I owned a business (tea room cafe) for 7 years named after the building it was in: The Baron York. I closed the cafe part in Feb 2011 and moved the gifts and teas to a consignment booth (open 7 days a week but don’t have to be there!!) and tried to increase my online presence. I have recently published a cookbook and about to go to a second printing. It contains the recipes from my tea room plus stories of the town and customers. It is available at my booth and online. I am moving to another state and will most likely have to close the booth (can’t oversee it from 7 hours away). Should I keep the name, The Baron York, as I focus on speaking and selling the cookbook or should I start over and brand myself under my own name. (Sorry if this question is too long.) I am working on another book, self-help with life lessons from tea, and a short soup cookbook.

@rich-brooks Thanks, Rich. It does help. It confirms what I’m thinking. Since I want to continue to sell the cookbook which is based on my years at The Baron York I need to keep that brand. I will also add myself as a brand and branch out into other things through that. Good idea about selling the brand later!

@deairby  Dea, your name is very interesting and I think it should be an integral part of your new brand.  One of the pieces of this brand is The Baron York.  Other pieces are your life-lessons w/tea and soup cookbooks.  I envision your name at the top of everything, a la: Dea Irby’s “The Baron York Cookbook” and Dea Irby’s “Life Lessons and a Cup of Tea.” 

@deairby – good luck with the move!

@deairby  Dea, if all you had accomplished in life so far was raising 8 children, you’d still have tons of wisdom and experience to share.  You really do have a fascinating life that I’m sure others would enjoy reading about and learn from.

I see you’ve been a weight loss coach…in addition to personal training, I’m a food coach, which is a somewhat different path.  When you have a moment, check out my website, Lasting Change.

@deairby you have an amazing story and experience!  I agree that you should definitely get your name associated with everything you do to help the transition from the Baron York to you and what you do today.  I wouldn’t lose the old name though, that’s a great story and piece of history that can lend itself to your brand.

@lisaschulteis Lisa, thanks so much for the link to Liz. You are so right….a wealth of info! (I forgot to mention that I have traveled around the world, am a tea expert (to the degree that I know more than the average bear) and am a speaker.

@deairby I am a huge fan of having your own domain name, so deairby.com would be my choice.  Also – instead of info@ I would do dea@ – it’s more welcoming and friendly.

I think you look more serious if you do move off of free emails and actually have a real domain.  With how easy it is to integrate things into gMail, you can still keep gMail as your central checkin spot but receive and send out email as your domain name.  If you need help on how to set that up, drop me a line once you get your domain email address setup.  It needs to be pop-enabled account, which most are these days.

That’s funny.  I never thought about that @deairby.  What about dirby or just di?

Thanks @deairby et al. This thread of discussion is very helpful as I consider my personal brand management. 

Several years ago I created a brand name (Klassi Kurvz) for a desktop publishing business (hobby and passive income) I was enticed to do brand management and marketing for an overseas company.  As a bonus, I had the opportunity not only to teach but also to mentor students. It has been fun, rewarding and positive experience. The company’s brand has become the hallmark of success.

In recent times, I have a strong yearning to renew Klassi Kurvz and promote both my name and my company. My challenge is how to infuse all the creative things I love to do into Klassi Kurvz so that I can help small business owners.

It was interesting to read the advice about info@ because to me it seems impersonal. I also found @lizgoodgold to be resourceful. Another point was whether to just promote my name only or both. I decided to do both so that I can co opt others to help to fulfill the mission. I hope to write a 30 page inspirational book in 2012, so the responses have been very helpful.

Cheers to an extraordinary 2012!!!

@Dea — I think rebranding is an interesting term here. Clearly, you’ve changed your business model. That needn’t change your “brand”. I really think you have an opportunity to expand the awareness of your distinct brand using social media.

One of the reasons I was so excited to be part of this club group is to learn how to use social media. I’m just learning sooooo many things. How exciting for you if you could expand the market of The Baron York. 

Is there a way you can leverage social media for The Baron York in addition to building your personal brand as a speaker/author? Heck, is there a way to expand The Baron York to include cookbooks, chef’s supplies, etc?

What’s possible? 

Hello Dea! First of all where can I find your tea room cook book? Lol (seriously, where?) Secondly, branding is tricky because branding refers to how others view your business. If you feel your atmosphere, decor and over all feel match the presence of your name, why change it? My opinion is The Baron York is a great name for your type of business. If your atmosphere is more of a Western feel (basically if it’s like a typical coffee/tea shop) you may want to rethink the name. Imagine, for example, Duncan Donuts was renamed Windy O’Neils. As a potential customer you would be confused by the name and not sure exactly what to expect. It’s just awkward and out of placed. Ultimately you have to think about how you want people to view your business, then plan necessary steps to ensure they do view it that way. I could also see The Baron York being a great name for a pub!I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck during your move! (don’t forget about letting me know where I can find the book) Take Care!

@deairby You sold out! WOW. I know this may be asking a lot but is there any way u can give me tips? We released comic books and are working on getting into comic shops. We are trying to move a lot of issues! Our website will be done within a week and we are really going to push it out. Do you have any suggestions, tips or anything? Clearly whatever you are doing is very successful! Congrats!

@sgsrecording just found your reply, how exciting about your comics. Tell me more about your project. One thing that helped me was pre-sales. I raised the money for printing through a crowdfunding site , Kickstarter.

@sumitroy thanks for taking the time to reply, your input is very helpful information

@sumitroy, great questions and a good starting base for rebranding! I suggest to my clients that the struggle over using your own name vs a company name has more to do with your comfort level.

Many people feel more secure use a company name because it gives them a focus and distances their complicated and busy life from the business venture. Others just don’t want to be asked for all the time – think Paul’s repair shop; not many customers will ask for John.

Your business name does not change the branding/rebranding process and in fact can (and should be) an integral part of the process, not seperate.

Good Luck!
 

@deairby They are printed and published We have them for sale on our Facebook page and our website will be done in about a week Im not sure how you are phrasing the question lol if you mean how helpful will that be for your business, I’m not sure, I don’t know your business as well as mine lol. Maybe put some of your recipes in there and which teas are best to enjoy them with. Put your shops menu on it, maybe special deals every week or month, like ‘buy one get one half off’ type things. It took me months to plan my game. You have to plan the best layout and interface. Just know that digital sales rely on volume. My printed comic sells for $5 online but the digital copies will cost $1. It’s just how the market is. Also, there is A LOT less cost involved such as no printing or shipping cost. Maybe digitize your published book? Look up what other digital books like yours are selling for and go from there. There’s countless possibilities!!