I would try to keep it simple. Like some from the past: SoCal Blairs K and D A couple that my friends started Muscle Machine and John's Nuts (tee shirt - he made SS lug nuts)
I dunno. If the shop has an established clientele I'd be tempted to keep it Eric's Machine or maybe add on to say Eric's speed and Machine. This is a problem with guys who name their business after themselves...makes it hard for the next guy.
One of the last remaining business cards left from 1958-65 Hello, As teenagers, we had to obviously spend our own, hard earned cash for cars or parts for our hot rods. So, having some kind of small business was my brother’s way of creating extra cash flow. He had a good job and paid for most of his extra curricular activities. But, he knew that was limiting with the stuff he wanted to have for building his own car or building a new hot rod for drag racing. He and I sat around thinking of what we could call our small business, too. At first, it was Nakamura’s Hot Rod Shop… but, that went out because most could not say Nakamura correctly and it was a mouthful. Almost going through the same things as what we are seeing on this thread. Every idea from a speed shop to parts and engineering as well as custom build for engines. We had two + engine builds or rebuilds under our belts and they all ran quite well. We did not engineer anything as far as machining, so that name was out. We were good at following directions and mechanical skills. We also listened to old masters, like Joe Reath and Joe Mailliard, when they cornered us at their respective shops in Long Beach. They wanted us to continuing buying stuff from their shops with the given discounts. That was great for us as it was a learning experience from those masters. But, we wanted our own, not to compete, but to get started in doing our own stuff. So, this is what we did. Jnaki Precision Racing Engines was the chosen name. J. Nakamura was on the card as both my brother and me had J to start our names. Tons of cards for the same initial for both of us…saved us more expenditures. When giving the guy/girl that we gave the cards to, we wrote a discount on the back or a short note in handwriting or printing. That gave them a personal touch, and hopefully will remember us when they needed some work or speed parts. We decided that our family name did not need to be on the card or business. People knew us and what we did or could do for them. Plus, there were some connotations to having a name on a card and not telling people what was the main source of business it was. We got a small business license and with that, a number that allowed us to offer discounts to our friends. The state license number also was good in sending a letter to the people and companies that made stuff we wanted to buy at our shop discount prices. We were able to buy at our shop discount, sell to others and make some money in our transactions. Sometimes it had nothing to do with a custom engine, but a set of Moon Discs or a valve cover that was hard to replace, etc. Our friends knew we would try to get what they needed and save them a little cash in the transaction. For us, it was fun and exciting, but not the main thing going on in our lives. We had to finish high school and college as promised to our parents. So, that put a dent into the continuation of our speed shop/engine building business. Luckily, we did meet some great industry people when we went to pick up “stuff” at their businesses. We actually got on an original early speed shop list of businesses that morphed into the early SEMA before all of the big time stuff. If anyone finds that original list with our names on it, please contact me ASAP.
The Jalopy Journal
