Last month the shareholders decided I should not (yet) create a corporation. I was surprised, but I appreciate the expertise of my shareholders who voted to reduce complexity. I was also a little sad, because I thought it would be fun to name a company.
Then I realized that as a sole proprietor I can create a DBA (Doing Business As) with my credit union and cash checks and invoice under a new name. Perhaps some day my DBA will grow up and incorporate, but for now, it’s time to choose the name under which I will do business. Here are some of my initial ideas:
Valcherius Michelangelo Queen
This is a fantasy name I came up a while ago. I like the idea of invoicing people with an overly elaborate name and creating a persona for my business work.
Merrill Finch
In the movie Boiler Room (2000) there is a brokerage firm called J.T. Marlin, chosen to sound close to JP Morgan, a more established and trusted firm. There are a lot of options in this vein!
Michael Wave Theory
Beau came up with this one in Slack. Michael Wave sounds like microwave and I like Michael Wave Theory because it sounds like the technical analysis Elliot Wave theory.
Michael Universe
Another one from Beau, I think the initial spark was MikeWorldWide, a big PR agency.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
This is a joke from my time at Panic where the idea was to use the name of some massive trademark but in a wildly different field. Sure, Internet Explorer is a thing in web browsers, but there is no confusion with a consulting company.
Business Affairs
All the big studios have this massive black box full of lawyers called Business Affairs that slows down deals and makes petty requests to change the terms. So you'll have an interesting idea and some executive will say positive things and then come back later and tell you that Business Affairs didn't approve it. I think it sounds like erotic fanfic. As always I wanteto open up the idea to all shareholders before we vote! And the winning option gets 25 shares)
Note: Being able to crowdsource ideas is a huge advantage of having shareholders. The search for a book title resulted in over 100 entries and once we finalize the name we’ll determine the winner (not too late to submit!).