After making some shortmovies and working as a production manager for commercial company I decided to start freelance. I got all the equipment I need and I'm now working on my homepage and I'm getting some business cards etc. I would love some tips on some things though. :)

I was wondering if you should name your business or not. For me saying "insert something" productions sounds a bit, i dunno, amateurish when you are not an actually production company. I rather work freelance for a production company than creating one so I would rather try to sell my name. But on the other hand I don't mind doing some weddings, corp. video, music videos etc. on my own and that may be easier to get with a name (especially the name of the homepage)? If I would name it my first thought was Ikaros Productions.

Though I'm more a Director/Editor, is it better to keep it simple and just put videographer on my business card?

Cheers

Jonathan

Jonathan,

I don't know the situation in Japan, but over here in Germany there are some rules (of course, we have rules for everything, hehe) for naming a business. As a sole trader the name of your business can only be your name and what you are doing (in my case: Rainer Hoffmann, Graphic Designer). If I called my business, let's say, "RH Design International" it would sound like a big design company and that would be unlawful because I'm just a single person.

My point is: before you decide how to name your business check which rules (if any) apply in Japan.