This is my mate's situation.

He've got a side business for about 2 years and he decided to publicly market his business.
Here is a problem. The name of his business is call K2, and about one year ago, there is another business call V2 came into the market and do the same business.

When he consider publicly market his business, he concern people may mix up with 2 business (K2 & V2). He is considering to change his business name before the marketing goes out.

Background info:
V2, publicly marketed for 1 year, quite well-known in the area. It actually a big oversea franchise.

K2, 2 years old. one-man-band business. Not publicly marketed yet.

I did a bit of cost and benefit on this situation:

Cost:
Reprint the flyer
Redecorate the office (a bit)
Rename the domain
Rename the web site
Reorder some marketing material

Benefit:
Customer won't confuse

what do you think? Rename or not?

I would say: change the name now that it is cheap. If his company would grow and the V2 company would go to court he may have to give up his name at that point (they can oppose to names that look alike IF they have registered there name (could be checked)).

The name K2 is not a very descriptive name, not yet well known, so why bother to keep it if it can give him problems in the future.

I would change the name now while it is still cost effective to do so. Further down the road it could cause alot headaches, worry, loss of business, not too mention having to reinvent yourself and start all the hard working of re-marketing your business all over again if it turns sour.

I'd agree that changing the name now makes good sense. You want to avoid confusion, especially if the similarly named entity develops a less than ideal reputation. A more descriptive or memorable name would be good. Unless your mate's business centers on skiing, K2 is not very descriptive.

Another vote to change it while it's cheap.

Absolutely change the name. Preferably to something that positions it well against the weaknesses or perceived shortcomings of the competition.

Andrew

He now decided to change the name of the business. Thank you for your input.

Don't forget to tell us what the new name is.

Andrew

The new name is 'Agate Image' for public market service and 'Agate Concept' for business service, since people call him 'Agate' and remember his name rather than the business name.