Owners use wordplay in naming businesses

Some names are suited to the job.

Take Missouri State University President Clif Smart or Missouri Spirits co-owner Scott Shotts, for example. They’re monikers that hint toward a deeper connection between the professional and their trade, and each seems equally appropriate as a play on words.

And some jobs are suited to the owner’s name – when they have a little fun in the naming process.

Take Austin Butcher, an 18-year-old Kickapoo High School senior who recently registered his lawn care company as The Lawn Butcher. The name, he said, came to him years before he ever thought about filing for a business license.

“I kind of like it, there’s a little joke in there,” Butcher said.

While the teenage sole proprietor also does trimming and fertilizing for residential lawns in Springfield, Nixa and Ozark – as well as church properties like South Fremont Free Will Baptist – mowing is Butcher’s primary trade.

Butcher has been cutting grass for a third of his life.

“I actually had a mower and a trailer before I ever had a vehicle,” he said. “I started when I was about 12 and would have my parents drive me.”

Initials and signatures, like names, can be a source of inspiration. Roughly 28 years ago, the autograph of James Montgomery Jr. inspired the name of his company, JMark Business Solutions Inc. Montgomery’s signature, referred to by friends as the “J mark,” struck a chord. Today, it identifies an information technology business, now run by President and CEO Thomas Douglas, that last year posted $15 million in revenue.

Names don’t always chart the course.

Ferrell-Duncan Clinic physician Dr. Albert Bonebrake, for instance, works in gynecologic oncology, as opposed to orthopedics.

Then, there are those business titles born more naturally, as clear descriptors of ownership and nothing more. That’s the case for Carolyn Ahart, who co-owns Ahart Dancing with husband Tony.

“If you give it a double meaning that would be fine, but it’s just our last name,” Carolyn Ahart said, noting while the couple is passionate about their round-dance craft, the appellation just happens to be a natural coincidence.

Round dancing is a form of ballroom similar to square dancing, with dancers synchronizing steps in a circle and the Aharts serving as “cuers” rather than the “callers” in square dancing.

Part of the city of Springfield’s recreation program, the Aharts teach weekly lessons at the Northview Center, 301 E. Talmage St., priced at $4 per person. They also host a quarterly dance called a Twirl-a-Round for larger crowds.

“People come from Joplin, St. Louis, Waynesville and Eureka Springs [Ark.],” Ahart said. “We draw from a big area because there are not many cuers in southern Missouri.”

The professional rarity also keeps the couple on the road, and by year’s end they’re scheduled to attend 11 festivals in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma cuing and putting on round dancing workshops.

Judging by names alone, it seems Derek Lawyer’s new company DLaw Enterprises, is in the legal practice. In reality, Lawyer said it’s intended to reflect his varied business interests.

“I wanted a name where if I did have a wild idea, I could pursue it and wouldn’t be tied down to one thing,” Lawyer said of “Enterprises.”

He’s starting out in landscaping. DLaw Enterprises specializes in residential landscaping – mowing, leaf removal and brush hog work – throughout Greene County and extending to Billings and Ash Grove. But another of his ideas is subleasing semitrailers to transportation management company Landstar Systems Inc.

Then there’s gold mining. The hobby that started as a longtime family activity of panning and prospecting while on vacation in Montana still holds Lawyer’s interest – now as a business venture.

“We were going to buy claims and work them,” he said. “You have to have good access to water, and the creeks up there freeze in the winter. Now that summer is close, we’ll probably revert back to that.”

Did he ever think about law school?

“I get asked that all the time,” Lawyer said, noting an uncle in his family was a practicing attorney, but they didn’t share surnames.

“I kind of wish I was, I might make a little more money.”