I am in the process of setting up a new company. My market will consist of med-high level residential clients as well as small business, to enhancements for large corporations. My goal is to enter the market as more of an upscale/much higher quality garden design firm than the typical truck with a mower fly by night companies. I want to be known as being high quality/high customer service. We may cost more, but it is worth it.
My family name is well known in the community and I had fully intended on using it in the company title. [family name] & Co. I do not want to use landscape in the title in case we eventually branch out to doing other business. There is also another large company in the area, with shady practices, who will be watching my every move once they figure out who i am (they are after another family member’s business thus they will come after mine as well). However, I also think most landscape company names are cheesy (earthscapes, mainscapes, prairie view, etc.). Any advice?
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Jay’s Answer: A generic/umbrella name isn’t a name that most of your clients will truly care about. It’s the name of the subsidiary they’ll see. And in some cases, subsidiaries don’t want to use the parent’s name/brand because there may be little or no overlap.
Rather than use “& Co.” in your name, why not leave this off entirely ([FamilyName] Companies LLC)? Then you can have a “Garden Design Division”. But if you create too big a bucket to allow you to do all things in the future, you’re likely to look silly starting out. You’ll only have one division for an umbrella company.
If you family name is well known, focus the new name on the target market (“[family name] Garden Design”). If you want to start a new business, create a new name for that when/if the time comes.
Also, let your tagline help to describe who you serve & why. Keep your business name professional/clean. Also, if you need to serve a different clientele, you won’t have a headache.