Name for your limited company?

[EightiesChick]

DH needs to set himself up as a limited company to do the work he wants to as a self-employed person. What works best out of these options?

• Company name based on your real name
• Company named some other way, either that means something to you or for another reason (e.g. starting with A to be early in listings)

Plus would you include something indicating the type of work he will do? This could vary a bit, so my feeling was to be pretty non-specific in the company name itself. But I would be interested to hear what others have done.

We got an ordanance survey map of the area and looked for a nice place name and then added Services Ltd on the end.

It makes people who know the area think you are local (which you are) and possibly long established without you actually saying so, which can make them choose you from the yellow pages.

If they've looked in the yellow pages or on the web, they have to search by service, ie plumber, printer etc, so they'll know you do that without it being in the name.

What does dh do?

Thanks, Kathyjelly, that's a good idea.

It's management stuff and may involve him travelling all over the place, so the place link might not work for him but good to have the idea.

Any other suggestions?

It depends a bit on how work will come to him. If it is through his personal contacts because he is a bit of a guru, (and likely to be speaking at conferences etc) then definitely his name.

If work will come through a google search / phone book search then something that describes his work is better e.g. Career Development Services.

I'd avoid something "trendy" or too personal - it won't mean anything to other people.

I've been giving this some thought too for personal reasons.

My conclusions:

1. I was worried that a name based on my own name might make it look too much like a one-man-band - Marion Cole Services Limited might look like it's just me, which it is, but I might not want everyone to know that!

1. Make sure the domain name is available as I think a good website is an essential marketing tool these days.

1. You also need to check with Companies House what is already registered as it's surprising what names have already been taken. You can do that here.

Just a few thoughts:-
1 See what others in his sphere use. Do a few Google searches.

2 ??would you include something indicating the type of work ??
Certainly, try ?xyz? Management Services Ltd
A web search landing on ?xyz? Management Services.co.uk (or even a web page with that heading) implies that this site supplies err Management Services.

3 Don?t use first name

4 Err towards the ?formal and informative? rather than ?zany and wacky?.

5 ?? Marion Cole Services Ltd ??
? Cole Services Ltd? ? Services by the sackfull!
?Emcole Services ltd? ? pun on ?M Cole? ? get it?

6 It may be argued that it doesn?t matter what the Ltd Company is called because you can always have ?trading as??
Octopullet Ltd trading as ?xyz Management Services?.
The cheque book would have ?Octopullet Ltd T/A ?xyz Management Services?? and t? bank would accept payments to either name.
The business card would say ?Fred Smith - xyz Management Services? (not Ltd)

7 As previous ? you need to check with Company House but if Octopullet Ltd is already registered you could always have Octopullet 2010 Ltd, Octopullet Services Ltd, Octopullet Trading Ltd, Octopullet Enterprises Ltd

Good Luck