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I’ve just quit my job to start out on my own contracting a few hours here and there to other sole traders as well as direct to clients. I can work under my name like most other self employed Landscape Architects here in NZ but I’d like to stand out a bit and also have the flexibility of growing and selling the business later.

I’ve been brainstorming for a few weeks but haven’t fully decided yet. The complexity is I’m contracting as a Landscape Architect to some companies as well as a Marketing Consultant in strategy and campaign ideas to a couple of other small businesses. So I could go with two different names or just one name. My favourite idea so far is:

red tree dragon fly

Is it too long for a business name?
I would register this full name but use “red tree” as a brand for the Landscape side and “dragon fly” for the marketing side. My business cards would be double sided with red tree on one side and dragon fly on the other. I would use three websites http://www.redtreedragonfly.co.nz and http://www.redtree.co.nz and http://www.dragonfly.co.nz (already taken)

The problem is “red tree landscaping” is a registered business in another city in NZ (doing landscape work not landscape design). And “dragon fly” is used by a few other companies like a chinese resturant, a registered trading company and some scientific data analysts.

So I’d love your feedback on red tree dragon fly and I’m also open to other names as well. Other keywords I’ve been playing with are:

Ladybird
Dragonfly
Kirsten
Mskten
Markir Landscapes and Markir Marketing
Marketing
Landscape
Design
Planning
Architecture
Strategy
Environs

Red is my favourite colour. Quirky puns, oxymorons and twists on common phrases like “buzz kilt” I think are fun and worth investigating.

Any suggestions?

How about Mskten ?
Or is that too obscure? Would you know how to pronounce it?

1) Don’t worry about companies with the same or a similar name if they are in a completely different market space, like Chinese restaurants.

2) I’m not sure why you would want two separate names, which would just dilute your brand. As long as everything you do is about landscape design, for your own clients or as a subcontractor for other firms, it seems like it would make more sense to align it all under one brand, which of course can have different capabilities. It’s hard enough to get one brand name well known — two just makes it much more difficult.

3) Build a website, make sure it has a blog, and then start blogging regularly about everything that interests you related to landscape design and to your local community, geography, New Zealand, etc, along with other topics that interest you. Get your brand out there, and interact with others who may one day be your employers or clients. Become known for something in your industry.

4) I think Red Tree Dragon Fly is too long, too many names. Don’t try to be everything in the name.

5) No one will likely get Mskten. I thought at first you were making a play on “Mistaken,” which I thought was interesting, but that would be Mstken or Mstkn, so I’m not sure what you were getting at.

Redbird
Dragonbird
Red Dragon
Land Dragon
Land Maker
Lndmkr
Dream/Land
Wonder/Land

Scape Artist
Archland
Redland Design
Island Scapes
LandMark
Red Dawn

maybe something with “curb Appeal” in the name

Gnome landscaping

Thanks so much for your feedback I really appreciate it. I especially like LandMark and Scape Artist.

The Mskten is derived from Miss Kirsten but I can see now that it looks like Mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out.

The reason I wanted to use two names is because I’m going to two completely different sets of clients. Landscape Design /Planning and Marketing Consultancy for small businesses.

After thinking about the names Snark and Rogere suggested, I got to “Outside” as in Outside Landscaping and Outside (the box) Marketing but I’ve tested it with a few friends and it didn’t really appeal or reminded them of other unrelated things.

I’d like to go with Dragonfly Landscapes and Dragonfly Marketing but http://www.dragonfly.co.nz and http://www.dragon-fly.co.nz are both taken.

How bout Groundcover.

what do you mean by “curb Appeal” William?

Outlands
OutLandish
Outerland(s)
Underground
Undercover
Dragonscape

Hey. I love OutLandish.
OutLandish Outdoor Landscapes
and
OutLandish Marketing

It would change my brand image a bit but I didn’t really have a strong theme anyway. While I’d end up type casting myself into crazy outlandish designs for both landscape and marketing, it will be good to have a strong position and style communicated in a really crowded marketing. My only concern is I might end up attracting the most difficult outlandish clients…

Hey Kirsten. What about dragonflynz.com? Thats available. Lots of companies do this, and it works a treat because you can still use your preferred name. I quite like red tree, and redtreenz.com is available too.