[River Hill]

I am looking for some feedback. I am currently involved with grass cutting, and snow removal. I am currently using two company names even though I am one company. I use Grassmasters Lawn Care for my grass cutting business and Maryland Snow Services. I do do muclhing for customers, but that is the extent of my landscaping services. I really have no desire to learn about plants or plant design. I have been talking with different paver manufacturers about becoming a authorized contractor/installer for them. I have been looking about getting involved with pavers for some time. I recently asked a question on this forum about the mailbox and I am still going to try it and maybe do some flowers around that. I really think I will get into the pavers though and do the mailboxes as requested. I guess my main question is do you think it is bad to use 2 or 3 company names as I target different cutomers? I only do residential lawn care and will probably only do residential paver jobs. I only target commercial snow removal and I don't ever plan on doing residential snow removal. I guess my problem is, it is very hard to come up with a name that describes the services I offer. I would like to advertise on my trucks and trailer, but what I would probably need to use one name? I don't know, maybe a title with outdoor services? I will need logo as well, and I will use Outpost for that. Maybe they could do a logo with paver and grass on one side and snow on the other????????? I do like the idea when I meet with a property manager or a facility manager I tell them our name "MD Snow Services" and we specialize in snow management. It looks like that is the only thing our company is involved in and I think they like that. I could be wrong as they may only care about there snow is cleared.

[Paul]

I don't see any thing wrong with using two names. One of the largest companies that does snow removal also is a landscaping company but it runs under two names. What I wouldn't want to see is a truck with those take off signs. Look into having signs made for your trailers. Keep your trucks clean at this time.

[River Hill]

I guess I am looking for a way I could let people know I am doing pavers as well as Lawn Care. I guess I could use 3 names?

[Stonehenge]

I'm not wild about using multiple names, particularly if you intend to be a smaller company, staying in a single market. One reason I'm not wild about it is marketing. If you have three different company names, you're either going to have to spend 3X your marketing budget to get the message out about each company, or spend a small amount on each three, diluting the impact of your marketing. You'll have three sets of business cards, three sets of trailers with lettering, three ads in the yellow pages, etc. In any given business opportunity, you'll have three chances to not have the right business card to hand to someone.

I can understand why a person might want to have the different names, so people can understand what it is that you do. However, we've never done any lawn or landscape maintenance, but we get asked about it all the time. If you have a single name, people will ask about the services you offer, and I don't think you'll miss opportunities that way.

And then you have the benefit of aggregating your happy customers. Instead of having 10 happy maintenance company customers, 15 happy hardscape company customers, and 12 happy snow mgt company customers, you'll have 37 customers all happy with River Hill Landscape Services (I think that'd be a very nice name, BTW).

Second, how do you answer the phone? Or will you have three lines that you have to answer differently?

Plus, I would imagine that at tax time, having to complete (or pay to have completed) three sets of paperwork is going to be a real pain in the neck.

That's my $.02.

[River Hill]

You bring up some very good points. I also will be doing some light Bobcat work which includes trenching and stump grinding. I would love to use the name River Hill in my companies name but, there is already this company that has a landscpaing division http://www.riverhillgardencenter.com so I will not use anything even close. I want to be different and have a unique name.

The one thing I really enjoy about this forum is the quality advice and answers you receive when asking a question.

I think I will need to keep the snow service side seperate, because when I do mailings to property managers advertising snow services it gets thier attention. I have a few friends who are property managers and they said they get mailers and cold calls from landscaping comapanies all the time, but never a snow only company. When sending out a postcard you only have 2 seconds go get someones attention. Maybe I could use 1 company name and use a title like snow services a division of XYZ Company. On the other hand if my post card was done well enough maybe it would not matter what the name of my comapny was, but highlighted the snow side of the business.

[HRLand]

Around here, and I'm sure other areas as well, there is an endless supply of companies that offer snow plowing but not one that offers only snow plowing. The guys I know that plow are landscapers, plumbers, masons, electricians and carpenters. I don't think you would have any problem using one name to cover all your services.

[Lanelle]

I recently saw an ad for a specialty company. In small letters at the bottom it stated: A division of XYZ Services Inc. Maybe that would work.

[site]

Tow truck companies in my area get called to accidents in order from a master list. Some companies have a different company name for each truck. That way they get more calls. the trucks are painted alike. How about if you had a catch all company name and different letterhead for the divisions?

[Dale Wiley]

We have 3 different DBA's. Our primary two listed below, as they are seperate business's. The phone calls all go to the same line, letterhead and all that is printed on our computer.

We have another business name ' West Valley Excavation" that we use when we pull plans or bid lists and want to submit 2 bids and want to increase our chances for one reason or another.

Landscape Specialty Services and Landscape Specialty Plants are sole propritiership's with my wife as the registered owner with the state. I am operations manager of the 2 companys and registered owner of West Valley Excavation.

It is common knowledge in snow country that a lot of landscapers push snow. I don't think you need to have a seperate name and all the other stuff.

Trying to apperar larger than your business is, is something I don't really understand. If you have a solid service offereing, a good operations and management systems, and provide your customers with quality service, it does not matter "large" your company is.

Things like "divison of" " CEO" "President" and all that are pretty self assuming in the landscape business. Simpler is better both opertaionally and financially.

[Pelican]

To expand on Jeff's comments if you are in the position he describes and have built a reputation that people can respect, why not use that to your advantage? I've done that with my business and I've reached the point where when people hear my company name they know they're dealer with a respectable business and someone who can be trusted.

This would be difficult with three different company names. If you are intent on the different names, at least market yourself as a "Division of" your parent name.