Are you new to the photography business? Think hard about your photography business name! We kind of…didn’t. We started out as “KOR Photography” (my wife’s initials) and that was a bad choice. We got very tired very quickly of fielding the “is it soft-KOR or hard-KOR? haha!” jokes. Seriously, it was funny the first time. Eighty-seventh time? Not so much. Then “The k Gallery” (so we could keep our circle k logo) but be a little more effete with the “gallery” vibe, but that’s not so great either. What’s a gallery? Is that an art gallery? Paintings? Oh…photography. And is that “K Gallery” or “Kay Gallery?” Can’t tell from hearing it. Just saying, don’t make the same mistakes we did! I’m thinking it’s time for a re-brand…what do you think of “Magical Moments by Matt?” Catchy, no?
Instead, head over to Photojojo and read up on their tips for naming a photography business. There’s a lot of great advice there, and if I could add a few myself:
1) Please avoid the use of words like “captured” or “moments.” It’s over done.
2) Make sure you can get a decent domain name. I know all the good domains are taken, but make sure it’s something easy to spell, easy to understand when spoken, and avoid hyphens and other special characters.
3) If it’s your own name, you can’t trademark it. If it’s something else, though, be sure to trademark it! “Prior art” doesn’t work when it comes to trademarks. Meaning, if you’re “Really Good At Pictures LOL Studios” for 10 years, but never trademarked it, and somebody else comes along and files the paperwork, they can shut you down. Don’t let that happen!
4) Always remember, people will shorten and confuse whatever name you choose, so the shorter and sweeter you can make your name, the better.
Best,
Matt Radlinski
Magically Captured Moments by Matt Photography, LLC, INC, WTF, BBQ.
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5 Comments at "Naming Your Photo Biz"
Thanks Matt. That is really helpful. The SNL skit is hilarious as well. I am in the process of re-branding as well and it is so difficult.
Thank yuo for the headsup – A blog post on trademarking your brand/logo/etc would be helpful.
Trademarking? That’s easy.
Step 1: Google lawyers in your area.
Step 2: Call lawyer.
Step 3: Say “I would like to trademark my business name and logo.”
Step 4: Give lawyer cash.
Step 5: Profit!
I thought about the name of my business for ages before settling on SRPhotos, however there are a lot of us out there.
I’ve got srphotos.co.uk, but there’s also srphotos.net, srphotos.com, srphotography.co.uk and several others that are all different people. If I were to do it again, I would look around to try to pick something more unique!
I agonised over the name choice for ages. David Jay did a great video which reinforced my decision to drop photography from the name. Basically he said that people dont come across you if they’re looking for an electrician. They were already wanting a photographer, so having that in the name is moot. Anyway, Shot by Robins seemed like a good fit for moi.
Gareth
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