multiple businesses on one account?

[mygraybird]

I recently had to upgrade my account to a business account for a reason I'm not even entirely clear on (there was an unclaimed payment with another email address of mine, and when I went to set it up to claim it, the website was requiring that I set up the account as business.  i don't even know.), and now I'm realizing that may be a problem.

I set up my account initially for a vintage shop I have on Etsy, but I just recently started working on a second shop that, obviously, has an entirely seperate name.  I added the email for the second shop to my current PayPal so that the funds would be in the same place so I didn't need to get a new bank account.  However, now that my account is updated to Business, when I go to send an item, the return address is my business name (the FIRST business, that is) rather than my own personal name....  I haven't gotten any sales in the new shop yet (it's hardly set up, so yeah) but I need to know if every email address on my account is going to have my original business name listed on it, because that won't work.  Becuase if I get a sale through the new business I don't want items to ship out with a return address for the old business...  what do I do?

thanks in advance

[DenmarkGuy]

My issue is very similar, so I don't really have an answer for you-- although I understand that PayPal has a "parent/child" feature where you can have mutliple business centers attached to one account. I imagine it works a bit like folders in your email program... you can have separate subfolders, but they ARE-- in the end-- part of the same "top" folder, namely your PayPal account.

Just to add on here, so the admin can add similar answers on the same thread... here's mine:

For years, I have "worked around" dealing with multiple businesses using ONE PayPal account only, as per PayPal's TOS. Alas, my volume in 2012 is probably going to grow to the point where it would take me DAYS/WEEKS of extra accounting to manually sort out one account, even if transactions can be tied to the payment email address used. I would really like to create some autonomy for 2012, since this year I will ALSO be splitting my businesses for IRS (schedule C) purposes. 

To complicate matters, I use the same account to also buy and sell stuff on eBay and on the web for PERSONAL use. Because, of course, I am only allowed to have one PayPal account.

To complicate matters, Part Deux, later this year my wife's (and my) non-profit will start receiving money for workshops, events, donations and such... meaning there's a whole new business which is TOTALLY unrelated to the two (already Totally Unrelated!) businesses on the master account. 

So I'm starting to get a bit anxious... mostly for fear that I'm going to be spending days (if not WEEKS) of valuable business time doing tedious bookkeeping... because I am only allowed ONE PayPal account!

Aside from wanting info on being able to "split" accounts (how to do it, who to call/email, etc.)... I have a couple of other questions:

If, indeed, I can have "child" accounts, can I also have payment notifications and such sent to the correct email addresses associated with EACH "child?" 

Also, if one "child" basically is a non-profit taking mainly small/micro donations, can that one "child" be designated as a "small payments" account, while the other "children" remain normal PayPal accounts?

Thanks in advance!

~Peter