Need a name for my company!!!

pLuhhmm

Okay, Ive decided to change my company name before I get my license. Suggestions wanted!

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ULWiz

This is not something easy to come up with. Took me a long time to find something i could agree with.

I picked MOBO Networks.

Good luck on picking a name.

JDMurray

What is the current name of your company and what does your company do?

You need find a name that isn't already a domain name too.

pLuhhmm

Current one was JPComputerServices (my first and last name initials)

I acctually just thought of one. I googled it nothing came up, domains are available, but for now Im just using a free provider, people dont seem to care, they say its not hard to remember since they just get it of craigslist anyway, hehe

http://flint.craigslist.org/cps/912520609.html

http://www.joshplumb.page.tl

I think I am going keep that site until I can afford to pay a web designer and monthly domain costs, prolly go with godaddy idk though.

Also I made some big changes in my pricing and services. I took away travel and diag costs, upped my overall hourly rate and services but, they are still cheaper then 99% of everyone else.

Hopefully I can keep this alive as part time and evntually find a good location and open up a lil shop, but only if I feel I have good customer base, because I know how many people end up closing very fast. Im trying to focus on people looking at me and going hmmm geeksquad $1000000000 or $100 hmmm. I just need this to get moving by word of mouth. Im also trying to keep everything (site,flyer,craigslist) looking professional as possible, so far I think Ive done a good job, the worst people have said is that its mediocre

Ill keep TEnet informed with anything that happens.

ULWiz

At work so did not get to much of a chance to view your web page yet.

I added something like this to my site with a link.
Might want to take a look will most likely give you some idea.

http://www.mobonetworks.com/mobo.pdf

pLuhhmm

Ill like your site hehehe

Your PDF looks nice

I need this semester to end already....-_- I wanna get some more certifications, hopefully this will attract more business.

dynamik

You should check out this post by Keatron: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=231488#231488

the_Grinch

Josh the Plumber Computer Tech Services (bad joke sorry)...

Do what the founder of Geek Squad did! When he first started out he would drive his car at 2 mph over the speed limit (now required of all Geek Squad people who drive) around town at certain times with his logo on the side. When he would get calls people would say "I see your trucks all over the place!" and it was literally just one vehicle that drove the same route at the same time everyday. Also, he made it a point not to put what Geek Squad was on the side of the vehicle. Thus people would call just to see what it was and that drummed up business! Good luck!

msteinhilber

I would personally go with a name for a company that is not the norm. There are too many Bob's Technology Consulting, Bob's Computer Repair, Bob's Tech Solutions, etc... hopefully you get my point. Give yourself a name that is catchy, memorable, can be incorporated into a catchy logo, etc.

Either way, don't stress on the things like a fancy website, or hoping certifications will drum up business. The only thing that is going to drum up business for you is yourself. Get your name out there by providing exceptional customer service consistently to each of your customers. Be personable with your customers, get some business cards and don't be afraid to give a few extra to your clients and mention "here's a couple of cards if you have any friends who might need some help". Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising for me. I worked as a branch manager of a computer retailer/repair shop local to my state that was unique because it operated like a franchise. The owner got 25% of the profit while the rest was mine, but I had to cover my share of corporate overhead as well as all other related store expenses. It was really an ingenious model because if a store didn't produce well enough, a subsidy was taken from the profitable stores borrowing the money to the store that didn't produce so the owner never took a hit. I spent many dollars on advertising for the store, but I would say a very very high percentage of my new customers always came in with a story about how a friend or co-worker suggested us. Prior management before me really did a number to the store running it into the ground and treating customers poorly. I spent several years working hard and treating people right and turned things around, made myself a nice lump of money with each commission check and increased sales and profit figures from the years prior month consistently for 2 years before I took my efforts into IT and got away from the retail scene - that is how powerful good customer service can be.

Daniel333

I am actually excited for you!!!

Better than the Geek's Full Service Computer Repair and Networking!

Sure that name sucks, come up with something better, but remember to advertise Geek Squad's prices with pride. Keep the official Geek Squad brochure’s with you at all times with their prices printed. Seriously, though. Know the enemy. Malware and failed hard drives are going to be your biggest money makers.

I don't recommend piracy, but you should certainly get hands on time with Geek Squad's "MRI" disk. Get it how ever you can, it's really the best Malware removal tool(s) I have seen yet and it's very easy to make your own version. Also get very comfortable with mem86 and DFT, these two are your best quick diag tools.

A bit a of an aside here, but thought I would share a few things I've carried with me for use in fixin' computers... you technically can't use this stuff but find yourself some substitutes or license them as needed.

Software -
Hiren's Boot Disk
Geek Squad MRI
Auto Patcher + Service Pack XP3/Vista1
Custom Windows XP OEM (added driver packs, SP3 etc)
Custom Windows XP Image with OpenSource Packages (open office, firefox, etc)
Windows All in one disk
Vista OEMS (driver packs)
Jellybean Keyfinder
Acronis True Image
A Current Linux Live Distro with recovery software
DVD full of the major anti virus installs
Cisco VPN software
DVD with all version of MSOffice (you'll be replacing a lot of files)
System X.4 and X.5
IPod backup software
XUbuntu
Disk full of Codecs
Driverbackup!

Hardware -
Laptop (supports A and B wireless, Office, Vmware with XP images running)
IDE Hard Drive
SATA Hard Drive
USB to IDE Converter
USB to SATA converter
External DVD ROM
USB Hard Drive
Headphones
Full tech tool kits (screw drivers etc)
Cross over cables
Cat5 (3, 10, 50')
Hub
Wireless Router
Wireless USB Card
Compressed Air
Anti Static wipes
LCD Screen cleaner
Extra Keyboard and Mouse
AA batteries
Wifi strength tester
Grounding strap
Misc. USB, Firewire, serial, Transfer cables
Various camera memory cards
Ipod
Pen Light
Small monitor
Loaner machine fully loaded

Misc.
Know what computer you will recommend if yuo need to recommend a replacement computer and why before you get to a site.

A great "documentation" page that carbon copies, should include this kind of stuff...
Backup - a full image if possible
Diag - DFT, Mem86 and Spysweeper w/ Antivirus
Repair - address issues
Update - run autopatcher etc.
Clean - physically clean the machine, customers eat this up!
Confirm - confirm the user is happy
48 hour Follow up - they still happy? Ask them for a lead.

At one point I dreamed of doing what you are doing, but was scared off. Best of luck to you. Before you head out, a few things you might want to review your training on aside from what is above
- Backing up Outlook
- Connecting VPN
- AOL (sorry, but yes, it's still out there!)
- Macintosh ( getting more and more popular )
- Port Forwarding/Triggering

Wow, I wrote a lot there... only because I wish you the best with this! Let me know how things go.

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dynamik

Wow, that was a great post Daniel. There's a couple of those software tools that were new to me.

Also, what I've started doing recently, and has really come in handy, is carrying two ide-to-usb and two sata-to-usb external drive enclosures with me. That's been a really convenient way to copy, image, etc. from a downed system. I got an eSATA ExpressCard for my notebook, and SATA transfers fly!

Daniel333

Yeah, those enclosures are a must.

It's nice to be able to boot a machine to a CD and run an image over to a drive too if you don't want to pull the HDD for what ever reason.

pLuhhmm

Yeah Ive had the Geeksquad disc for a while, its pretty useful. Ive seen the Hiren disc around, and I finally got that and ripped it, and tried on a customers PC the antivirus didnt seem to work... But idk Ill find a diff copy. He wanted to recover files off his PC, I thought okay, safe mode, easy fix, then when I got there I was like... oh, It would boot and youd see the cursor and itd loop-boot, even in safe mode. So I was like okay, let me get my linux disc.. >.> I forgot it, luckly! I brought with me a blank dvd and reburnt linux... for some dumb reason the dvd was bad... So being extremely lucky, I asked the guy (20ish) for a blank CD, he was very nice about it, pheww, and I burned Geeksquad MRI to it, Ive used it a lot on my pc to just fix minor things fast, but I didnt know it had a boot feature! I was able to get into his hard drive access and backup the files he wanted to my ipod 30GB, need to get me a large external... It was overall a good learning experience as I will bring everything next time, luckly I brought my laptop.

As for the company name, I was thinking of something out of the normal, but something people wouldnt feel akward saying, I use to feel that way about a LAN center called "strike zone gaming" my dad would ask where are you going... ummm that place on torrey rd, or the other lan center called cybertron, both way to geeky to say to someone who is out of the loop or w/e. HD Computer Services is pretty generic but its not permanent. Hopefully I can do this even after I get a job. Itd be nice to open my own shop and sell it ^_^. But that wont be for a while since the economy is terrible.

I made some changes to my site also, price wise and some other stuff like "Packages" could you guys review it for me?

God I hate geeksquad, one of my main tactics is to reveal GS flaws and high prices to people -_-

ULWiz

Now all you have to do is hope the customer dont visit this site and see your HEAD SHOP LOGO

networker050184

ULWiz wrote:

Now all you have to do is hope the customer dont visit this site and see your HEAD SHOP LOGO

skrpune

I have to agree with ULWiz there...a bit of googling and that avatar might be found, and it might turn off some customers!!

I took a quick look at your site, and I'd suggest some slight changes to your "About Me" to remove grammatical/punctuation errors. The corrected text would be (in my opinion) as follows:

"Hello, I am Joshua Plumb, 18 years old. I am located in Gaines/Michigan/USA, and I am currently attending college and majoring in Business Information Technology. Also I have three computer certifications: Microsoft Certified Professional; GASC: Network System Administrator; and GASC: Implementing and Networking Windows Vista."

Also, the hover text over the FF3 logo on the right hand menu reads "FF2" - actually that's the hover text for all the logos on the right side of the main page. Relatively small detail, but makes people like me with OCD go "hmm."

I'd also change the wording on your poll - I know that you're asking folks if YOUR pricing is the best around, but it's somewhat unclear when you say "the pricing" in the question. I'd rephrase it to something like: "Are the prices listed on this website competitive?" Just my opinion.

I think your prices are quite reasonable, and probably even on the low end when compared to what the big box stores charge, which is where most people would think of to take their poor broken machines for a fixin'. BUT since you don't have the overhead (and insurance and staff and and and...), it's somewhat expected for you to have comparatively lower pricing. I think your prices are fair and the package deals are a pretty good idea.

LarryDaMan

ULWiz wrote:

At work so did not get to much of a chance to view your web page yet.

I added something like this to my site with a link.
Might want to take a look will most likely give you some idea.

http://www.mobonetworks.com/mobo.pdf

Great ad! Awesome packages, great name, and a nice layout.

Check your spelling and grammar, "guaranteed" is spelled incorrectly... also, "keep your computers running at its peak performance" should be changed.

ULWiz

Appreciate the comment. I am not a live company yet still trying to work out all the legal stuff.

Had legalzoom.com do my paper work for my DBA. They started the process a year ago for a task that was suppose to take 4 to 6 weeks.

Its still not done yet so at this point i still cant use my MOBO Networks Name.
Cant even open a business bank account or handle credit cards.

I recently called the BBB and filed a complaint with them and legalzoom promised to get the work done this time.

Now its almost 2 months later already and still nothing done so far.

Getting Very Pissed.

stlsmoore

wow I was going to use Legal Zoom for my company I worked on a while back glad I'm didn't. You might be better going the traditional route and getting an accountant and lawyer/firm to help you get that all done. It will be more expensive to do so this way but you'll know it's done right and you can meet with the people who's helping you physically in most cases.

dynamik

What paperwork are you having them do for you?

I'm not sure how it works out in NJ, but it was a breeze to setup my own business here in MN. You'd probably want to get a lawyer involved if you're looking at doing something complex, but it really doesn't take much to get up and running.

Have you gone through this?

http://www.nj.gov/njbusiness/starting/

ULWiz

I got a DBA done. Doing Business As gives me all my tax id etc and the rights to the name MOBO Networks. Its basically registering MOBO Networks in my name.

pLuhhmm

hrm

msteinhilber

A DBA is a cheap and easy way of conducting business. As mentioned if you file for a DBA in your county or state if they have state level DBA's where you live, you are giving you the right to use "Business Name" instead of "John Doe" in the typical scenario. In doing so you are basically a sole proprietor and have none of the protection offered by a model such as the LLC. LLC's are slightly more expensive but offer limited liability, although nothing will provide you with 100% personal liability protection when you conduct business it's a good start. You can also use a DBA in conjunction with a LLC, for instance my wife and I own a LLC that is in the business of selling performance automotive parts online and a DBA which we created for the occasional side job I do for various tech jobs so I can bill them thorugh the fictitious DBA name rather than the auto parts business while still only being one legal entity and having the protection of the LLC - at least that's what my lawyer tells us!

At any rate, none of this is very well related to the original topic as it's gone awry. Whatever you decide to name your company, I would suggest you do research on how to protect yourself and consult a professional if you need to regardless of how small of a business it is going to be for you. Investing several hundred dollars into protecting yourself could prevent you from paying for an unfortunate mistake for many many years even for small jobs - you never know who's who when fixing machines on the side and people are very lawsuit happy these days.

pLuhhmm

Yeah it has lol, but i dont mind ^_^

Also dynamik if you dont mind, im considering this dynamik computers

vCole

I have a business name, & domain but no website

I know 0 about website design.