brand, domain-name, namingI am a freelance web-developer, but later I want to build a startup on it. So I found a good name what is formed by an adjective and a noun. The noun is ‘solutions’.
I didn’t hesitated and bought the domain with the country TLD. (I first wanted to build the brand locally, than grow to globally.) My webpage is finished and I started to use the domain as my freelance e-mail address, and the FB page of that name has many likes, too. But I didn’t checked that the .com and the .solutions TLD-s are taken by a domain reseller company (they want you to pay 2700USD to buy the .com and 2500 to buy the .solutions)
Now I found that the same adjective sounds good with the ‘systems’ noun and the local, the .com and the .systems TLD’s are all free.
Next to it, my girlfriend want to be a freelance designer and next to it she want to operate a webshop.
My questions: when is safe the ‘name change’? Or is it a good idea of using the following formating?
old name as the startup/group name
(and waiting for the expiriy of those domains to buy them)
|
-> my girlfriend's brand
-> my brand (with the new name)
and we both using the old name’s email address.
What size customer base, number of followers and search engine ranking do you have with the ‘solutions’ name from the perspective of your startup?
When it comes to your freelance customers, you can pick a date and advise customers that your name is changing along with the new contact details (web and email). From that date, have redirections in place so that visitors on the web and email is automatically forwarded to your new address.
There are a couple of podcast episodes about changing your name that are an interesting discussion:
http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-356-finding-pricing-for-a-new-saas-app-small-business-banking-selling-to-companies-outside-the-u-s-and-more-listener-questions
http://www.tropicalmba.com/nameyourbusiness/
Your domain is not your brand, just an address. Use whichever fits best and make sure to design the websites according to your brand guidelines and needs. If confusing, just add a small page that explains why all the different addresses point to the same brand.
Don’t think too much about this. Not a huge deal.
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