New business name

[trubleshtr]

Ok, I'm taking the big step out into the world of self employment, and would like to test the names I have picked out for my business with you guys to get a feel for what works. I am An Industrial Maintenance mechanic, the service I provide is maintenance repairs to automated machines, CNC, PLC ect.
Since most of you have experience in this area I am hoping your feed back will assist me in the right business name.
Thanks in advance to all of you ....

[Al_The_Man]

The tendency these days is to get away from long company names and use short one-word names or initials, like Mectec or CNCmec. The one that come to peoples lips easily. If you are looking for a customer base, one thing to consider is how easy you are to find in the yellow pages etc and select the right heading if someone is looking for you. Knock on some doors and leave your card.
Usually the word gets around as this business does not have a lot of good people.
Another thing to do is to make sure the Tech Reps in your area know about you, as they call on alot of people that are your potential customers and the customers often ask these guys if they know of, or can recommend some one that does service.
Also the reps often sell equipment that you can pick up after sales-service on, this also helps the rep if he can sell a product with after market service.
Al

[trubleshtr]

Thanks for the input Al.

If I used an accronym form of my business names above, I suppose I would have what you are describing

I.M.R.
A.I.M.
I.A.M. ( and "I" is canadian....

[trubleshtr]

If any one else has taken this step and could lend advice/pitfalls to avoid I would greatly appreciate your input.
Thanks again.

[ViperTX]

So, the name should clearly indicate the type of service(s) or product(s) you will deliver. As with most new ventures...the biggest problem is undervaluing your service/product...promissing more then you can deliver in the alotted time....so, lay out the steps that you use to deliver your service and alot time to each step and then you'll know for sure how much time to charge for...your rate should be adjusted to cover your expenses (overhead, etc.).

[onthemarc]

I have the name Advanced Wood Design It has worked well for 13 years. People get a good idea what we do by the name. The Advanced gets you at the top of the yellow page listing But money and seniority get the best add in the book. I agree the name should be short tricky and easy to remember, Good luck
onthemarc

[Gunner]

You may already have decided on your name but if I were going through the phone book I would probably overlook you unless there was more description along with your name. I would try to stress machine repair in the company name. Maybe "Automated Machine Repair" (AMR) for short or something along that line. I also agree with Al, there are not many real good service people around. When I find one, I don't forget the name or number and I pass that along to other associates in the business.

[SanDiegoCNC]

Here's how I would approach the issue.

I would link my company name with my business niche.

Do a Yahoo, Google and Mamma search using the keywords that describe what it is that your company will do. This is a big help in the sense that potential customers will also be searching the same terms and your website's url will describe your business.

Hint: Keep it simple and direct. Try it as a dot com name. Dot biz and other dot names are not easily remembered. Example:www.machinerepair.com

The payoffs: When a spider (another term for a web crawler) goes through your website, it'll give you a higher ranking based upon several criteria.

1. If your company name is the same as your web address then your customers will be able to more easily remember your website. Do not use hyphens as people don't generally remember them. Example: www.machine-repair.com

2. Web crawlers give a higher ranking for url's that contain the search criteria terms.

3. When building your website, use the most common search terms that describe your business within the website as often as practical without compromising the site. Web crawlers also rank the number of 'hits' (search terms) within the website.

4. After building your website, link your site with as many companies as possible. This will give you a higher ranking. Link to trade organizations and local trade rags.

Note: Don't expect the web crawlers to pick up your website immediately. It can take as long as three months. Also, don't pay some company to link you to their websites. Web crawlers are constantly getting smarter and are known to 'ignore' certain websites that do nothing but link sites together.


Try this as a real life example of what I'm talking about. I live and own a machine shop in San Diego, California. If you do a search of;

1. machine shop San Diego ...............I rank 4.
2. San Diego CNC............................I rank 3 to 4.
3. San Diego machine.......................I rank 7.

The key is to get ranked on the FIRST page when people do a search. Most people will not go to the second page.


I can go into more detail if you're interested. Just let me know.


PS; http://www.nameboy.com/ will help you determine what url's are already taken.

[trubleshtr]

Thanks SanDiegoCnc, That was one aspect I never considered.

Thanks to everyone elso too for your advice. The one thing I love about this site, is that it's a great 'sounding board'.

[strat]

SanDiegoCnc wanted to say thanks .... great advice....

[bkukowski]

googlebombs dont work anymore?

[SanDiegoCNC]

Anytime.