Do you operate under a Czech trade licence and want to present your business under a studio, workshop or brand name? You do not have to build your entire presentation around your surname. However, you need to distinguish the name customers remember from the details of the person they enter into a contract with.
A self-employed person (OSVČ) can use a brand. If they do not have a registered business name, they legally conduct business under their own name. The practical solution is straightforward: use the brand in your presentation and clearly identify the entrepreneur alongside it. A logo alone does not address that second requirement.
A business name for an OSVČ can mean two different things
When someone searches for “business name for an OSVČ”, they usually want to name their offer. This might be a photography studio, online shop or consulting service. In this article, we call that name a brand.
The Czech term obchodní firma has a narrower legal meaning: it is the name entered in the Commercial Register. What matters is therefore not simply being self-employed, but also the entrepreneur's registration. A person entered in the Commercial Register can have a registered business name; the Trade Register is not the same register. This distinction follows from Sections 422, 423 and 425 of the Czech Civil Code.
If you are not entered in the Commercial Register, plan to use your first name and surname as the entrepreneur's identity when preparing your website and documents. Keep your brand idea separate. Further context is explained in company names, brands, domains and trademarks.
Your own name, a brand, or both?
To decide, ask yourself: should customers primarily remember you as a person, or a separate offer?
Your own name works well when customers choose a particular professional and your personal work is their main reason for buying. You do not need to explain the relationship between a brand and its creator. Bear in mind, however, that other people may have the same name, making you harder for customers to find.
A separate brand can make sense when naming a shop, product or service you intend to develop over time. Customers then need to be able to find out easily who is behind it. A brand does not, by itself, create a new company or another operator.
Combining your name and a brand is useful when you want to build both. In your presentation, you can explain that you founded the brand, and identify the entrepreneur in the business details. You do not have to repeat the entire combination everywhere in the same typeface; what matters is a clear connection.
What a website under a brand might look like
Imagine an entrepreneur called Jana who wants to offer graphic design services under the illustrative name “Papírový kompas” (“Paper Compass”). In the main part of her website, she uses the brand and explains the offer. In the contact section, she identifies herself as the operator.
The following block illustrates the structure only, with placeholders for actual information:
- Brand: Papírový kompas
- Operator: [actual first name and surname]
- Registered office: [full registered office address]
- IČO: [assigned identification number]
- Registration: [details of the entrepreneur's actual registration]
- Contact: [email and other appropriate contact details]
The name is illustrative; its availability and associated rights have not been checked. The block is also not a complete template for terms and conditions or an invoice.
For business identification details, we recommend an easily accessible contact section and concise details in the footer. Visitors should not have to guess whether the brand is the operator or whether the website belongs to another company. This is a recommendation for clarity; the law does not prescribe a particular footer design.
What details to include on a website and business documents
Section 435 of the Czech Civil Code requires the name and registered office on business documents and in information made publicly available by remote access. The assigned identifying number must also be stated. Business documents must include details of registration in the relevant register or records; for the Commercial Register, this includes the section and entry number.
Turn this into a working checklist when preparing your website: a clear operator identity, registered office, assigned IČO and correct registration details. Do not leave a sentence about the Commercial Register in a template if you are not entered in it. Likewise, do not copy another online shop's details.
As a trade licence holder, you can look up your own entry through the Trade Register linked by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Use your business's information, rather than just the address of an operating location or a contact address chosen for the website.
On invoices, distinguish the visual header from the supplier's details. A logo and brand can remind customers of their order, while the supplier identification should correspond to the entrepreneur identified at purchase. Address the accounting and tax requirements of a particular document separately according to your circumstances; this article explains how to use the name.
What an addition to your name means
An entrepreneur without a registered business name can add wording that characterises the person or their business establishment. The addition must not be misleading; Section 422, mentioned above, sets out this condition.
When choosing it, read the full name as a customer will see it. Does it suggest a different legal form, another operator or expertise you do not have? Be particularly careful with copied templates containing “s.r.o.”, the designation for a Czech limited liability company. Using a brand and presenting yourself as a company are different things.
If the name is simply the name of a service, explain that relationship on the website. Do not rely on customers inferring it from an IČO at the bottom of the page.
Check your brand even as a sole trader
Operating as an individual is not a reason to skip checking your chosen name. Before commissioning a logo and launching advertising, look at similar names in your sector, relevant trademarks and use of the intended domain. You are checking the name under which you will present your business, not just your surname.
If you encounter a similar name, follow the guide to assessing a match found during a check. For possible trademark protection, we have a separate guide to trademark registration.
If you first need to find a suitable name, generate ideas and start checking them on OverNazev.cz. Then complete brand selection and correct identification of the entrepreneur as two connected steps.
Check before publishing
Open your website, customer proposal and document template side by side. Check:
- Is it clear what the brand is and who the entrepreneur is?
- Do the name, registered office, IČO and registration details match reality?
- Does the supplier identity correspond to the information provided when ordering?
- Have any details or legal forms from a copied template been left behind?
- Do you have records of the checks on your chosen name?
Only then refine how prominently the brand and your own name appear in each place. Customers can recognise the service name from advertising while also understanding, without searching, who they are commissioning.