company name?

[David Schuurman]

so I've been thinking of if I want a name for my wedding video business or if I want to just go by my own name "david schuurman wedding cinema" or something like that. But most of you folks have a name for yourselves. Is there a particular benefit to doing that? I can't really think of a name that's not taken, which sucks because I've had a few ideas which were already in use.

Anyway just looking for some insight about the issue of branding your company with your own name or a "company name"

[Thanh Nguyen]

heheheh i know i have a few good one too but i'm a step behind so other's had used my idea hihihihi. Anyway for me i would choose something that the bride will cerious(if i spell it right i guess not) to ask "what is (your companyname) mean" hihihi then you explain to them and then look at there face and "oh".

My production is "VTVStudio" or "VTVS" for short which mean full term in vietnamese "Vô Thường Video Studio" which "Vô Thường" is a Buddhist ancient meaning of "Always changing" or "un-consistency" maybe "inconsistency". That how i had mind. I saw most of user here just use their name for it but not me i can not use my name cause people will keep asking me "what" most people have a hard time getting my name right heheheh So VTV-Studio for mind it easy to remember. Good luck with your

[Travis Cossel]

Consider this ...

If you name the business after yourself it feels more personal to the B&G. However, it makes it more difficult to sell off should you ever get to that point. Also consider that if you go with your own name, and especially if you include the word "wedding", that you might miss out on other types of work (like corporate).

[Don Bloom]

For my career including as a still photog back in the very early 70s (the 1970s not 1870s although it sometimes feels like it;-) I've gone by my own name but NEVER with Wedding or anything else behind it. For a time back in the late 90s early 2000s I did try running my corporate work under another named company because my accountant thought it would make things easier keeping track of things but after confusing many of my corporate clients and finding it didn't really make tracking things easier my accountant finally decided I should keep things as they were and all is good with the world again.
Perhaps you should talk to an attorney and account just to see what the best way for you to go is. Remember you're talking about bookkeeping and liability as well as things like taxes and payroll should that need ever arise.
Just somethings to keep in mind, and don't forget about the URL for your website.
Probably something like http://www.joeschnitzenbergerjrweddi...eoproducts.com might be a bit too much for the typical client or lookylo to type in ;-) and BTW I know your name isn't joe schnitzenberger. :-)

[Joel Peregrine]

Hi David,

Originally Posted by David Schuurman

...just looking for some insight about the issue of branding your company with your own name or a "company name"

This is something I wrote a while ago:

In the Beginning
I had the luxury of being a photographer before I was a videographer, which means that I had connections in the wedding industry before I began the videography business. I began videotaping weddings in the very early '90's, but even with a good referral network I wasn't able to go full time until '96. Building a networking base of other wedding vendors and a referral network of past clients takes time. Fortunately (and unfortunately in some ways) the internet has leveled the playing field and not only made reaching potential customers easier but also has allowed relatively unskilled videographers to get up to speed on technology and techniques a lot faster than when I started. What follows are three things you can do to promote yourself with a minimum of expense.

Create an Identity
Make your company easy to remember in the way that people will refer to you and contact you. Ideally your company name should be your website URL. I'll use my situation as an example:

I started out as Peregrine Productions, Photo and Video Enterprises. (Looking back I realize what a mouthful that is.) I then changed to Peregrine Productions, Video Enterprises when I dropped the photography services. Still it was too long and too vague. Then I needed a website. PeregrineProductions dot com was taken, which turned out to be a very good coincidence in the long run. A friend suggested that I use a tag line I'd been using in my brochure as the address for my company, thus RememberTheFeeling dot com was created. At that point I was Peregrine Video Production at RememberTheFeeling.com. It wasn't until I started getting calls asking, "is this Remember The Feeling Video?" or, "is this Peregrine Video?" and "is this the Joel guy that does wedding videos?" that I realized that I needed to streamline my image if people were going to be able to refer me with ease. I needed to develop a brand. Along with that brand needed to be a cohesive 'look' that extended from the materials I mailed to the content on the DVD right up to what most importantly became my online presence. I needed an all-encompassing, catchy and relevant name that could be the one thing people thought of when they thought of me. I'm a film major and have always strived for the ubiquitous 'film-look', so Wedding Films was an obvious choice. I purchased WeddingFilms.com, which happened to be available just at the right time, and made an overnight switch to the new name, complete with a new web site, brochure design and demo, all of which had the same color scheme and general stylistic feel. I confused a lot of people for six months and my internet search rankings plummeted, but eventually I got back to where I was plus moved up a lot farther. The transition isn't easy, especially if you even remotely established, but if this is something you want to do for a while its well worth the effort and short-lived transitional issues.


Optimize your Website
Optimize your website for wedding and event videography searches in the regional and metropolitan areas you want to market to. That means packing your site with relevant and grammatically correct keyword placement and learning as much as you can about search engine optimization while at the same time avoiding black hat methods that may get you banned. You can also get a head start by using pay-per-click services like Google's Adwords.

Get The Work Out There
Get something online for the couple to watch as quickly as possible after the wedding. Its during that time that the excitement is still high and there is more of a chance that the bride will send the link out to her entire email list. If you're completely new to the industry do weddings for free for the opportunity to collect footage for your portfolio. Promise the lucky couples a highlight and raw footage. Get the highlight online right after the wedding. If you're doing captivating work, the phone will ring, especially if when the subject of event videography comes up your company’s name and website sits comfortably on the tip of the tongue.

So, what does all that mean?
Look at your company name. Ask yourself, if you were shopping for your service would your name be easy to remember? If so, are you easy to contact? Does your web page relate to, if not ideally mirror, your company name? Is your website in the same style as your business cards, brochure and demonstration DVD graphics? Do you 'feel' like a professional when viewed from the consumers standpoint? Go deeper and look at your web site. Do you appear near the top of the search results for 'wedding videography' in your market area? Is your website appealing, with a minimum of home-page text and limited scrolling required? What is the first image a potential customer will see when your site appears? Do you have short, dynamic samples? Are your prices, if listed, varied enough and the descriptions of the services and packages easily interpreted?

It took me 10 years to get all this sorted out. A professional adept at creating an identity can do it for you in a week. Or you can use the creative instincts that drew you wedding videography, along with a little research, to design a brand for yourself that is not only memorable but also marketable.

[Susanto Widjaja]

I can tell you it is one of the hardest thing to do in your career.

I came up with a name in like more than 3 months of searching and constant thinking.

Paper Cranes Productions comes from the name of the first feature film I directed with friends, which is "Paper Cranes" and it holds a lot of sentimental value to me, therefor, I wouldn't mind to be stuck with that name for a loooonnnggg time.. (big plus point)

The meaning is actually also kinda cool cause there is a story if you fold 1000 paper cranes then your wish will come true and you'll be happy. So I guess it kinda relates to good things. I also like it when we came up with a good answer if anyone should ask why we chose that name. It goes like If you can turn a plain looking piece of paper into something so beautiful, you can do just about anything.

Now all of our products come with the tag "when story unfolds" since it ryhmes with the concept of paper cranes. (Big plus point)

Sorry If I'm getting too much with my business name. Didn't mean to be narcistic and all, but my point is, do some research on what is good for your business name. I like it when people can explain why they chose their name in the first place.

One more thing, you can choose whether you want to go with your name or a more commercial name. I think if you go with your own name, its more of a boutique style company that offers only you. Of course you can go commercial with that when you are really big and strong where people would trust any photographer that you give them. But in the start of things, people would only go for you, and not your other videographers.

If you go for a more commercial name, it would be kinda easier to offer them someone else because the customers don't know you or your name.

That's what I think anyways.

One other way is to use only your last name.

Oh, I almost forgot, nowadays, you might want to consider SEO in choosing your name. If you're not familiar with this, it is basically "Search Engine Optimisation". Do some research on the net and you'll know what i mean. It is very important now.

My two cents.

Santo

[Paul Mailath]

Your business name doesn't have to be the same as your URL.

I just started Perbenyik Productions (it has particular meaning for me) but that's not really much good for weddings so my wedding website will be relive-the-day.com

my business cards etc all say
relive the day
with Perbenyik Productions

that way I can promote relive-the-day for the wedding side and Perbenyik for corporate work

[David Schuurman]

You guys all bring up valid points which all tend to lean towards making a name to use. Which is pretty much what I expected. I dedicated a couple hours last night to coming up with some and whenever I got an idea which resounded well with me I checked and it was taken, usually by wedding videographers/photographers.

I think at this point it would be easier for me to go as myself and then switch to a "company name" when I can figure out a good one rather than switch to the good one from another one.

Susanto I really enjoyed hearing about how and why you chose your name? I really love the name too.

[Chris Davis]

You're going to drive yourself crazy trying to make sure absolutely nobody is already using your chosen business name. Of course, you don't want a name that's being used 20 miles away, but if there's another videographer with that name 2,000 miles away, it's not a big deal.

Since you have not yet settled on a name, as a web developer, I'd say it's somewhat important to try and get the dotcom for your name. i.e. if you go with "Eclipse Video", it would be great if eclipsevideo.com were available, since most people will assume that's your website. It's not a deal-breaker, but if I had a list of ten possible names and three had available dotcoms, they would go to the top of the list.

[David Schuurman]

Good point Chris,
It seems that most of the names I'm finding are taken by the dotcom. However, in Canada the .ca extention is pretty common and *ALMOST* as easy to assume.

I would take the title someone else had if it wasn't specifically a wedding film company but most ofthem are. I guess I'm not being creative enough.

[David Schuurman]

hey guys I've come up with a couple names, some of which are taken elsewhere but no biggie I guess...
Just wanted to see what you think and if any of you see potential problems with having that name...
here's the list.

1) rememberthemoment
2) stringring
3) fantasy films
4) your moment
5) last first films

I like last first I think, especially because it hasn't been taken, but I'm not really sure and would really appreciate anyones feedback on these names.

THANKS

[Paul Mailath]

don't forget it doesn't have to be .com
there's
.net
.info.
etc etc ....

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Paul Mailath

don't forget it doesn't have to be .com
there's
.net
.info.
etc etc ....

.tv is even available now.

I would strongly suggest you not use the name of another company even if they are far away. This world is small, and it is good to not make enimies before you make friends. :-)

For example, I wouldnt' dream of taking "Stillmotion.com" (or similar) because there already is a stillmotion and there is none like them.

Make it easy to remember and easy to search. If the company name is also in the URL then it makes it more SEO friendly. I like the fantasy and your moment ones.

I opted for a very generic company name so that it could include corp work as well. So far, no corp work.... but I'm working to build that. :-)

[Susanto Widjaja]

here're some more ideas for you as I did my research too before i came up with paper cranes

1. inframe productions
2. inmotion
3. frozen moment
4. movingpictures
5. yourstory
6. jackfrost films
7. justmarried
8. cinewedding
9. overthemoon

[Chris Davis]

Originally Posted by Paul Mailath

don't forget it doesn't have to be .com
there's
.net
.info.
etc etc ....

Yes, but everyone will assume it's .com.