How to persuade my family to change their business name!???

[The Cafe Ninja]

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Hello all,

Would greatly appreciate your help.

My parents own an underfloor heating business in the UK which has been ticking along OK (for 14 years). My father has asked me to come on board to give the company a boost by taking over the marketing of the company (which I have done with a fair degree of success – increasing projected turnover by 5% in 2 months).

The company is currently called Reid Underfloor Heating, but one of my major initiatives is that I want the company to expand into complimentary products such as heat pumps, insulation, towel rails, solar, etc. I believe that a change of name is necessary if we are to do this, so I have suggested “Reid Heating Solutions” as the new name.

My problem is that my parents are terrified of changing the name as underfloor heating is the core business. I have tried to explain that with good SEO this won’t be an issue. We also sell a product that doesn’t really have a huge amount of repeat business (it’s something you do once).

I think they don’t really understand that if the SEO is right (we are currently building a new website) then it won’t be an issue – but if we restrict the company to be called RUH then we will potentially lose customers who think that is all we sell.

Out of the top 92 underfloor heating companies in the UK, only 13 have underfloor heating in their names and 12 of those only sell underfloor heating – nothing else!

How do I convince them that they need to change? Or am I wrong for even suggesting a name change???

[peppie]

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I have no idea how the registration of business names works in the UK (I assume it’s a business name as such and not a company) so just my suggestions.

My first thought when I read your post is that your parents are understandably reticent to change something that has (seemed) to work ok till now. So if there is to be change they will need some way of making the leap, if that is what is needed, they just don’t want to burn bridges in the process.

So, why not consider launching a new business name along with a new image/product range etc etc and work out a way that the old name and website can be retained for the time being. Your marketing ploy could be that you don’t want your present clients to loose track of you in the course of the change over. Sort of a case of doing everything you can to help people find you during the change.

That way clients get the idea you are doing your best to help them and your parents have an escape route if things don’t quite work out. Offer them a plan that if it doesn’t after say 6 months here is how we will handle it. You may be sure of yourself but older people tend to get very cautious.

[BruceR]

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Craig,

I believe you can have multiple trading names in the UK (as you can here) so I’d recommend changing the company name, as you want, to ‘Reid Heating Solutions’ and register ‘Reid Underfloor Heating’ as a trading name so you don’t lose the goodwill attached to that name. You can just use both in marketing and over time phase out the latter – or just use it for that product.

Regards,

[Author]

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