Recently I was mentioned as part of a blog post called: How Did You Come Up With Your Business Name? in the Hearpreneur CEOBlogNation.com
Re-branding to bring something extra
Back in 1984 when I formed Compass Capital it was the convention to use the names of the firm principals for professional service firms ( e.g. Dowe, Cheetum and How). Being sensitive to every penny of cost and seeing the law and accounting firms having to redo their letterheads several times a year, I wanted to avoid reprinting and a more generic name. I made up a list of possible names and so did an intended partner. The word “Compass” was on both of our lists so I went with Compass Capital. The partner did not go ahead with us and in retrospect I’ve always felt the name was not descriptive of what we do. It often seemed that the public thought we were either in the mortgage or venture capital business. In the late 90?s we added a tag line “Navigate the Nineties” knowing it was only good for a few years. Based on what we were hearing from our own clients (you are my trusted financial advisor…) we “re-branded” a bit by adding a new tag line “Your Trusted Financial Advisor” and had it registered as a service mark. Since adding the service mark we have over time dialed down the name Compass Capital and dialed up “Your Trusted Financial Advisor” as it really describes what we are.
Thanks to Timothy F. Shanahan, Compass Capital Corporation
see the full blog post at: http://hear.ceoblognation.com/2013/01/09/how-did-you-come-up-with-your-business-name/