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  • Check registration requirements for every state and county where you operate your business concern. If you operate in multiple states, it'southward a good idea to hire a business attorney to make certain you lot're registered everywhere you need to exist.

  • If you're non sure what structure would work for your businesses, talk to an accountant. They can run through the financial and tax implications of different structures so you tin can choose the one that best suits your needs.

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  • This article applies to LLCs in the US merely. If your LLC is organized in a different land, different regulations might apply. Consult an attorney who specializes in business organisation.

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