In my humble opinion a dba is more professional and may open more doors for you. Its also a step towards incorporation - an llc or an s corp for example, which have their own benefits as your business grows.

A sole proprietorship without a dba is the simplest form of business there is - you're basically saying you're in business, you show all income on one tax return - both business and personal - and you get to take deductions. A dba would have the same reporting structure, you just have a separate name for the entity.



However if you plan on having employees or doing certain types of work, some states require you to have a dba, EIN, vendors license, etc, as well as filing the appropriate tax withholding paperwork.

Do you have employees now?