No distinction is made between the sole trader and his business: The owner is, therefore, held responsible for all the activities of the business. Lack of business continuity: Since the owner and business are one and the same entity, death, insanity, imprisonment, physical ailment or bankruptcy of the sole proprietor will have a direct and detrimental effect on the business and may even cause closure of the business. Sole Traders and Trading As Names. When you register as a Sole Trader you register your own name with HMRC and this is the name that you should be trading under (e.g. John Smith). However, you can use a ‘trading as’ name. So you could be “John Smith trading as Slapdash Decorators”. The menu back then was very different to the coffee and baked goods that are served now; the original Starbucks sold only the finest, fresh-roasted coffee beans, while the name, as Starbucks’ site states, was inspired by ‘the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders’.