Fictitious business names can be useful to creating the image of a bigger company. Using your own name is easier and more personal.
Using a Fictitious Name to Look Bigger
My friend and first business mentor, Jerre Blodgett started an executive search company about 30 years ago with several other recruiters. They targeted pharmaceutical and finance firms. The name they came up with for their firm was Baxter, Davis & Dunn, comprised of names from Baxter Travenol, Parke Davis, and Dun and Bradstreet. This name provided references to relevant industries and also contributed to the image they wanted to promote as a professional, retainer-only firm.
As a humorous aside, whenever somebody called and asked for either Mr. Baxter, Mr. Davis, or Mr. Dunn, the receptionist replied that the founders were no longer alive and offered to direct the caller to one of the other principals.
That name served the purpose well, and B D & D counted most of the big pharm companies and many other large firms as their clients, though there were only 5 employees and a receptionist.
Use Your Own Name to Get Personal and Promote Reputation
Today, my friend Jerre runs his own venture firm, Blodgett Ventures, using his own name. Why? He wants to be personally involved in the companies he represents for venture funding and wants to effectively use his successful reputation in over 35 years of business.
Do you use your own name for your business or do you use a fictitious name? Let me know which it is and why you chose one form of business name over the other.
2 comments ↓
This is something I keep debating. I work as a freelance designer and currently use my own name, but I guess a company name makes you look bigger. I have a friend who pretends he has an office of people who work for him (its just him and he subcontracts) its fine until they want to see his office or whenhe goes on holiday.
Tara,
Great points. Authenticity is key. A friend of mine who creates training programs for big companies like Nissan uses his own name and is completely up-front about having a home office–he actually uses it as a selling point–his overhead is lower and he lets the client know that lower overhead allows him to focus on their projects more completely.
Great design blog, BTW. I love the Freelancer Focus feature!
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