Rental Property Investor · Los Alamos, NM · Member since 2017 · 12 posts · 5 votes
Heyas - quick question for ya's: I'm trying to nail down a company name and can't decide if I can/should use REI in the name or not. Will non-REI people be turned off by an abbr they don't know stuck in a company name? Spell it out and the name gets long (ie Martin REI vs Martin Real Estate Investing). Thoughts? This may sound trivial but I'm trying to get my branding done once and done right. Thanks!
@Dave Martin you are smart to be thinking about branding and name value and it is not trivial. Keep in mind that most businesses now have very strange names, this is typically on purpose so that the company pivot in the future without having to change their name/brand think Amazon, Google, etc. The issue is that if in the future you decide to change the direction of your company, you may have to go through a rebranding if you need to drop REI or Real Estate Investing. In 10 years, maybe you get into construction or lending or something completely different. What ends up happening is that you spend tons of money and time changing your brand. Examples of this would be like International Business Machines that became IBM or Apple Computers that became Apple. Just something to think about...
I'm a huge proponent of branding and think it's a good move on your part to put thought into it. I would strongly recommend Real Estate Investors over REI since that's a term I think only some investors would recognize. For that reason, I'd also recommend an alternative that would be inline with other names commonly used in the business, such as Martin Realty Partners, Martin Properties, Martin Capital, etc., as that would also help condense the name and establish a proper recognizable brand for yourself. Best of luck.
@Arlen Chou - you're absolutely right about changing names and rebranding midstream. It can be done successfully (I always think about ING to Voya) but it's costly to be sure. If I were to head in a different direction as you suggest, like construction, I think I'd form another company for that purpose. So Martin Properties, Martin Construction, Martin Donuts, etc. But for the initial company name, it needs to be something I can settle into for the long run and not tinker with. Appreciate your feedback!
@Eduardo Zepeda - that's exactly what I was trying to avoid with REI, it makes sense to us but not to the general public. The people I'm trying to build into an investor list aren't currently RE investors for the most part so REI won't help them associate me with anything but an unknown abbreviation. I headed down the path of other names just as you suggested but there were either other companies with those names already established or it just didn't sound good. (Martin is just an example, I'm not a proponent of using my name in case I want to sell this thing a decade or two later.). But I agree with your premise, I'll keep pondering the names. Thanks!
@Dave Martin just keep in mind that if you go down the road of having multiple companies that also means multiple business structures: payroll, insurance, billing, etc. If everything is going to be in a similar/related field it might make more sense to have separate "divisions" within your company. You can assign separate P/L's so you can track each group and their profitability. Additionally, you can leverage your accounting and HR support into 1 organization. I have several companies, but they are in very dissimilar fields, so I keep them apart. However, for my real estate business my company is called Golden State Ventures or GSV for short. I chose "ventures" as it could apply to pretty much anything, but it has the "ring" of investment.
@Arlen Chou that all makes sense, thanks. I don't foresee branching out beyond multifamily investing but you never know, might as well go with a name broad enough to have the larger support structure as you suggest. Your company name certainly accomplishes that while being easy to read, say and remember. Appreciate the input!