Easy! Your name. Back in the day it was fun to have a quirky and witty name to identify your business with. Nowadays a personal brand is becoming the next biggest thing. If you ever want to pivot with your business into something more broad you don’t have to change your business name. Therefore you can keep your followers, allllll those people that know, like, and trust you already.

When I was starting out I was not married yet, nor was I going to be in the near future. I used my first and middle name. That’s when Kelly Jean Studios came to light. I named it “Studios” because when I started I was still doing graphic design and thought I’d be sticking to both Photography AND graphic design. I wanted something broader than just “Photography”.

There was that little voice in me saying “People are going to get confused and think I have a studio the whole time” and nope. They never did. I also made my instagram @kellyjean.photography because by that point in my business I was sticking to mainly photography. My URL was still www.kellyjeanstudio.com though because www.kellyjeanphotography.com and all the other abbreviations were taken. It still irks me so bad that there is no “s” at the end of my URL.

Pro tips before you secure your name:

1. Check for the URL’s first
2. Check for the IG username and any other social media channel you want to start
3. Check that it is not trademarked at https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search

Now it is time to set up your DBA. This was incredibly easy in the state of NY. I went to my local clerks office and registered. It was under $40 to do so and it was one of the happiest days of my life. Don’t over think this step. It’s so good to have at least your DBA because any money you pour into your business you can write it off as a tax write off at the end of the year so keep an inventory of what you’re spending!

An easy way to do this is with my Client and Budget manager. If you don’t have clients yet – that’s okay! At least use it to track your expenses when you get started. When you download it make a copy of your copy so you have a universal one you can use year after year. It’s only $37! That $37 can save you a LOT of headache in the future. If you want to find out more about it click here.

In the end I think it’s best to use your name. Right now I am thinking of heading into a more personal brand. Not sure how I’m going to do it because I am very comfortable just posting wedding content on my instagram so I am starting with a blog. I can help you and stay under my given business name and still broaden what I talk about! Kelly Jean Studios has (so far from the time of writing this post) given me 5 years of success!