I’m surprised very few have asked how I came up with the name Sunset Hill Web & Consulting. Maybe I shouldn’t be, though, since anybody who knows me well enough to care probably already understands.
I’ll tell you, though. When I first considered doing this, I agonized for quite a while- months actually- over what to call this little business. I knew I wanted it to have a local focus, but using the word “Ballard” somewhere in a name was either already taken, or just sounded rather plain. One day as we were driving somewhere, my lovely wife Filina said “How about Sunset Hill Web Designs?”. For the first few seconds, I didn’t think I liked it. But, Filina knew that I’d grown up in the Sunset Hill area, and I’m sure also considered the fact that some day we would like to find a house in that area again. I ran a few options by a few friends, including a couple options with “Ballard”, but it always came back to “Sunset Hill”.
Now, Sunset Hill What?
I knew from the start I did not want to use “Designs”. I’m not a designer. I’m a builder, a deployer, a leverager. Maybe even a developer. To me, the word “design” implies a media other than digital. I don’t do that. And typically, at least in my experience, web designers design websites, but they don’t necessary develop them. Sure, there are exceptions, but I think can agree that generally speaking, designers are concerned with how a site looks and how the customers interact with it. So I knew one word I did not want to use, but what do I use?
I knew that the focus of my company was going to be helping small businesses get great websites and SEO. But also knew that I have a pretty good basis of knowledge in general computing, and all kinds of business tools. One friend had suggested I start a “consulting” company. So then I knew I wanted the word “consulting” in there. Sunset Hill Consulting? No, websites and SEO are not necessarily conveyed with the word “consulting” alone.
The list grew longer as did the times of anguish! Either I was coming up with names that conveyed everything, but were way too long, or were nice and short, but did not state much about the company. What name could possibly contain “Sunset Hill”, “Consulting”, Websites”, and “SEO” and still fit on a business card? Finally it hit me: “Web”. The word “web” conveys both website and SEO, but to a certain extent, it didn’t matter! I could educate my clients on SEO at the time of building their website, or as I am pitching my services. It’s almost like having “SEO” somewhere in the name would be a detriment and take away from value of those other words.
So I had it “Sunset Hill Web & Consulting”. I ran it by a few people who I trust and they thought it was great! I got a name that conveys what I do, encompasses my local connections, and differentiates me a little. What a relief. Now I can get to work!