A very good friend of mine is trying to come up with a company name. Like me, this would be his second surveying business but now he is also an engineer to boot.
So.......throw out some ideas for company names for a engineering and Surveying company. If it matters he is a long time surveyor but a new engineer. Far more experience with surveying.
To begin with, it should be a "Surveying and Engineering" company, not an "Engineering and Surveying" company! 🙂
Good N' Nuff?ÿ
Double Trouble
Line and Grade
Strong Coffee?ÿ
Three Letters, this is the most common out here, bonus points if each initial is that of a dead and gone surveyor.
Dead & Gone
Wait, second survey business? What is wrong with the first one? I think it is sketchy when businesses change their names unless they are merging.
Second Time Around
Merry Go Round?ÿ
Very Good Friend?ÿ
Surveying and Engineering to boot, To Boot for short
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
Surveying and Engineering REboot
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
Fixed
From the lessons learned department: long company names = long website address = long email address.
?ÿ
Secunda Est Optimus Surveying & Engineering. (from Latin: the second time is best).
(I believe seoptimus.com is available.)
*I wish Kent was here to admonish us all about 'naming' survey business endeavors by anything other than the name of the principal...
A very respect business man told me years ago, if you start your own business, do not?ÿ put your name in the?ÿcompany name.
He was referring to being?ÿeasier to sell the business some time in the future.
There are law considerations in play.
Some States add requirements if you use anything other than your name as it appears on your license. California has a bunch of limits on the use of names. I would read business and Profession related laws in his State before falling in love with a name ?ÿ(or spending on printing)...
Payden beat me to it.... in the Pre-butthurt era- we could/would have beat this dead horse again.... yadayada...AAA+++ Surveying...yellow pages... QuickieDickie...yadyada. Ad nauseum
Prior threads where @kent-mcmillan and others opined about choice of company names
?ÿ
Secunda Est Optimus Surveying & Engineering. (from Latin: the second time is best).
(I believe seoptimus.com is available.)
*I wish Kent was here to admonish us all about 'naming' survey business endeavors by anything other than the name of the principal...
"qui primus prospere esset", or, y "el primero deber??a haber sido el exitoso" Surveying & Engineering....... ??ÿ
If you want to show up in a google search while they're looking for money to pay for it, then "Wells Fargot Surveying & Engineering, PLLC" looks like a good bet. (misspelling on purpose; trademark issues)
https://trends.google.com/trends/topcharts#cid=business_and_politics
?ÿ
Here's my two cents, and a couple of years ago, I spent way too many hours of my life thinking this over.
Don't name it after yourself if you have any dreams of growth.?ÿ If you think you'll?ÿ ever get to the point where someone else in the office will take calls from clients, you don't want clients demanding to talk to the person the company is named after.?ÿ Also, speaking from experience, it makes no difference how many times I tell someone my name, they always think they were talking to Mr. Smith, and ask for Mr. Smith when they call back.
I also am not a big fan of generic surveying term names, such as Benchmark Surveying, Point of Beginning Surveying, etc...?ÿ To me, they seem sort of bland.
A very respect business man told me years ago, if you start your own business, do not?ÿ put your name in the?ÿcompany name.
He was referring to being?ÿeasier to sell the business some time in the future.
I've heard the same advice, but there are so many counterexamples that it doesn't seem to hold up...Michael Baker, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Mayo Clinic, DuPont, Goldman Sachs...
I've been running my own businesses for about 20 years -- a surveying business, and a web development business. One thing I've learned is that it's less about the company name and more about the branding. Your branding should be consistent. Whether someone sees the logo on your truck, your website, your business card, or whatever, they should be able to recognize you immediately.
This is a bit of a "do as I say, not as I do" situation for me, since most of you are aware of the various name changes of this very website. I will say that I've learned a lot about branding and running businesses just by being involved in this website. We had various circumstances that I wouldn't expect most business owners to EVER experience, so most of it is irrelevant to the majority of people here. While RPLS Today isn't my favorite name for this place, due to all the drama since 2010, it is something I just latched onto in order to step away from the foibles of the past. And it works, so I'm sticking with it.
As for my web development business, my name is also a word in the dictionary. So some of the normal advice in my case may not apply. But I will say that you should spend quite a bit of time writing down ideas, checking online registrars, etc. to make sure you can carry your branding into all of the areas that you wish to pursue. Don't look at it from your side of the fence -- look at it from your future clients' perspectives. My first business name was Harness Technology -- while it has a great ring to it and most people understand the dual meanings, it became a huge issue in how people perceived me -- 99% of people thought I was an IT guy that worked on computers, removed viruses, etc. While I could do that, it's not what I wanted to do and I was overwhelmed with requests for IT work. Furthermore, people who might have called me to have a website built didn't simply because they thought I was just an IT guy. You could argue that the new name, Harness Media, isn't very helpful in telling people what I do, but I'm okay with that in this case. There's not many assumptions one can make plus I have made a point to make myself known in my local community -- when they see the name, they know it's me and there's a good chance that they already know what I do.
Other things to consider are how the business name might look in certain formatting or situations. For example, there's a story that was going around in the surveying industry for years about the Surveyors Exchange -- great name, right? But put it into a web address and you get surveyorsexchange.com -- are you a surveyor looking to change gender? That may be the place for you. Also consider acronyms -- we have a local hardware store that wanted acesouthsalem.com and went forward with it despite the acronym ASS.
Anyway, I know of several companies, many of which are surveying companies, that are something like Smith & Associates but Smith no longer works there. The name is familiar to clients, so they just leave it alone.
For the record, my surveying business was called Monument Land Surveying. I rather liked the name.
Also, here is a neato tool that can help you find a domain name, but it may also be helpful in finding an appropriate business name.?ÿ https://www.namemesh.com/
This should get you near the top of the phone list:
Aspect Registered Surveyors & Engineers
ACME
ACME
You could do a coyote behind a transit for a logo.
Beep Beep
ACME & the coyote behind a transit is actually quite funny.
