In the past twelve years I have attended many business networking groups and get invited to many as well. I enjoy going to new groups with the possibility of meeting new people and reuniting with ones from my past.
This summer, my Facebook company page got a message from a familiar name, although I couldn’t place them at the time. “Hi, it would be lovely to see you at our networking event. It’s 12-2pm on 14th July or 28th July at Stoke Rochford Hall. It’s 50% business and 50% social with all sorts of different business owners attending.” It continued with more information that I’ve left out. I was busy at the time and forgot about it.
I later went back to the message to respond and realized I didn’t know this person or Stoke Rochford Hall. I researched the location and the person and discovered they are a little bit further than I was willing to travel for a networking event. We messaged back and forth and I let them know I was in the US and as I suspected – they were not. They lived near Grantham, Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom and saw my business name and assumed my business was named for where I reside. We had a good laugh and I realized having an English last name also confused another chap from the UK who says I won an award there. The award plaque was available to me to be paid in English pounds.
Has your business name ever confused someone?