Ok, a little history here.

Wink Design Group started out as "W'Ink Stationery"... as in, "wedding ink". I thought it was cute at the time, and hadn't planned to incorporate all of my skills together. When I decided to go out on my own with florals, and back to gowns after a hiatus.. I dropped the apostrophe and "Wink" became "Design Group".. for the various offerings.

The business evolved, and with the fairly recent addition of cakes to the lineup, I've been doing some thinking. I'm not sure how much my current business name speaks to people. It's not neccessarily weddingy, it's not individually related to any one of the products/services in particular.

Next week will be key in the development of my business. From everything I've been hearing from various venues, caterers, and brides, I need to prepare myself for the possibility of huge changes to my business - mainly, that cakes will become the focus, with all else secondary. In the short time I've been doing this, I've been shocked at how quickly the cakes have eclipsed everything else.

I am seriously considering running the cakes as a separate business entirely now. Re brand, re-image, have it's own site.. the whole thing. I can also offer them through the existing business, should anyone find me through old ads.

"Wink", as a name, has never been anything really personal or close to my heart at all - it was just a cute name that would describe what I was doing at the time, later altered to be more 'catch-all". I have a name in mind that would be more meaningful to me, project more of an events-oriented image, and fits in with my idea that I should have more of my personality come through in my work, business image, etc. I think, to date, it's been a little generic.

So, my options are:

1 - Stay as Wink. One business, same name.

2 - Keep Wink, start cakes as something else. Eventually phase Wink out if everything is as everyone else seems to think it will be. Wouldn't be expensive, and if I do it now, it'll avoid hassle down the line.

3 - Rebrand Wink entirely, under the new name. (With the ads and promotional materials I currently have now, this would be a financially painful option!)

I'm all for the solution that's not too expensive and involves the least amount of pain. IMO you should start up the cake business separately. If the cake business takes over, it will be easier to shut down the other part without disrupting the cake portion. but that's just my opinion

I'm leading towards that one.

Not getting as much feedback on this as I was hoping for.. I've really got to figure out what I'm doing with it. I went ahead and registered a proper domain for it, "just in case". LOL.

I'm waiting to hear back from a former client of mine - she's the one that inspired me to go for this, and she married a marketing man Explained the whole thing to her, including the name I've been thinking of and the full reasoning why... waiting to hear back from that.

If anyone else has any feedback.. lay it on me. Where's IndiDeb???

I agree with the pp.

If it were me, I'd just make the cakes a separate business. Seems that you've already established "Wink" so I wouldn't change that. Adding the cakes should just be a seperate business.

You could also link both sites on each website. Like have a link to "Wink" on your cake website and vice versa.

That's my two cents at least.

I agree with the other posters--make the cakes a separate business. Each business should focus on a core competency. It'll make each business easier to market, and easier to sell should you ever decide to. I wouldn't rebrand Wink, as you've invested considerable time, effort, and money creating that brand. Just make a new brand for your cakes, and use Wink to promote it.

Ok. I added the new name to my existing business tax #, registered it with the state, am adding it to my food handling license... registered the domain and parked a temporary page there - www.celebrationgeneration.com ... been a busy couple of hours, LOL.

ps: that domain may not work for everyone, it's that new!