Why You Should Never Name A Company After Yourself

To see your name on your business, or on the products you’ve designed, can be a tremendous source of pride for an entrepreneur with a new venture. But as good as it may feel, naming your company after yourself is a potentially terrible decision. The moment you give your company your name, that name becomes a corporate asset, which can lead to all sorts of legal disputes if you encounter another company that had a similar idea, or if you eventually bring on investors. For small businesses, it can be an extremely costly mistake, and for founders, it can mean losing the rights to your name altogether. The smartest choice is to create a name for your company separate from your own, says Susan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University. “It avoids so many potential problems down the line that it just strikes me as a no-brainer,” she explains. “I really wish designers would exercise just a little bit of the creativity they put into their clothing and so forth into choosing the names for their labels.” Read more at Quartz.