Five years ago I established an S Corp where I developed a system for creating recordable gift tags, enclosure cards and florist insert cards. I market them online and through retailers.
Prior to catching the entrepreneurial bug, I taught OSHA compliance courses at a university and did some consulting. I would like to return to - and build on - the safety consulting business but with the protection of incorporating. Can I bring it in under my existing corporation as a DBA or must I establish an entirely new S Corp?
You should double check with your lawyer and with your state-of-incorporation's filing rules but my gut says "Yes".
One thing to consider: as you develop your safety consulting business and as you develop materials and any other IP, make sure your copyright wording lists you or your S-Corp as the owner. I'm not sure the DBA name can copyright anything.
I've run many consulting and professional services business so if you need to talk through what it's like and some lessons learned, just Request a Call.
Best of luck.
You can operate your business as a business unit under the corporation through a DBA. There is nothing stopping you from doing that. You might want to check your insurance policy to make sure you are covered but there are no business form issues that I'm aware of that would stop you from doing this. I run several businesses under one LLC with DBAs.
Do you "Have" to set up a new entity...No. Should you?...It depends. A structures professional, tax expert, or a business lawyer can give you the best advise on that. It would depend on the amount of liability you are opening up to each business activity.
