Suppose ‘Andy‘ wants to start a business in Arkansas. Out of excitement, he starts searching for the perfect business name for his business. And after lots of ideation, he finally selects the name for his business.
He visits the Secretary of State website and starts the business formation process. But his excitement is short lived. Do you know WHY!!!
Because for forming a business, there are quite a number of documents required to be filled like filing articles of organization, operating agreement etc. And poor ‘Andy‘ does not have the documents ready.
So now what?
Will ‘Andy‘ lose his chosen business name? No! For such scenarios business name reservation comes in handy. All ‘Andy’ needs to do is file a simple name reservation form and pay a small amount of $25 to reserve the business name.
This protects the business name from being registered by someone for a period of 120 days and by that time ‘Andy‘ can prepare for business formation. Also, the business name reservation can be further renewed and transferred to someone else.
Arkansas Business Name Requirement
Arkansas Secretary of State has mandated certain requirements which you must keep in mind while finalizing the business name.
The business name must be unique and distinguishable from any existing business entity name registered with Secretary of State. Also any difference in grammar, similarly sounding business name, or using stop words does not make the business name unique and it will lead to the name being rejected.
For example following names are not distinguishable:
- Justin Plumber LLC vs The Justin Plumber LLC
- Mango Farm LLC vs Mango Farms LLC
- Jake & Mary Corporation vs Jake and Mary Corporation
Required suffix in the business name:
- For Corporations:
Must end with either “Corporation”, “Company”, “Incorporated” or an abbreviation of one of such words. - For LLC
Must end with either “Limited Liability Company”, “Limited Company”, “L.L.C.”, “L.C.”, “LLC”, “LC”, “Limited”, “Ltd.”, “Company” or “Co.”
Prohibited words:
- Language stating or implying the entity is formed for an impermissible purpose.
- Certain words such as college, bank, insurance etc are restricted to use without approval from the concerned board.
Check for Business Name Availability
Now that you are aware of the rules and regulations to be followed while naming the business, you can now proceed to the actual name selection.
Arkansas SOS provides an online tool to check the availability of any business name. You can use this tool to find and research name for your business. We have written an in-depth tutorial on how to conduct the business name search here.
How to Reserve Business Name
Business name reservation can be done by Mail or Online. We recommend filing it online as the process is instant.
Online
- Open online name reservation page – Link.
- Select filing act as 1003 of 1993.
- Enter the business name you would like to reserve.
- Fill in the contact information and accept the agreement.
- Complete the payment of $22.50.
- The business name you have chosen is successfully reserved.
By Mail
| Download Form | Link |
| Fees | $22.50 |
| Address | Secretary of State’s Business and Commercial Services Division, 1401 W. Capitol, Suite 250, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 |
| Processing Time | Around 5 days after the receipt |
- Download the name reservation form – Link.
- Fill the form with the requested details.
- Include the money order or check drawn in favor of “Arkansas Secretary of State“.
- Send the filled form to:
Secretary of State’s Business and Commercial Services Division,
1401 W. Capitol, Suite 250, Little
Rock, Arkansas 72201
Contact
For any queries, you can contact the SOS at 501-682-3409 during business hours.
Reference:
Last Updated: 25/09/2018
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