business names

[cakes]

I have brought a business, but want to change the name, does this effect the goodwill of the business I Purchased?

[Antonia @limeone.com]

Highly possible if the business is well known and established under the old name. Do some market research first with those customers who currently buy from you and also check out the internet for the number of pages the old name appears on.

[Boxby]

I think only you can determine that.

Did you buy the business because it has a good customer base, with a lot of established regular customers?

Or did you buy the business because it's got a good location, and most of your customers are new customers.

Will you loose a lot of customers if they can't find you because your name has changed? What will happen next year when your name is different in the yellow pages - will there be customers that simply don't recognise you, and you effectively loose them.

Sometimes (mostly) good will is simply the difference between the sales price that the seller wants, and the academic book valuations of the assets you've bought.
Sometimes (rarely) its a properly worked out figure.

My husband changed his businesses name, and it would not have impacted negatively on the goodwill because the name confined the business to one geographic location, and English folk couldn't pronounce it. Goodwill for his business was based not on people through the door (we have no premises) or repeat business (as most enquiries are unique, with little repeat business). And all of the telephone numbers stayed the same.

What ever you do, don't change your telephone number!

Hope this helps
Kind regards
Sandra
If you write down/off your goodwill cost, then you will have a higher gain when you sell the business.

[Boxby]

If you are looking at this from the perspective of a new website, then there is nothing to stop you developing a website etc under a completly different trading name, and leaving what you have with the name it already has.

[obscure]

I have brought a business, but want to change the name, does this effect the goodwill of the business I Purchased? If you want to change the name but fear a loss of goodwill then do it in stages.
1. Notify existing customers (and past ones that you have contact details for) that you will be changing you name in X months time.
2. Send a follow up a short while before the switch reminding people and stating that contact details will remain the same.
3. Have new company headed paper/invoices produced which show the new name/logo but include "previously trading as [old name]". Use that for several months until the new name is well established.
4. Maintain the old phone number and any web site URLs and redirect where necessary (its amazing how long people will keep out of date phone books etc).