whats in a name?

[ringo]

hi all, i might sound a little thick with this question so here i go! i am thinking about about a tile company name, but everytime i come up with one i find somebody else has the name. is there a law on having the same name as somebody else? again apologies for sounding stupid:mad2:

 

[Graham Bright]

hi all, i might sound a little thick with this question so here i go! i am thinking about about a tile company name, but everytime i come up with one i find somebody else has the name. is there a law on having the same name as somebody else? again apologies for sounding stupid:mad2:

I believe that if your are a sole trader you can have the same name as another sole trader. Ideally you wouldnt unless you were absolutely miles apart and not likely to compete or suffer confusion with the clients.

As a limited company thn you can not have the same name as any other limited company.

That is my understanding but someone else may need to confirm that.

 

[doug boardley]

I'm not sure where you'd stand actually, I'm pretty safe with my name, not really likely to be competing locally against another tiler called doug boardley

 

[diamondtiling]

Having the same name as another trader is probably not illegal, if your a tiling firm and the other is a plumber then there is no problem. Being the same name as a trader near to you would be illogical IMO. There are lots of companies called Diamond etc, there is even a Diamond Tile shop in staffs which is not far from me, I have never had any problems.

 

[hillhead]

Pick something that catches peoples attention or eyes..be different then no one can mix you up with someone else.

 

[diamondtiling]

What about
RINGO. STAR TILING SERVICES.
Wall and floor tiling
Special discounts for retired drummers.
Tel; 0777777777777/ 01211 111 111


I am sure the real ringo wont sue you, after all he was just a rubbish drummer in a good band.


Ps if you use this I want commission ( a bottle of malt whisky will suffice)
:lol:

 

[Dan]

I like this game.

Firstly I'd say, if you have the choice of ANY company name, choose a unique one.

Though it's not illegal (as law doesn't cover business names like that) if you are confusing somebody else's customers by having a similar name and they can prove it's down to that factor that they're loosing X amount a month, you could face a bit of a legal battle even if they don't manage to prove it's you in the end, you'd have argued via solicitors at your cost for a long time and that's not needed for a new business, so pick a unique name.

I'd search companies house and the trademarks database first to make sure your desired name isn't being used already.

Note that I can be called Nescafe but do tiling, as Nescafe have their trademarks assigned to food produce and not tiling. Though I couldn't be called Mapei and sell tile adhesive, I could be called Mapei and run a day care centre (for example - couldn't actually see me doing that lol).

So look for names unique to tiling. And use logo's unique to you.

Most of the stuff I've done has been nationally though I was a director of a company called Sanbec Trading once, and the warehouse and offices were in Sandbach, Cheshire. Sanbec is a really old name for Sandbach and it rung true to the locals, most of them recognised the name due to that.

I think if I were to setup something serving just locals I'd go for something similar, so perhaps around here (in the potteries) I'd go for Potteries Tiling or something along those lines. Though if you're thinking big and hoping to go national one day, perhaps consider something not so regional to where you're based.

I found a guide once on brainstorming names and though I've not found it since (it was a long time ago) I remember it recommended finding out if your business would suit rare gem names or some connection to something expensive which suggests quality, but if you were called 'Expensive Tiling' people would read into that as it sounds, expensive, which isn't what you want. Somehow Diamond Tiling sounds good but doesn't suggest expensive. If that makes sense.

You could also think outside the box a bit. So if I wanted to make a few quid on selling tiles from the van along with fitting them, I'd perhaps call my business 'Tiles by Dan' and then under that on the van and business cards I'd always write (and it would have to be every time it's written to not fully confuse your customers) "Suppliers and Installers of Wall and Floor Tiles". This then would catch the eye of both customers looking for a tiler, and customers looking for tiles (who have not yet thought about needing a tiler). And having a van for a tile shop looks like it's quite a decent concern and of fair size, so you're giving the impression you're bigger than you are perhaps which isn't wrong per say. If it gets the customer to approach you for tiles, and you sell them some or offer to pop around with some display boards, you're almost guaranteed to get the job.

You want your name to say 'tiling' though it doesn't have to be physically. For example 'Aesthetic Finishing' (perhaps not the best one but that came to mind quite quick) which says what you do indirectly. And you want to think of a bit of a tag line that matches, trying to think of something for 'Aesthetic Finishing' but can't lol. Perhaps back to the drawing board on that one but it was just an example to give you an idea.

If you simply used your name, that can work well if you would like to go down the route of covering other trades in the future. You never know, you might just drop on a contract that means you'll need to sub a plumber and sparky or something, and ABC Tiling wouldn't be perfect.

I recently won domain names and caused another firm to change their name fully as they were trading with my untoldmedia name. Checkout www.untoldmedia.net which is one I won, the guy is now called MediaToEnvy which sort of says the name and doesn't upset his customers that much and he didn't have to go into detail with why the name has been changed because that could have been damaging to his business in a few ways. So when you do come up with a name, try and think about other version of it, and not just mixing the words up, literally think about other meanings for your primary word. You can use a thesaurus for this and Microsoft Word has a pretty good one. Just type a word and then highlight it and click thesaurus and it'll give you some other versions of it.

That should give you some room to think. Or confuse you to shreds.

A combination of some of the above perhaps would look like this.....

Potters Tiles by Dan
Suppliers and Installers of Wall and Floor Tiles
Limited only by your imagination, and pleasing you using parts of our precious Planet
​

Getting "our" in there could suggest you're happy to share, people that share are nice people. Using "precious Planet" could go either way, I'd think that one through a bit. 'Green' people might not like the idea of using the planet lol - I wouldn't know how to answer the question 'So are your tiles sustainable?' - (Actually lol this tongue in cheek asnwer just came to me "no we do sealers too". Though I wanted to get "precious" in there as it sounds expensive.

I think if I had money to throw at it, I'd want to be different, and I'd buy an old securicor van (you know the ones that carry money around) and have a decent spray job as if I'm carrying really expensive stuff - which would catch the eye every time if it's not a blue van, and I'd carry the design through to my advertising and website too perhaps. Though I could just be going way outside the box here.

Some food for thought though. ​

 

[diamondtiling]

Mapei have a sister company, it is a kindergarten that all their employees use whilst at work, its called.............






































Napei !!! BOOM BOOM!!

Well I thought it was funny anyway...........:smilewinkgrin::smilewinkgrin:

 

[ringo]

food for thought!! thanks a lot guys!