Renaming Your Business | Pro's/Con's?

[Mik3J]

Alright. I've been in business for four years, mostly weddings, portraits and commercial. About a year ago I opened our first full studio. During my time in business I've been shifting from shooting weddings/portraits to commercial (products/portraits). The change has been gradual, as I find what I prefer to shoot. My business has been named "Endless Photography", for personal reason and it was romantic sounding for weddings. Well, now I'm shooting more and more commercial work and don't think it fits where I'm headed. Pro's and con's on changing my business name? I'm thinking of renaming it "511 Studios". What are your thoughts?

 

[Overread]

Rebranding and naming your business can be a good move; but you've got to consider a few things:

1) You want to keep hold of the old domain name for a while, have it redirect to the new domain and website so that people with old bookmarks and old link-backs still work. Depending on the situation you might choose to end this after a while or not.

2) You need to consider that all your advertising out there right now and all the word of mouth is going to talk about "Endless Photography" and your name. Thus you want to make sure that you retain key-words on your new site related to that so that random google searching will still bring your new site up.

3) Investment in a large wave of advertising; ergo you're starting again so you need to fire out new advertising so that your new name gets known quickly. Note part of this is going to be going around and getting any links on other sites to refer to your new name; trying to remove any "please take" business cards placed locally around and suchlike as well.
You might even attach it to a promotional event; giving you an excuse to fire off an email to former clients (in the right market sector of course) telling them of your business name change and offering a discount or other promotional event.

The risk is that without advertising you might lose some sales as people won't find you; this is more the case because you've already been working in this new area under your existing name. If you were moving into a new area totally fresh it wouldn't matter as much. With solid advertising you should be fine.

 

[KmH]

The domain name 511studios.com is already in use according to GoDaddy.com.

 

[twocolor]

The domain name 511studios.com is already in use according to GoDaddy.com.

Mik3J is a good friend of mine! He bought the domain last night to keep it safe just in case

 

[Mik3J]

Keith, Amber (TwoColor) is correct. I bought it $3 last night just for kicks and giggles.

Would you recommend a full business rename or simply a re-brand to come across as more masculine? I've been debating this for months and haven't been able to decide for sure. Would it be possible to re-brand the name "Endless Photography" to be more masculine? Or is that name just inherently romantic and feminine?

 

[KmH]

I guess you're somewhere in Utah with twocolor chiming in.

You'll have to make your best guess.
I would change the business name. I would have change the business name back when I decided to stop doing weddings and retail portraiture.

Good luck.
Today it is harder than ever to keep a photography business, in business, let alone change the name and migrate from retail to commercial work.
If the special interests get their way and they are able to get the copyright law changed it's going to be even harder, because you won't own the copyright to the photos you make.

 

[dennybeall]

Having been involved in small business since 1972 or 3(?) I would say consider keeping both. Use the existing one for weddings and such where you've already built a rep and start the new one for the new ideas. You didn't mention what structure you're using but even if the current one is incorporated the new one can be a sole proprietor or partnership. You can let them play and feed on each other as you get going.