Many of the petsitters here on Sittercity are individuals who don’t necessarily have a petsitting “business,” in the traditional sense of the word. Yes, they are skilled sitters and professional care providers, but they don’t have a business name. Do you? If you’re thinking about turning your passion into a full-fledged petsitting business/company, here’s a reminder of why it’s important to choose your name carefully.

In a story in Long Beach’s Press-Telegram, a petsitter’s business name (Noah’s Ark Pet Sitting) was a little too close to an animal shelter (Noah’s Ark Animal Shelter) that was raided by animal control officers two years ago — and she’s STILL paying the price.

[Lois] Wilson started her Long Beach area pet-sitting service in 1993 and decided to call it “Noah’s Ark” in memory of the pets she had growing up — an iguana, cats, dogs and a tarantula that had lived for 20 years.

The professional pet-sitter said she figured it wasn’t a big deal when an animal shelter with the same name opened in the city in mid-2005, because it was a different type of business.

On August 23, 2006, Long Beach Animal Rescue seized 299 cats and dogs from deplorable conditions in the Noah’s Ark Animal Shelter at 1333 Redondo Ave. Officers said urine and feces were slicked on the floor and dead animal carcasses were found in a freezer. Three of the animals were eventually euthanized.

Shelter owner Alexia Tiraki-Kyrklund was sentenced in January to 16 months in prison on felony animal cruelty charges. Her co-defendant, volunteer Gloria Ramos, was sentenced to one year in county jail and five years probation.

The case stirred outrage in the community, and Wilson began receiving calls from people assuming that Noah’s Ark Pet Sitting was somehow affiliated with Tiraki-Kyrklund.

Wilson was hoping the furor would eventually blow over.

But on Sunday morning she received a nasty call from someone who likely saw the “Noah’s Ark Petting Sitting” logo on the side of her car.

The man used profanities, accused her of keeping dead animals in the freezer and called her a fraud.

Lesson learned: The more unique your petsitting business name can be, the better. Do a little research in your area to see if there are any other pet services with names close to the one(s) you like. Even if a bad mix-up like this doesn’t happen to you, the confusion surrounding close-sounding names could be enough to lose potential customers.

Source

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 10:28 am and is filed under Pet Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.