Name changed. Sorry this is long.
I have a lovely friend who's recently been through some horrendous times recently. She's just starting to launch a new business which I think she'd be excellent at. But the name she has chosen is...not good. Should I say anything or keep my mouth shut?
She's been putting stuff together for this behind the scenes for a couple of years. She picked the name and set up the website before she told us (her friends I mean) what it was called. If she'd asked for input then I know we'd have steered her somewhere else. It's hard to say, people have to say "What?" when told it, when you hear it there's ambiguity about the spelling so I worry about people finding the site if doing a search for it, it's kind of really unsuited to the business - like if I said the name and asked you to guess what it sells I doubt anyone would get close - so it's really not great. But I didn't know how to say that to her and the project was parked for ages anyway.
Now all of a sudden it looks like it's got an opportunity to take off and she just said to me about getting the website finished. I don't know should I mention maybe having a rethink? If I even mention it in the sense of "So I'm just wondering, is it too late to change the name?" she'll know I don't like it and she might be upset (not about me as such but that maybe others won't either). I don't know if she's tied to it legally, like if it's registered, and so changing it and the site etc would be a nightmare and then I've given her cause to doubt it when it's too late. On the other hand, am I a crap friend for not mentioning something that I think might hold the business back? It's in a very image conscious area and it's a really bad fit for that and I don't want people judging her badly.
She's been through so much and she deserves this to be the start of something amazing - and it could be - so I don't know if speaking up or shutting up is best for her.