Friday, June 26, 2009

So .. Why the Changes? Part 5

Business has been rolling along ok ... not fabulous but ok. I started doing some research on marketing (because I was a serious rookie about this stuff) and I began paying close attention to what people were telling me at craft shows. I came to the realization that my business name, B-Jeweled By Susan, might not have been the best choice.

When I first named my business, I was only thinking of doing craft shows and my contact with customers would be live. “B-Jeweled By Susan” was fine in print (on business cards and flyers) and substituting the “e” with a hyphen looked kinda clever.

But then I got an email address. And I was introduced to Etsy. Neither wanted to take my hyphen or my spaces ... so my online name became “bjeweledbysusan”. It’s not a bad name .... but no one can find it. When you’re in business, that sorta defeats the purpose! Even my friends say they have a hard time remembering the unusual spelling so they got frustrated trying to get through on my email or find me at Etsy. If my friends are having this problem, nobody else is finding me either!

And there was another problem -- to those who haven’t seen my name in print, it looks like I don’t know how to spell .... because the “bjeweled” without the “e” really doesn’t make much sense without the hyphen (b-jeweled).

And, to be honest, when I first started at Etsy, I made some mistakes. Nothing glaring or terrible. Just didn’t get off to a great start. I'm thinking that a fresh start might be a good thing.

So, before I get too much more invested in my name and image and marketing, I want to change my business name. That has turned out to be a bigger project than I expected ... but it’s all working out. On Etsy, that means opening a new shop and it involved quite a bit of research. And choosing the new name? Well ...... more later.......

0 comments: