SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Yellownakji on May 08, 2019, 18:14:42

Title: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Yellownakji on May 08, 2019, 18:14:42
Has anybody here ever named a company, before?   This seems to be my biggest challenge, in the past 24 months.

I keep a good majority of my software under my real name since i can't settle on a genuine company name to register.  Everything i like seems to be reserves, if not already taken.

I'm wondering if anyone else here has the same struggles.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: blinkok on May 08, 2019, 22:00:05
whoopdedooba.com
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: markcwm on May 08, 2019, 23:45:39
Well at the risk of having my head bitten off by a frightening fat pig...

I think by the sound of your post that you don't really need a company, if it's just you then you've no need for it, just be self-employed, companies are how a group of working people sort out their legal stuff, taxes and wages, and regulations mean it has to make a profit to stay in business.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Kryzon on May 09, 2019, 02:15:44
Last I checked different companies can have the same names if they act on totally different fields. So if you like the name of, say, a photography studio, maybe it's legal to use the same. You should check the law.

The difficult thing is gonna be finding available WWW domain names...
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Yellownakji on May 09, 2019, 18:59:15
Quote from: markcwm on May 08, 2019, 23:45:39
Well at the risk of having my head bitten off by a frightening fat pig...

I think by the sound of your post that you don't really need a company, if it's just you then you've no need for it, just be self-employed, companies are how a group of working people sort out their legal stuff, taxes and wages, and regulations mean it has to make a profit to stay in business.

I do currently employ 4 people.   Having a company is necessary in our case;  Most retailers refuse our product due to absence of a registered brand, especially digital.  We've tried and tried again to comply with our local government, but we've also got a lot of legal issues with registering patents due to being brandless.  They want us to be a property, even if it's just an LLC.

Issue is, we cannot decide on a name.    All the names we've had are taken, in the field of software.

This isn't the 90s, so software i've single-handedly written, and software with my peers, can't just go under my or our names.   It's simply not allowed here.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Steve Elliott on May 09, 2019, 19:15:56
Quote
Has anybody here ever named a company, before?

Issue is, we cannot decide on a name. 

Yes I have, and yes even if you use your own personal name it can be already taken in the World Wide Web.  There is no easy solution, you really have to brainstorm and constantly check Google to see if the name you have decided on hasn't already been taken.  In short, you have to be creative, and come up with something unique.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Derron on May 09, 2019, 19:20:35
Use your nickname.
Use an artificial word or combination.

Asteroid Belt Gaming LLC
Dynamite Banana LLC
Glacier Break
Banana Bros.
Alpine Armada
Bitwise Brothers
Bucket Games
Bin of Ideas LLC
Rocket Science Games
Big Foot Steps LLC
...
Your name does not need to have a connection to computers...
...
Running Beans LLC
Jumping Peas LLC.
Coconut Collective

Digitally Revolved Inc.
Rat in the Hat Inc.
ZoomaBalooma LLC

Especially in the genre of computer software "foreign" names are less often registered.

Spend your guys some beers... Write doen words, write down funny names... Mix it. Done.


If you already miss the required creativity for name finding I am sceptical for the future of whatever you produce.

Bye
Ron
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Xerra on May 09, 2019, 20:51:13
Syntaxbomb solutions isn't registered. Domain name is still available as well.

If you want to use that then Qube and myself will just require a small cash transaction under the table. Won't be much - honest :-)
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Qube on May 09, 2019, 21:59:20
Quote from: Derron on May 09, 2019, 19:20:35
If you already miss the required creativity for name finding I am sceptical for the future of whatever you produce.
I agree. Don't dwell on a company name. It's not really that important. One of the biggest companies in the world is named after a fruit so don't spend ages trying to come up with the ultimate name as it won't create more business for you. For small companies it's all about reputation and word of mouth.

Quote from: Xerra on May 09, 2019, 20:51:13
Syntaxbomb solutions isn't registered. Domain name is still available as well.

If you want to use that then Qube and myself will just require a small cash transaction under the table. Won't be much - honest :-)
Small cash transaction? :o and who invited you along for the ride? :P
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: blinkok on May 09, 2019, 22:16:57
Apologies for the language but i was watching a doco on the fyre festival last night and apparently the marketing company was called "Fuck Jerry". So i guess anything is possible as far as company names are concerned.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Yellownakji on May 09, 2019, 22:50:59
Yes, there are a few 'random' / 'mixed' phrases we like.   I was hoping to find something that resembles our work personally, but it may just end up being random.

Has nothing to do with our creativity, Derron.   It's easy to name an application..   a company name stays around forever.  apps change all the time.

we'll see.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on May 10, 2019, 02:47:50
Yep, though I am a single person, I decided on both CJW Enterprises as my parent company and Crazy Scorpion as a branch that develops computer games.

CJW are the initials of a friend who inspired me to program for a career, and crazy scorpion is based on my zodiac sign.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Xerra on May 10, 2019, 19:36:21
Me and a buddy had a game development company registered with Companies house for a few years when we tried to break into IOS development with a couple of games. Couldn't make any money so we closed it down in the end. We chose Dexterity Design but wanted Digital Dexterity initially. Some photographic company had already nabbed that, however.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Qube on May 10, 2019, 22:03:33
QuoteMe and a buddy had a game development company registered with Companies house for a few years when we tried to break into IOS development with a couple of games. Couldn't make any money so we closed it down in the end
Why did you go down that route to begin with?. Surely it would have been easier / free to just develop games and then if / when income came in move towards that side?

I was just plain self employed for years and didn't need to register with companies house. It wasn't until I hit the VAT threshold that things had to be done in a more official capacity.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Xerra on May 11, 2019, 09:24:55
Quote from: Qube on May 10, 2019, 22:03:33
QuoteMe and a buddy had a game development company registered with Companies house for a few years when we tried to break into IOS development with a couple of games. Couldn't make any money so we closed it down in the end
Why did you go down that route to begin with?. Surely it would have been easier / free to just develop games and then if / when income came in move towards that side?

I was just plain self employed for years and didn't need to register with companies house. It wasn't until I hit the VAT threshold that things had to be done in a more official capacity.

We wanted to sell on the App store. Apple want you to have a registered company to do that. Well, they did at the time. Unsure it's the same now. This was 2015.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Yellownakji on May 16, 2019, 00:23:41
Update:

We've settled on a name, registered the domain and the paperwork is underway.   We decided to go with the 'blend' route, as suggested above.   A lot of good things on paper, but so much is already taken.  It's quite absurd.

Maybe things will be nice now  ::)
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Qube on May 16, 2019, 00:50:24
Quote from: Xerra on May 11, 2019, 09:24:55
We wanted to sell on the App store. Apple want you to have a registered company to do that. Well, they did at the time. Unsure it's the same now. This was 2015.
Ah, so you setup the account as a business rather than an individual. Makes sense as my Apple dev account is as an individual.

Quote from: Yellownakji on May 16, 2019, 00:23:41
Update:

We've settled on a name, registered the domain and the paperwork is underway.   We decided to go with the 'blend' route, as suggested above.   A lot of good things on paper, but so much is already taken.  It's quite absurd.
Congrats :) - Is there a reason why you needed to go down this route?. In the UK you can keep things really simple and be self employed, get a bank account under your business name, let the HMRC know that you are also self employed and still work in a normal job without much fuss at all. Of course if you want to setup a LTD company ( or more ) and become VAT registered then it's more paperwork and hoops to jump through but to simply start trading under a business name it's super simple.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Derron on May 16, 2019, 06:24:18
In Germany you are not allowed to use a business name only if you are such a limited self employed one. So your contracts and bills will always have to state your full name instead of an artificial name. These "small businesses" have to state that they are of this kind and do not include VAT in their bills (a big statement line below the costs amount).
If your earned money (so total amount not subtracting costs) goes above 16500eur you need to become a normal business ... with VAT and so on. Yet it does not mean you can have a artificial name. For this it needs another form of company.

Think this is similar to the UK but pretty much differs to the US.


Bye
Ron
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Yellownakji on May 16, 2019, 12:31:42
Quote from: Qube on May 16, 2019, 00:50:24
Quote from: Xerra on May 11, 2019, 09:24:55
We wanted to sell on the App store. Apple want you to have a registered company to do that. Well, they did at the time. Unsure it's the same now. This was 2015.
Ah, so you setup the account as a business rather than an individual. Makes sense as my Apple dev account is as an individual.

Quote from: Yellownakji on May 16, 2019, 00:23:41
Update:

We've settled on a name, registered the domain and the paperwork is underway.   We decided to go with the 'blend' route, as suggested above.   A lot of good things on paper, but so much is already taken.  It's quite absurd.
Congrats :) - Is there a reason why you needed to go down this route?. In the UK you can keep things really simple and be self employed, get a bank account under your business name, let the HMRC know that you are also self employed and still work in a normal job without much fuss at all. Of course if you want to setup a LTD company ( or more ) and become VAT registered then it's more paperwork and hoops to jump through but to simply start trading under a business name it's super simple.

Things can be that simple in the US.  My specific state isn't, however.   We've made over $5,000, within a month; They're itching to put us on the radar for their tax purposes.  If i was in, say Texas or North Carolina, the total i could make per month would be 10,000-15,000 without needing a registered name.  The limit here is 5k/month and our tax is 11 cents to the dollar, which is why i'm moving.   I also gave them the middle finger by registering in Wyoming.   Least tax in the USA (2 cents to the dollar) AND cheaper registration fee.   Because it's registered in Wyoming, it will also be easier to branch to Canada, as they have joint relationships.
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Xaron on May 16, 2019, 19:58:03
11 cents to the dollar? Wow, that's cheap. As a single dev I have to pay 42 cent per dollar plus VAT. So when selling for 1$, they deduct 19% VAT, then the income tax of about 42%, you can do the math (Germany)...

On the other hand with a company, you have to pay about 16% tax plus income tax of what you take out then.

I'm currently in the same boat to find a good company name...
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Derron on May 16, 2019, 20:44:49
@ Xaron
German name or international one?

Are you searching for a company name (so GmbH, KG, ...) Or just something you can put over your name (so some kind of webadress). Take care of whats your company is doing (trademarks, nizza classes...).

If you do local business apps for others (inhouse solutions or white label products) you can keep it easy with "Softwarelösungen DeinName" or so.

Mine is btw Digidea(.de) - no company name but the name I put next to mine.


Bye
Ron
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Xaron on May 16, 2019, 20:49:58
Hey Ron, more international, GmbH... But will find a good one. In the end it's not as important as the product. Might use "KrautApps".  :))
Title: Re: Ever tried naming a company?
Post by: Derron on May 16, 2019, 21:19:00
Maybe ask how Kraut (for Germans) is connotated for them as non-German.

But as you said...the name itself isnt as important. Still you should try to not embarass your clients with your name: "our ERP software was written by 'Shit Hapoens LTD'" ;-)


Bye
Ron