Business Names

[Rusti]

Argh!!

I've been seriously considering the idea of starting up a little business, primarily with bath and body stuff (soap, butters, lotions, that sort of thing) but including the t-shirt creation/customization, custom vinyl and artwork, so anything that points specifically to bath and body is out the window for a business name. I also want to steer clear of 'art, studio, creative, etc'.

Also most of this stuff is probably going to have a geekish bent, if I'm honest, but I've got a general audience locally too who would not always get the play on words I may use for some of the fandom soap. Frankly I'd be surprised if there was anyone in town who could tell me why I'd called a soap 'The Chosen One' and made it smell dark and smokey/colored it black and red. So it's a game of names.

How on EARTH did any of you come up with a name for your business?

 

[Viore]

My wife and I sell bath & body stuff, plus jewelry and hand-turned acrylic pens, corkscrews, and seam rippers. We needed a name that encompassed everything we currently do and look to expanding in the future, so we chose The Crafty Butlers (Butler being our last name). Pretty generic, but that's what we needed.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Depending on where you are, can you register a business with a name and trade as a number of different names? So one business runs the B&B section with one trading name which fits the soap, and the t-shirt part has a different trading name?

 

[Rusti]

Depending on where you are, can you register a business with a name and trade as a number of different names? So one business runs the B&B section with one trading name which fits the soap, and the t-shirt part has a different trading name?

I think that can be done with an LLC (I'm in Illinois), but I haven't planned to start out at that level. It's not a bad idea and has occurred to me, I just wonder if it wouldn't be better for my sanity to do it all under one name.

 

[Susie]

I would use some adjective and a noun in front of the word "products" and keep it simple. That way, if one aspect does better than the other, you are still in good shape.

For example: Prairie State Products, LLC (probably already taken, just an example)
Rusti Gate Products, LLC (random noun picked for center word)
Rusti Spoon Products, LLC

You can Google all the names you like to see if they are taken. It is not illegal to use a name that is the same as long as you do not provide the same goods/services.