Doing Business As (DBA) is a phrase that reflects the name that a company or an individual uses in the business environment. This is opposed to the name that a company is legally registered under. For example, John Doe may own a sandwich shop that is registered under his own name. However, his shop may be doing business as, "John's Sandwiches." Another example is if a woman named Sally Smith decides to start a small bookkeeping business out of her home. She might not incorporate right away. Instead, she might have her business account and other business documents as "Sally Smith DBA Smith Bookkeeping."
Doing Business As (DBA) really just refers to how the business is known in its market. In other words, it is the name that the company or individual presents to its customers. In many cases, business owners who use business names as opposed to their own names have to file these names with their state. Different states have different procedures for carrying out this process. People often tend to use doing business as names because they think these names will attract more customers than just their own name.