When I was starting my business my accountant recommended that I name my business after myself, “that way if someone writes a check to you, you can still deposit it in your company account.” As I reflect back that is perhaps the worst advice I’ve ever received. The name of your company is significant for many, many reasons, and depositing checks is not one of them.

Naming a business after yourself does have a sort of logic to it, in the beginning (and for some time) the primary product that you have to sell is you!  Clients will hire your “company” only if they find you compelling, intelligent and competent. At the beginning of your company’s life it’s hard to know what sort of name or symbol will represent you well. In truth you don’t even know exactly what line of business you will thrive in or what types of customers you will succeed at attracting. So for all these reasons, many people default to using some version of their own name in their business name.

After nearly 10 years working with business owners I have gathered a number of reasons NOT to name your business after yourself.

1. Don’t name your business after yourself if you want to eventually have someone else sell to new clients or perform work directly with clients. When a business is named Maureen Mac Caully Consulting, people naturally want to talk to Maureen. When someone else comes to sell them something, they know that person isn’t the ultimate decision maker, and there’s always one more person to negotiate with, Maureen.
2. If you name a business after yourself you will get more cold calls. It’s easy for me to cold call Maureen Mac Caully, I know she’s the owner of the company. I can call Maureen Mac Cally Consulting and ask for Maureen and know pretty clearly that she’s the one I want to talk to.
3. The founder’s personality is often dominant in the culture of a small company, but when the company is named after him/her it’s even harder to establish a separate culture. Her/his personality will always define the culture, after all her/his name is on the door.
4. It’s hard to “fly under the radar” when the company is named after you. Sometimes I just want to be a fly on the wall. People don’t have to know that I own my company, I can have a conversation with them as if I was the sales guy, or the consultant. I can defer a decision to my “boss” to give me more time to consider it.  When your name is on the door you can’t do that.
5. When you own your own business it’s so easy to have your ego tied up in everything that you do, business, personal, it’s all one big ball. Having a different name for the business makes it easier to have some separation for you and for others.
6. If you want your business to be more than just you, then naming it something else helps you, and everyone else think about it that way. When another professional joins the firm he/she knows they won’t have equal standing in a firm named after the founder.
7. It’s hard to bring really talented people into any small firm, why exacerbate it by putting YOUR name on the door. If you are lucky enough to bring in people more talented than you are, you want them to know they can have a “seat at the table”.
8. A brand is too powerful a thing to waste.  With a name you can create connections, pictures or references that are evocative in your target audience. Unless you are well known to your target audience a company named after you just says small-time.

Obviously I have a pretty strong opinion on this subject, maybe you disagree; I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Brad Farris is a small business advisor with Anchor Advisors, Ltd. in Chicago, Il. Since 2001 Anchor Advisors has been helping creative professional firms to grow, by helping them clarify their purpose, get the most from their people, keep their eye on key performance measures, and implement consistent processes. Brad is also the author of The Business Owner’s Champion: 6 Practices to Build your Nerve and your Business.