Company naming question

[Arthur F. Seifert]

I am looking for opinions as to the validity of simply using my legal name as my company name fo home inspection. I am also a professional Land Surveyor and I use my name for that practice as well. Thoughts?

[KEVIN WOOD]

Arthur Inspection Services.
Sounds good and you will be near the top of the list having A as first letter.
www.arthurhomeinspections.com is not picked yet on search.

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

That depends on if you want to stroke your ego or not. It would be much better to have a company name that people could possibly use as an internet search term. As for the Arthur or A being at the top of the list, that may have had some credence when people used the yellow pages but those go right in the recycle bin now. The internet search engines don't give a rats patootie about which letter your company name starts with and it is unlikely that someone that doesn't know you would ever search for Arthur Home Inspections unless that is the name of their city.

If I had to do it over again, I may not have chosen the same company name but after so many years, you don't give up local name recognition. Since you are starting out fresh, it won't matter.

What area are you going to service? You have NJ & PA for your surveying. Both states license home inspectors so if you are not going to license in both states, pick one and use a regional name for your business and see if that name is available for a website url.

Good luck.

[Troy N. Pappas]

Including the area you service in the name will benefit you when you start to work on a web marketing presence.

[KEVIN WOOD]

That is true Stephen W but you can relate to what I am talking about.
My last name Wood is last in a search
The Right Trak is near the bottom.
Most companies are switching to make sure there company does not suffer from being on the alphabet highway.
As for the website being at the top this is not what I was trying to get across.
Arthur has an A in it and as long as some places do search with the Alphabet he is better off staying with Arthur.

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

Maybe in Canada there is an alphabet highway. It no longer exists in the US. The only place where items are listed in alphabetical order are the yellow pages. Maybe if I taught my parrot to read, he could call the right number since that is what I line the bottom of his cage with. Nobody uses the yellow pages anymore. Within the next couple years, most phone books will cease to exist. Look to the future, not the past when planning for future marketing and advertising.

[KEVIN WOOD]

Agreed

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.nachi.org/namesearch.htm

[KEVIN WOOD]

I can't believe my eyes there is no Arthur Home Inspections! LOL

[Nick Gromicko]

You can also look down the COMPANY column in http://www.nachi.org/memberlist/featured/all.htm

(takes about 20 seconds to load).

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

I do not use my name as I do not own the company..

[Nick Gromicko]

I do not use my name as I do not own the company..

Nice. I'm with you Joe. Actually, I don't own much, and soon will never, ever, ever, own anything again. The last few things still in my name (left over from a previous time when I didn't understand asset protection) are some mining claims, and due to a back injury, I'm selling them this year. After that, I'll never touch a ballpoint pen again.