Business Name Change Question


Hey Brooke – I have a business question and am looking for your professional advice. I have a full-time job right now as a Marketing Director – I have been twice married, twice divorced. No kids with first marriage and so I had returned to my maiden name. Then I got married again, some 15 years later, and thought this one was forever – not so. We had two kids and I had taken his last name. At the time of the divorce I was still pretty raw and embarrassed about the whole thing and I didn’t change my name back to my maiden name because I didn’t want questions from the 1300+ customers I have online, as I went through that before after my first divorce and people saying ‘Congratulations’ because they hadn’t known me prior and so thought I had just gotten married or ‘I’m so sorry…insert awkward pause here’ – there were just lots of unnerving conversations, and I didn’t want to have a different last name than the kids. Now it’s been 3+ years since the divorce and I’m trying to turn into my photography hobby into a small business on the side. I have won several contests and my current website is under my current name but I don’t have that much traffic on that yet. I’m trying to decide if I should just come up with a different name altogether so that if I did get married again or if I changed back to my maiden name that it would have no effect on being found on the web. I’m trying to figure out all my costs and margin needed etc before I rent space at a local gallery but I would like to do that soon and I find the name is a sticking point for me as I don’t want to have to change it after getting business cards etc. What are your thoughts – feeling very stuck at the moment as I’m not a Cher or a Prince and my first name is too plain to stand on its own, my current site is found actually with just my first initial and last name. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!