Options
Naming your business
Sh4d0w
Registered Users Posts: 69 Big grins
I'm a college student, who recently found passion in photography, and recently I have decided I want to start making a presence for my photography. Not necessarily taking clients and such at this point, but putting a name out there for my pictures. I've been doing a lot of research on naming the business, and most writeups on it say that the name should be something along the lines of First name Last name photography. However there are a lot of businesses out there that dont abide by that rule and seem to do just fine.
Basically, I want an opinion if toward a professional level if it is a bad idea to not use your own name.
I'd like to use the name iSnap Photography, but I don't want to regret it 5-10 years from now.
For a personally named one it would be Jay Preston Photography or more likely JayP Photography.
Basically, I want an opinion if toward a professional level if it is a bad idea to not use your own name.
I'd like to use the name iSnap Photography, but I don't want to regret it 5-10 years from now.
For a personally named one it would be Jay Preston Photography or more likely JayP Photography.
My Gear At the Moment: Brand New 7D (My Baby), 50mm 1.8 (Plastic Fantastic)
0
Comments
Go with "Jay Preston Photography". I mean, that is your name, correct?
Your name is your brand. This has been discussed here before. I'll just briefly give an example:
A few years ago, I was a sponsor at a local sports arena. I took some ice hockey photos. Fast forward to 2010....
I met a lady this summer at a concert I was photographing. It turns out her son was in one of the bands. I handed her my card and she took one look at it and said, "Oh! You're Neal Jacob! You took photos of my son at such and such sports event...."
Long story short (after much discussion) it turns out that I was not the photographer at that event. I never took photos of her son. But guess what? She associated me with the event because I sponsored it just for one year. She insisted that I took the photos. The guy that actually did, lost out because she can't remember his name or the name of his company.
Go with your name. You won't regret it.
Neal Jacob
[URL="http://nealjacob.com/twitter"]Twitter[/URL]|[B][URL="http://photos.nealjacob.com"]SmugMug[/URL][/B
It very much depends on what business you are in, but when that business is multi faceted, I think it is always better to specialize in the target market of the business.
I went with my own name in the early days and it was OK as I have a very simple and easy to remember name.
When I learned a bit about marketing and sales, I changed it and it has been without doubt the best promotional tool I have. ( and no I'm not going to tell you for every shooter out there to suddenly copy or try a variation of. )
What I will say is the name is simply based very succinctly on what my customers told me they wanted.... over and over. When I ask them what they want for their photos they tell me we want this..... and that's what I based the business name on...exactly what the clients told me that wanted.
I'm a real big believer in feeding back what the clients tell you they want.
If your targeting the high end portrait market, I wouldn't advise calling yourself " Penny wise portraits" but if you doing shopping center work, that could be winner. The thing is, high end portrait clients aren't likely to say " We are watching the pennies" but they may say something like " We want something to be proud of and look back on in 20 years. "
" Timeless Portraits" or " Family Heirloom Photography" would get them right where it means something and automatically conjures up a mental image of the type of work you do which helps pre qualify the client straight off. " Sams Snazzy Snaps " would appeal to a very different market through the implication the name makes as to the target market of that business.
JayP Photography creates no mental image or has any appeal or promotional value at all. Neither does any other personal name unless you market and brand it which takes time and costs money, something probably in short supply when you are starting out.... or are the income bracket of 99% of shooters these days!
I also believe in targeting your business to the market.
If your in the wedding game for instance, you could call yourself " City name wedding photography" and that is going to target clients in your area.... especially in search engines for your web site.
If your in an area of photography that is not as saturated and has fewer competitors, this is even more effective as people will go straight to the name of a business that represents what they want.
I have several business names and I target the specific markets I address in this way because I want to be seen as a specialist not as just yet another jack of all trades.
In saying that, my main business name is something non specific and is NOT my actual name. It does reflect what clients from several avenues of what I do however so works well in that regard.
If your targeting a people market, weddings portraits etc, go for an emotional name that relates to what people want and their needs of recognition, admiration, peer approval... all that deep and meaningful stuff.
If your work addresses a more business orientated market, commercial, advertising, corporate..... then aim for a more service descriptive name.
Especially starting out, I think you have a lot better chance of targeting your specific market as "Maine Childrens portrait Studios" or " Maine Product Photography" than you do as JayP Photography.
Naming your specialty targets your market straight off, your own name doesn't.
Put the shoe on your own foot.... You need someone to photograph your corporate dinner. You look on the web, put in photographers and your locality and you get 2 billion hits. The first return ( Never would happen) is JayP Photography, the last person on the page is "Corporate Photo Specialists".
Which one are you going to ring first??
Now a lot of people do more than one thing. I do but I have each of the main markets targeted with its own name and the websites make no mention of anything else.
I appear to be a specialist in each market and people want to hire whoever knows and can do their job the best.
If someone is looking for a shooter to photograph their pet rhinoceros and I'm " Fur & Feathers Photography" and my site says I photograph animals and show lots of pics of everything EXCEPT a Rhino, I'm still going to be the first person the client rings ( all things being equal) over JayP Photography, the guy that does weddings, portraits, sporting teams, animal portraits, action photography, insurance, glamor and advertising work.
Now If I also do sporting teams as a main focus, then I should have a site that is called "Team and Action Photo Company" and makes no mention of anything else.
And don't even try to be all things to all people because you'll end up being nothing to no one. I laugh my butt off when people list themselves in specializing in 18 different & widely varying and non related subject matters. yeah, shooters usually have a range of specialities but that isn't widely done in other professions.
If a doctor is a specialist, he's a Kidney or a heart and lung specialist. He doesn't say he does ingrown toe nails, hair transplants, hip replacements, plastic surgery and lobotomy's, he does one or 2 things only. Th GP does everything and they are a dime a dozen.
Same as a barrister. He does corporate or criminal or property or....
He doesn't do wills, conveyancing, traffic offenses, custody matters and patents. He does 1 or 2 if they are related. The local guy with the office above the hairdressers does that, the guy you call when your up to your eyeballs in it does one thing and he does it better than anyone else and he's the Dude you want.
I'd also advise against the kitsch and catchy names. Click Photo, Light & shadow Photography, Appealing Images..... all that sort of thing has no sell to the client at all and may make you seem amateur like to many clients.
Well done on doing some business related research though. You'll be ahead of the pack just by doing that. Earning your living from photography is 90% business and 10% photography and that, at least for the first part of your leaning curve is exactly how you should devote your time to studying.
You can be a very well off, average ability photographer if your a good businessman. You will never be well off if your a great photographer but a lousy business person. that recognition alone tells you what is the more important skill of the 2.
Learning business will also show you what's important to learn about photography and speed up your learning curve there by knowing what is a waste of time and what is actually valuable to you.
Good luck with it.
You can use your own name for company registration and long term branding of yourself as an "artist" or "entrepreneur". If you have a name like "Joe Smelley" - some people do - you might want to go for something else, but Jay Preston sounds good enough to have invented to fit the purpose.
You can then "go-to-market" under tags that are specific to something that customers are looking for at the moment and that you are focussed on. Getting a web-site url, a business card, or a poster printed is easy enough. Also easy to trash when it is not working. So isnap photography, a Jay Preston enterprise..... how does that sound?
As a student you will likely change your mind several times about your market and your value proposition in the next few years, until you find something that works for you in the long term.
A lot depends on what kind of business you want to establish. Let us dream a bit - say you have a great idea for events. So good that people will queue up to franchise what you are doing in another state. You might even want to sell the business at that point and carry on your own work - then you probably need to have separated your own brand from the business brand at an early stage. It sounds like you have not thought this through yet and you just want an artist name to get some recognition - Jay Preston Photography sounds just perfect.
When you have decided about a business concept come back and read Glort's post again. It is immensely good.
I do like the idea of going with your name. You're lucky enough to have a short, easily-remembered (and easily-spelled) name that sounds great as a business name. If you make a go of the photography business, that name will do very well for you.
I'd be very wary of going for a name like iSnaps, you may love it now but you almost certainly won't in a year or so's time. If you must brand yourself as something other than your name, go for a fairly generic word that isn't strongly linked to an existing brand or one which will give the wrong mental image. 'iSnap' tells me that you take snaps, not professional photographs. My mum takes snaps, I wouldn't hire her for photography'.
Chris
Become a fan of Chris Humphreys Photography