DBA or LLC — what's the difference?

They get talked about like two options on the same shelf, and they aren't. A DBA ("doing business as," also called an assumed name) is just a way of saying this business goes by this name. It doesn't create a company and it doesn't put a wall between your business and your house. An LLC creates an actual entity — its own name on the Secretary of State's record, its own bank account, its own liability.

So the question isn't really DBA versus LLC. It's: do you want a name, or do you want a business? A cash route with a nickname wants the first. Anybody who's quoting real jobs, hiring a helper, or being asked for a W-9 wants the second. How and where an assumed name gets filed in Indiana depends on how you're organized — INBiz is the state's own answer to that, and it beats every blog post, ours included.

The LLC's price is public and small: about a hundred dollars, filed online through INBiz. In a barn raising it's the papers gate at the halfway mark, prepared by us and signed by you, because it's your name.

Builders, not lawyers. For your particular setup, an hour of a real one is money well spent.