Naming a consulting business???

LesAventuresDeMarkus

Hi,My wife and I are currently developing our business plan to start our own accounting (her, me) and information technology (me) business in the Portland, Oregon area. We have the experience, we have been developing potential clients, we have the funding needed, etc. BUT we are stuck on naming our firm.I came up with the name MEMO Consulting Group as this is an amalgamation of the initials of our first and last names and this has a conservative (this is accounting and IT after all) businessy sound to it. However, I am concerned that this may not pass muster with the various business and brand naming experts that advise to create a name that describes your business, product or service.All of the Googling and other searches I have done to date of names of other similar consulting businesses yields a variety of names ranging from the dry and boring names (e.g. Accounting Services, Inc) to the somewhat bizarre (e.g. Shelko) that seem to have little correlation to the business to the mundane (e.g. names of the founders).I would appreciate any thoughts to help us move things along.

keycon

Damn, there seems to be a heap of you Oregonians on SuN. What`s up?
I think MEMO is a great name, especially since it incorporates something personal from you and your wife. To me, that`s special. I really think a name for this kind of business is not as critical as say as some other businesses, especially B2C. B2B is more use to the personal touch, IMHO.
I do have one that crosses my mind. FIIT Consulting Group. Playing off FI for Finance and IT - well, duh! You could have some fun with marketing campaigns and messages. Is you business FIIT? Get your finances in shape, with FIIT consulting. You get the idea. For what it`s worth.
Best wishes in your new venture. You guys have some great Pinots out there. Wish I could make the Thanksgiving bash at Archery Summit.
R@keycon2006-11-20 21:6:9

yourNAMEinDotCom

I like that. FIIT Consulting Group.

AudioPatents

How about Abacus?

LesAventuresDeMarkus

Thanks everyone for your feedback and additional thoughts.  First to answer Craig`s question regarding `what we do` - to start we plan to provide accounting services (e.g. QuickBooks, Great Plains, etc.) to the SMB market (80-90% of Portland business are SMB`s) that can either not afford or have a need for a full-time accounting staff. This will be my wife`s initial area of focus.My area of focus will initially be to provide more general IT consulting (think systems and related business process needs evalaution and recommendations and potentially system implementation services as well - the latter would most likely be provided via a network of providers via my own professional network).Dependent on our initial efforts we expect to either branch out into accounting system evaluation and implementation services or into other needed related business services - e.g. custom application development.Abacus and FIIT are not bad options as well. However, both are more focused on the accounting aspect of our venture. I had thought of developing a more lofty and cerebral business name to the likes of Accenture or Altria but these names are always bugged me in the past for whatever reason.Yep - I was concerned that MEMO might be associated with memorandum and perhaps we would be thought of as a document management company or some sort technical writing company or whatever. Thanks for confirming the potential here.Some background in the event that any one is interested My wife has over 14 years accounting and finance experience working for startups and SMB`s in the high tech industry and I have over 17 years IT, finance and business consulting experience working for Fortune 500 and Big 4/5/6/8 consulting firms. We are both relatively recent transplants to the Portland area having relocated here 2 1/2 years ago.I have been networking extensively while I was working on my exit strategy from my prior position as a senior director at a Fortune 500 tech company. I am also pursuing different software startup opportunities as well as this is another area of interest for me.

Jimmy17

I think it is better to start with 2 seperate corporate entities.  You guys are accountants.   Think of how simple the record keeping and planning would be for 2 seperate entities. 
Besides, I have a feeling that both entities are going to take off.  If they do, they wont really be associated with each other, except for the fact that they live in the same house.  Make your life simple!
What if one of them becomes so succesful you just want to sell it, without selling the other.  Spiltting them later would be impossible.

LesAventuresDeMarkus

Hi All,I know it has been some time since I posted this message to the forums. A quick update on what we decided on for our business name and services.Firstly, thanks for everyone who provided their thoughts, feedback and otherwise.Secondly - the update:We decided to name our business Accxl Consulting Group. I wanted something more cool than what we had to begin with and something that rang with us and inspired us. Our original name choice of Memo Consulting Group just wasn`t doing it for us.Our core services will be high-tech consulting ranging from 1) business and technology strategy development, planning and execution, 2) VC due diligence reviews and strategy reviews and recommendations, 3) explore new web 2.0 application and business model opportunities via the first 2 opportunities and finally 4) accounting and financial management services to SMB`s on our area. My focus will be 1 through 3 and my wife will be #4. While these are different businesses we are keeping them together for the first year or two out of simplicity from a tax and legal management perspective.Lastly - I noted that LLC`s are a favorite topic in these forums. We decided to go the C corporation route as we expect to solid revenues in the first year (I am already comitted and my wife is lining up quickly as well) and this provides us greater flexibility in defining fringe benefits to cover our expenses as well as allow for retained earnings for future growth.Curious to see what thoughts people may have regarding our business name and especially the thoughts on C versus LLC.

karrenweize

I suggest to try Alexandra Watkins naming firm base in California, (see her photo at http://postimg.org/image/bb7sezzl9/ ) This is the branding cosulting agency that I have also tried for my booming business today. Without this firm, my business may not be successful today. From naming book guide to its online portfolio, clients testomonials, tutorials and corporate solutions at http://eatmywords.com/ all put in one place to get every business more covered.