I have had a part time upholstery shop at home for 3 years. Now with company cut backs, I lost my full time job and I am wanting to open my upholstery shop up in town. My business name now is Chad’s Custom Upholstery. I know that it lets people know what I do, but I people don’t always put automotive upholstery with it. If I went with Chad’s Auto Upholstery, then people wouldn’t know that I did furniture and other upholstery as well. If I went with Chad’s Furniture and Auto Upholstery, I don’t know if some would think of it as a furniture store and vice versa if I switched them, then they would think auto sales. What do you think? Thank you.

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Jay’s Answer:   Who is likely to need you more often: people looking for furniture upholstery or people looking for auto upholstery? You could make that your core business name.

Or, you could use your tagline to clarify your expertise:

Chad’s Upholstery Shop: Specializing in Furniture & Automobiles

Or, create two separate business names (Chad’s Auto Upholstery and Chad’s Furniture Upholstery) to look like they are specialty businesses.

Or, as you suggested, create a single all-encompassing name (Chad’s Furniture and Auto Upholstery) – which looks & sounds like a mouthful and may cause you problems in the future if you want to focus on one or the other business or add a third major service.

Each of these approaches has pro’s and con’s in naming. But the bottom line is – if you do great work and treat your customers very well, then people will be spreading the word about your talent/shop no matter what your name is. And, if people are curious what you can do for them, your marketing materials (website, business card, flyers, etc.) should make it clear (both with text & graphic) that you do both furniture and automobile work.