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Comment by paulcole | Hacker News Reader

My brother did this with lawn care and HVAC companies. The first business lesson he learned was never name your business after yourself. He was about 16 when he learned this and ever since it’s been like AAA Lawn Care or Aces HVAC until he gets so many negative reviews he can’t get more business.

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So lesson of the story, avoid the AAA named companies because they've been in the respawning business for a long time

Nah, back in the old days A1 Locksmith or AAA Windshields were just competing for top placement in the (alphabetized) phone book.

Look to Amazon for new ideas on DGA-derived names for your fly-by-night business.

A lot of cowboys used AAA-Something to bring in rubes.

And now AI-Something.

That's why Asus isn't called Pegasus.

The lesson is that hiring "ZZZ Lawn Care" is a really bad idea.

This was a plot point in The Accountant starring Ben Affleck.

He’s a criminal who launders money through small businesses he owns and the accounting firm he runs. He names it ZZZ Accounting so it doesn’t get a lot of calls through people looking up accountants in phone book.

Or at least the ZZZ corps if they made it that far down the alphabet.

Your brother is the hero this world deserves. And this is why I generally trust only those small businesses who have their full real name on display.

When he was a teenager and had a business under his own name he’d get in trouble sometimes because he’d close all the deals himself then hire other kids to go out and do the work.

Some homeowners thought it was going to be him cutting their lawns and would get upset because the contract said he’d do it. So he’d just rip up the contract in front of them and refuse to cut their lawn ever again.

In Florida there were so many houses with lawns in so many subdivisions he was always busy anyway. Plus he liked getting into fights with adults. Win win, I guess.

You're assuming it's their real name...

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