What’s in a business name, more precisely?
I recently changed the name of my editing business and the change took effect in late September. My original name was “Suzelle Fiedler, Proofreader LLC.” I changed it to “Fiedler Editorial LLC.”
The latter, I believe, sounds much more professional than the former. The former name was one which I pretty much made up on the spot one evening after realizing that my business needed a name. (Duh.) It turned out that, at the time, I had confused copyediting (what I do) with proofreading (something many people think I do). I wish to emphasize that this happened three years ago, and both I and my business have grown by leaps and bounds since.
As I said earlier in this post, the name change took effect in late September. Would you believe that I first put the wheels in motion to change my name back in late July? I had to pay a sizeable amount of money, make phone calls, get my Articles of Amendment from the state where I live, and then wait until my state recognizes the new name (eight weeks–and I did not know it would take that long).
After that, I had to close the bank account of my formerly named business and open a new account under the new name of my business. This was terribly hard. It involved several trips to the local bank and dealings with some people who were not nice, to say the least. Last week, the new account was finally established. Yippee!
However, today I got a package at my door from the bank. It contained things which I had never gotten when I opened the first account with the old name. I had only asked for checks. Instead, I got things that I don’t even know how to name, much less use. And so tomorrow I must haul myself to the bank again, this time with the box, and ask what went wrong.
After all of this, do I regret changing the name of my business?
Absolutely not!
The new name is much better than the old, and I am very glad that I have it now.
Have you ever changed your business name? How easy or hard was it for you?
Extremely interesting and informative. Bravo for your patience!
Thank you so much, Aunt Judy.
Suzelle,
Who could have guessed that changing a business name could be so complicated?! It makes sense in a lot of ways but the change in the bank accounts, it seems to me, should not have so difficult and, of course, they should have never been anything but helpful and respectful. Just wait until your account has a few hundred thousand dollars in it! Their attitude will be sickeningly sweet, I’m sure! Sweet revenge, no?!
The article was a fun read!