Hi Everyone

I've been driving myself crazy with naming my business, but I think I may have it narrowed down and hope you will share your thoughts.

I read in one of the threads about reese witherspoon naming her production company Type A Productions or something like that (can't find the thread again). I am SO a 'type a' person and despite having a good long list of potential names I can't seem to consider anything other than one of these:

Type A VA
Type A PA

I'm considering the PA simply because so many of the people I work with right now talk about not only being type A, but also needing to have their own personal assistant. However, I'm also not wanting to do personal errands and want to work mainly virtually, so I am not sure if using PA would be misleading? I do like how people seem to be catching on with what a VA is, so I like that one too.

I'm torn. Are the names too cutesy creative? Do they sound professional enough? Maybe I should just go with my personal name so I don't have to do a dba and stop driving myself nuts? Ugh.

I've been carrying my name domain for years so that would be easy peasy to use but I don't have a problem registering the others and in fact have already done so just in case .

Please help save me from business naming crazyland! What do you think?
Paula

If you don't want to have the personal errand service, I would go with the VA name. You may want to have a short tag line to go with the name to help explain what "Type A" refers to. Type A's can be thought of negatively like stressed or rude or positively like workaholics, detailed. Does that make sense?

Hi Time Retrievers

Thank you for your thoughful response! Yes, if I choose this name I will definitely need a tag line to hopefully keep it in a more positive direction. One of my hesitations is that negative connotation. The name definitely fits my current target market but what if I decide I want to take my business in a different direction? So, I'm taking my time and thinking through to make sure I'm headed the right way for me, and the purchase of a domain name or two for a year isnt so much. I'll try to come up with a few more names so I have more choices.
Thank again, Paula

Paula,
I like both names and I guess VA would be more suitable. However, I like it because it sounds good. I didn't know what a Type A was and had to look it up on the internet, so the meaning of the name escaped me. But it does sound good and I did like it.

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Hilde
www.vbbassociates.com

I like this and would be curious what the logo and tag line would look like. I don't think it is too cute. The question would be, "Are you a Type A or are you looking for Type A clients?

Personally, I would use Type A VA as that is what you want your business to target. You can always do personal assistant work for your clients, and you are not asking for this to be your primary focus. It is a value added for those with whom you work.

While it sounds good because it rhymes, I'd probably forego using "Type A" in the name. That makes the name of your business about describing you as a person and not necessarily your business or what you do. I also don't know that you could get past the negative connotation that goes with Type A, unless perhaps you were looking to work with other Type A's but somehow, I'm not sure that two Type As would work well together.

Here's some of what is described as Type A from Wikipedia:
Symptoms of Type A Behavior[1]

1. Time urgency and impatience, which causes irritation and exasperation.
2. Free floating hostility, which can be triggered by even minor incidents.
3. Competitive, this made them oriented towards achievement which caused them to become stressed due to wanting to be the best at whatever it may be i.e. sports or in work.

I think what you'd want to portray more is that you are an on-task, organized person and that's what you'd bring to the table. Also, there are still quite a few people who don't recognize the acronym "VA" for Virtual Assistant.

Maybe think of words that go along with what "image" of your business you would like to portray to potential clients and then see what you can come up with for a name from there.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

Thanks for your thoughts Hilde, Time Balancers, and Kimberly!

Its weird how when you are in a certain environment for quite awhile you can start to be or think like your environment. In the environment I currently work in, Type A's are quite admired and some of the negatives are considered strengths. I thought of this name because in one day, in several instances, I heard different people in upper level management talk about being a Type A person. One of them was currently interviewing to hire a director for a division, and I overheard her tell the HR person that she wanted a Type A person because they could "handle all the cra* that comes in this environment". I guess I've been indoctrinated well because even though I knew the negative connotations with the Type A person, I began to think of them as strengths too. In posting here, I've ended up surprised that others see Type A's in a negative light and that is a good thing. While the people I work with currently are certainly one of my target markets, it's now very clear to me that not everyone see's Type A's in the same way and I need to think of the other markets I may want to target.

Back to the drawing board for me I think. Thanks everyone for all the food for thought! Paula