This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Is it ever okay to use a fake name for your business? A fake name, a pen name, a pseudonym. Today we're gonna hear from a guy who doesn't want his employer to find out about his side hustle. And to do that, he needs to use a different last name. He's just concerned about the search engine rankings, his boss basically finding out.
So not everybody out there wants their boss or their neighbors or just other people knowing what they do outside of work hours or it could be the kind of project that you want to have privacy in, perhaps depending on the topic or industry or just depending on yourself. So what do you do in this situation? Can you just use a different last name or a different name entirely in your marketing materials on your website, your LinkedIn and so on? The goal isn't deception, it is privacy. But is that allowed, is it ethical?
And perhaps could it backfire in some way? Well, let's talk about what's really at stake when you operate under a pseudonym and how to protect both your business and your boundaries. That is today's episode. Welcome to Side Hustle School. Detailed question and my answer coming right up.
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My name is Daniel and I work full-time in a corporate job and recently started a side hustle offering digital marketing services to small local businesses. It's going well, but here's my dilemma. I really don't want my employer to find out, at least not yet. I'm not doing anything shady, but I'd prefer to keep things separate for now. So I'm thinking about using a different last name or even a full pseudonym for my business.
Is that okay? Are there any legal or ethical issues I should be aware of? Or is this actually more common than people admit? [Music]
Daniel, it's actually a more common question than most people realize. People have all sorts of reasons why they want privacy, especially privacy online.
You're not trying to scam anyone. In this case, you just don't want your employer or maybe your LinkedIn contacts connecting the dots right now. And that's perfectly understandable. So yes, you can use a different name publicly in most contexts, especially for marketing or branding purposes. Many creators, authors, even business owners operate under alternate identities, either for privacy, creative separation, or just for professional boundaries.
So yes, it's possible. Just a couple of important caveats. Number one, you still need to use your legal name for official stuff. That includes like your business bank account, paying taxes, filing for an LLC if you do that, signing contracts, the IRS, the state. They don't care like what your Instagram handle is.
They care about who's responsible for the income. Number two, you can absolutely have a public name and a legal name. You can register a DBA, which is like doing business as with your state or province, local jurisdiction. If you want to operate under a name that's different from your personal name, that lets you advertise, even get paid under a different name, if your legal last name is different. Really just the key to all of it is transparency with clients, delivering value, doing ethical work, being clear with anybody that you enter into any formal agreement that you're not deceiving anybody, like you just want some privacy.
So the main thing I think is like if the side hustle grows, you might need to revisit your level of anonymity. Like some people start under a pseudonym and eventually feel comfortable transitioning to their real name. Others build entire brands that never reveal who's behind them. And that's fine too. But if the business gets to a certain level, then you might kind of find yourself wondering about it or being worried that you might make a mistake or slip up at some point.
So that's a problem that you deal with as the business grows. But in short, nothing wrong in most contexts and cases with using a modified or alternate name for public facing parts of your business, as long as you handle the legal side properly and stay ethical with your clients. So good news, nothing wrong with privacy. In fact, I think it is a smart move for a lot of people. All right, that's it for today.
But of course, subscribe, follow, much more is coming out. sidehustleschool.com, detailed show notes for every episode, free resources, free weekly newsletter, the complete archives, 3,000 plus episodes available for download there. And I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau Hope. You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
