Does business name matter?

[jaypie77]

Specifically, my business name. I am having a dilema and I would like some advice from other photographers.

1. I've decided to name my photo business "(first name, last name) photography" for now. What do you folks think - is this a good name or should I come up with something more interesting?

2. Let's say, hypothetically, that my name is Jay Pietrzak. Should I call my business Jay Pietrzak Photography, J.K. Pietrzak Photography, OR should I use my legal Polish alias, hypothetically, Janus Pietrzak Photography? I think I'll stick with either Jay or J., but I'm thinking that the use of Janus instead of a boring name in front of an exotic name might give me more "artistic" credibility. Any thoughts?

[EricKonieczny]

I had the same dilema. With a long Polish name and odd letter combination, hardly anyone can pronounce my last name, let alone spell it.

I had to come up with some thing different. No one would have ever been able to remember the URL to my website.

I used my initials and then took the word "creating" and changed the "c" to a "k" .

After you come up with the name, then have fun designing a logo, business cards, and a website. :D

[robertwgross]

In the US, an individual can legally use just about any form of the name as long as there is no intent to deceive.

It gets a bit more complicated when you get your business license. Normally you do a ficticious name search to make certain that there is nobody else in your area doing business with the same business name. That may be easier for you.

Some photographers try to stay hidden a little more, so they use something like "Jason Photo" or "JKP Photo." That gets tricky when some client goes to write you a check, so whatever you decide for the business license had better be the same as the checking account.

I know one person who tried to stay hidden that way, off the books, so to speak. It took a few years, and then the long arms of the tax man found her out. Then it gets ugly.

---Bob Gross---

[jaypie77]

I'm not doing anything to evade taxes - I am not interested in having that kind of problem. I think I'm just in a situation where, for once, I wish my name was more like Bob Gross than some ex-Soviet dictator. The flip-side is that if I become famous, my name will be useful because it is somewhat memorable.

When I used to go to the YMCA in the winter to play squash - I always used an assumed name that I didn't have to spell out over the phone to make reservations, but that's probably not legally useable in the US. This is going to take some really hard thinking.

[defordphoto]

Pick something that rolls off the tongue. Pretend you're answering the business telephone. In your case, I'd vote for JK Photography. Keep it simple and easy to remember.

[jaypie77]

Thanks for that tip, but things like JK PHotography.com and everything like it are taken already... Oh man. Simple stuff is gone, hard stuff is not marketable, I'm still workign on this. I'll keep folks posted of course, but any suggestions are more than welcome.

[SWPhotoImaging]

Hmmm, let's see, firstnamelastnamephotography . . . . worked for me.

You're lucky, "JKPietrzak" flows off the tongue. It sounds official, historical, established, formal.

My name is Steven D Wike, and SD isn't a friendly spoken combination. You'd never want to say "SDPhoto" or SDWPhoto", and all combinations of my initials and photo or photography were gone.
Thought about changing my name, but that's not a good solution.
I finally went with "Steven Wike Photo-Imaging" for a business name, and a domain name of SWPhotoImaging.com
Not as jazzy as "vanishingpointphoto.com" or "lenswerk.com", but not too bad.

In your case, many options for domain exist as well. pietrzakphoto.com, jkpieterzak.com, jpietrzakphotography.com, etc.

[jaypie77]

I definitely like J.K. Pietrzak and have used it in the past in some situations. I just bought the domain, too. I guess I'll just have to resign myself to becoming famous enough so that people recognize the name.

[RTMiller]

What's wrong with Janusz Photography?
I think it rolls off the tongue very nice. Unlikely that www.januszphotography.com (http://www.januszphotography.com/) is taken. Sounds exotic and professional to me (by the way, I'm pronouncing it Ja-news).

[jaypie77]

Really? You like the Janusz Photography? (I pronounce it Yaw-noosh) Oh man - everybody has their own opinion and nobody can agree. Now I will have to buy up $100 worth of domain names!

[johnlo]

things like JK PHotography.com and everything like it are taken already...

My initials is JKL. when I purchased my domain name in 1997. It wasnt hard getting what you wanted. So i went for JKLIMAGERY.com. I never thought about owning my name.. and when I did.. someone else has it already. www.johnlo.com GRRRRRRRR!!!

[jaypie77]

Yeah, I wish we could go back a few years and buy up all the names we would like. Now there are a bunch of friggin squatters on these domains.

Pietrzak.com, for example, is owned by some Hong Kong jerk who wants me to buy it at the "reduced" rate of 200 british pounds!!! What? Who does he think he's dealing with here?

[robertwgross]

You could use some variation of Janus.

I think Janus was the Roman god of doors or something. The image of Janus has two faces. That could make for some interesting imagery.

---Bob Gross---

[jaypie77]

I think that there was a famous pre-bust mutual fund named Janus. They used the 2-face God logo too :(

Too late for that I guess... I'll work on it though.

[mpigapicha]

Have you thought about a name that is not yours? A place, for instance.

[Pyromaniac]

When I decided to build my website I needed something other than my name since my last name is German and hardly anyone can pronounce it. I went with Action Stills Photography, for a business name and actionstills.com as the domain name, because most of what I was doing at the time was action shots of youth sports teams. Since gotten away from that but the name has a nice ring to it I think. So maybe you could come up with a descriptive name like that.

[ScreaminMimi]

In a small town where there's only 1 or tow photogs your name might be okay but if yuo live in a large metro area you might ewant to take atip from other unrelersated companies. Compusa leaves littel doubt what they sell. Circiut City tells you that they sell eletrononics.

Joe Blow Photography dont do much to distinguish you from all the other Photographers in the pohne book.

What my husband did was that he started out as General Photography, Inc.

But after ten years, after his work became known, peopel forgot the name of our busness, and we were finding that peopel were calling other peopel to get our number because they didn't know the company name, and there were 150 other photographers in town. Wehn we started out we were one of maybe three in the wholw place.

So we changed the name to Benny Beanblossom Photography and then peopel cuold find us in the book. If we were in VBoston or some other big city, I don't think we could start out with just our names. It din't say what we did. "general Photography" told the people that we did most anything. (That was almost my forever late husband's undoing).

Im not saying thet yuo shuold start out with an name too obvious like We shoot Kids but I thiunk it might be better to name your company in a way that tells people what you do.

My h20 worth.

[Jon, The Elder]

JayPie - for what it's worth.

My wife and I shoot horse events. She helps on bigger shows. Couldn't use both our names - too 'mom-and-pop'. So.....

Ferguson Digital Photography (who and what)

catch phrase = "We Shoot Horses"

Business cards have a Logo of photos tumbling out of a camera, down into a computer.
Also our gallery site and phone number.

[Mercy299]

Ok, my last name is Christian, How about Christian Photography? I am afraid that I may run into issues with this. What do you think?

[EricKonieczny]

Ok, my last name is Christian, How about Christian Photography? I am afraid that I may run into issues with this. What do you think?


Yes, this would be a case where using the last name would not be a good idea.

As you can see my last name is hard to say and remember, so I had to come up with something different.

[Jon, The Elder]

Mercy299 - Yup, you would probably lose a lot of Buddahist, Hindu, Moslem, and Hari Krishna work for sure.

[davepgh1]

JKPHotography.us is available...

[themirage]

Ok, my last name is Christian, How about Christian Photography? I am afraid that I may run into issues with this. What do you think?
That would work out actually. In Des Moines, IA we have a camera store run by two brothers with the last name Christian. The store name is Christian Photo. To further add to the topic, the building they run their store out of is an old Church. :lol:


As for those of you who want to use your name and it's taken. You can go about getting the name from that person IF your business is incorporated and you have full rights to that business name. I.E. Microsoft owns rights to the name Hotmail. Well a few years ago they missed the ball and forgot to renew it in the uk and someone grabbed up the domain name and tried to force MS into paying them money for it. To make a long story short, a judge ruled that MS has full rights to the name hotmail and forced the person to hand over the domain. And the person didn't even get refunded for the cost to register it. :lol:

So you can get your name from some random person if you take the right legal steps. Not worth it 90% of the time though.

My 2¢

[BLINN]

I agree with miller. Your name will associate you with your photos. Build you portfolio and then you can change you name later if you chose. I like "Janusz Photography" it is really original. For you logo try using the polish colours.

[pyterps]

With my name I have three children, Sean, Katie and Courtney so the name of my company is SKC Photography.

Dave

[brivett]

Whatever you choose... make sure it can be easily rolled into a web address that everyone can spell.

[PhotosGuy]

Action Stills Photography That gets you to the top of the listing in the phone book, too! ;)