I love your name! Where did you get ‘Rhubarb’ from? These are a few comments I’ve had since going live with my baby, my business, my website. I do love the name and had put a lot of thought into it. But in itself didn’t think it was a very interesting story, until my, very wise, sister-in-law suggested that I walk the talk and tell my brand story!!!

Anyway, while I was tentatively stepping towards my own business, what shape it might take and where I wanted it to go of course the fun bit was finding a name! For ease of registering I registered my company name in my actual name Jessica A. Jenkins, then I can own that space and pivot, evolve (all those buzzwords) and switch the trading name if I needed to.

I went through a number of iterations, and explorations. I love alliteration for the way it rolls off your tongue (check out my name, Jessica Jenkins…), and forms a word picture in my mind. But with a couple rolling around, they were a little too narrow and would have forced me into committing the business in one direction. Using my name was an option, but I, personally, feel more comfortable keeping these entities together but apart. I am my business, but my business is not me.

So… whilst whipping up my winter wonder stewed fruit of choice I was feeling ‘creative’ and starting playing with the words. This stewed fruit is rhubarb, tamarillo and raspberries. I’ll post a recipe soon! All of these words are wonderful, they roll and rumble and tumble off the tongue. I toyed with Rhubarb & Tamarillo or Rhubarb & Raspberries (alliteration anyone?) but again posed a couple issues with spelling and possibly too limiting. And as I played with seeing if the company names were available in New Zealand through Onecheck I decided that I liked Rhubarb & Co. (the full stop is important). There was a joy and creative feel to the name, with room to roam, pivot and grow as I needed.

I also liked that Rhubarb is a fairly inedible, and horrid vegetable when raw, but cooked with some good friends (vanilla, custard, lemon, sugar, tamarillo, ginger or raspberries) and maybe made into crumble or pie or tart and it is this beautiful, bright and tart flavour that isn’t really like anything else. Just like all of us, a little flavour from those around us can lift us to another level!

The word ‘rhubarb’ is just so English… it is delightful in it’s spelling with a silent ‘h’ and the feel of the word in your mouth. The English puddings it conjurs up in my mind. All of this is perfect for my business of ‘words’ and content. To add to this, recently my mother-in-law said she remembered ‘to rhubarb’ was a term ‘back in the day’. A little gentle Googling and I discovered that ‘rhubarb’ is also the noise made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’. Now that is an interesting word…

And leading on from this it has been used in the form of ‘nonsense’ it was all rhubarb, about me, about her daughter, about art.

So that is my brand name story, the journey to me launching my business is another story, which I will unpack at another time. When given the time and space to explore these stories really do tell themselves, and add a personal layer to a business. After all, who do people buy from? But other people.

I won’t (and can’t) hide from the fact that in terms of finding my company on google is going to be an SEO challenge. There is a dog food company in the UK with the name Rhubarb & Co which pops up (not easily confused with me) and of course rhubarb has fabulous coverage in it’s own right. It’s a challenge but one I’m up for, and willing to work at as I’ve now bought into Rhubarb & Co.

I love it! It all adds to the threads that form my gorgeous brand story and how Rhubarb & Co. came about. If you want help telling your brand story let me know.

Jess x