New business name

[MarkW]

My wife and I are toying with the idea of starting a small business with my brother, who is fed up with his current job. In an idle moment I stuck our three names into an anagram generator to see if any good company names came out, and I've struck gold.

"Hello. My name is Mark, and I'm a director of Cronk, Miracidia & Vomit."

That'll look good on the headed notepaper.

[MikeHorton]

Sounds like a great solicitor's or estate agents name

[Bender]

What's the new business?

I'm sure we can better those crap names.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

The right name can make a difference. A few years back my cousin came up with an electronic gizmo that met a gap in new regulations to do with retail food cold storage monitoring. With two mates he started to make them but sales were small, despite it being the only product available to plug the gap.

A consultant advised him to change the name to a Japanese name after which they sold 100,000s of units to just about every retailer who had fridges or freezers in their shops.

New fridges/freezers have it built in now but during the gap he made a small fortune.

[MarkW]

What's the new business?

Conveyancing services for estate agents.

[bonio]

Sooo.... your brother's name is Dominik?

[MarkW]

Sooo.... your brother's name is Dominik?

 

Dominic - and my wife is Victoria.

[bonio]

Dominic - and my wife is Victoria.

Doh. Silly mistake. You're not Marc

[skyrider]

My wife and I are toying with the idea of starting a small business with my brother, who is fed up with his current job. In an idle moment I stuck our three names into an anagram generator to see if any good company names came out, and I've struck gold.

"Hello. My name is Mark, and I'm a director of Cronk, Miracidia & Vomit."

That'll look good on the headed notepaper.

yes and should get you a lot of business

[MarkW]

What's the new business?

I'm sure we can better those crap names.

 

He wants to try his hand at property renovation. His job is really getting him down, and he has a young son he only really sees at weekends due to the long commute in and out each day. I can understand why he wants a change, especially as he sees the freedom my wife and I have running our own business, but property renovation isn't an area I know anything about. I suspect that the market is probably pretty saturated with TV inspired DIY-ers, but I'm happy enough to put a bit of starting capital into it if it gives him a chance to change course.

As a handyman he's pretty inept (I think the Part P regs were brought in as a direct result of his ill-fated attempt to re-wire his garage) but he has very impressive project management skills and a large network of local tradesmen he's kept in touch with after they graduated from the colleges where he's worked over the last 20 years or so. He also lives in an area where house prices are low (the cheapest 3-bed semi is being auctioned next month with a guide price of £10k) so he can at least dip his toe without getting too badly burned if it doesn't work out. Obviously there will be a good reason why a property is that cheap - most probably because it's about to collapse into one of the many old coal mines - but if it makes a little bit of profit it'll be a good start.

Is this something any of you guys and gals have any experience of? If anyone has any advice, horror stories or successes to share it would be great.

[Bender]

Don't go overboard with renovation, know the price your going to get and keep a profit margin, buying cheap is OK as long as it can be sold, no good buying cheap doing a ton of work and making 2k.

Houses that are just old and out of date in places where people want to live are the safest bet, trouble is now everyone wants them to do up.

Nothing wrong with just project managing the whole think but getting stuck in and learning to do stuff is going to reduce costs.

It's still doable you just have to know the market your aiming at, no good doing a wickes kitchen and painting the whole house magnolia if your wanting to sell it for 500k, and no good getting an interior designer in if it's a 2 bed terrace that's going to go for 50k.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

If he's wanting to put a roof over people's heads why not just call it the Umbrella Corporation?

[TimR]

Find the location of where your basing your new office and then use what 3words app and there you go

[Tankbag]

How do you feel about moving to Washington ?

[fastbob]

Find the location of where your basing your new office and then use what 3words app and there you go

 

Nice idea but there would be dozens to choose from because What 3 Words goes right down to a few square metres . I'm at Twat // Cat // Sportster by the way .

[MarkW]

I went to a property auction in Leeds today, just to see how it all works (I've never been to any sort of auction before) and to see how close to the guide price the lots went for.

My favourite moment was when the hammer fell on a tiny and delapidated mid-terraced house with a guide price of £25,000, whereupon the Pakistani guy sitting next to me leant in and said "They must be very pleased with themselves, those fellows. Oh yes - £64,000 to live in f*cking Barnsley."

[Pie man]

What's the new business?

I'm sure we can better those crap names.

 

Is this something any of you guys and gals have any experience of? If anyone has any advice, horror stories or successes to share it would be great.

 

Start off with a small property for your first project, be aware there may well be hidden and unexpected costs - invest in a good survey or get experienced help at first. You have to lay out money to buy and more money to carry out refurbishment works, hopefully all goes well and you make a good return on your investment, however be mindful of the age of the property. R&D surveys and asbestos removals and the like can become costly.

[MarkW]

As this new venture gradually takes shape a couple more ideas for names have occurred to me. We could call it 'Shithole to Chateau' or perhaps 'Khazi to Castle'.

Hmm... Now I just need a white van and a sign...