Business name

[Adrian Smude]

Are there any terms/words to stay away from when creating business cards/company name?  I've heard Investor is not a friendly word to the public.  I am looking to get into wholesale with flips and rehab hopefully shortly behind  I currently have two rentals and I will add to those.  I'd rather keep it all as one name, at least at first.

Comments, advice, suggestions?

[Arlen Chou]

@Adrian Smude historically people liked to name the business after themselves and often with a some type of defining word of their industry or product niche:  Heweltt Packard, International Business Machines, Apple Computers, etc.  However, in more modern times people began to realize that companies need to change over time: HP, IBM, Apple.  This is because a company focus may start off as one thing, but often times moves over time because of industry changes and the company may need to change its product or market focus.  Additionally, a name that is tied directly to an owner becomes more difficult to pass on or sell at a later date in time.

A company name is just that, a name.  But in this day and age that is the wrong thing to focus on.  You should be creating a BRAND.  All of the companies I have mentioned made that transition from a company with a NAME, to a company with a BRAND.  Look at all of the newer large companies, they don't make mention at all of what they do: Google, eBay, Cisco, Amazon, etc.  They do this so that they can pivot their business easily in the future if they need to do it.

In our industry good examples would be Zillow.com or Redfin.com.  Both of these brands could pivot and become anything they wanted.  However, Realtor.com would be hard pressed to do anything else without re-branding.

My point is that you should think about creating a brand.  The work you do or the area you focus will define the market area your business competes.  But if you find that one area is not something you like to do, or you want to go from flipping, to property management, to general contracting, to whole selling, etc., it is easier if you have a flexible company name.

Let us know the name you decide on!

-Arlen