What Is In A Name?

To know me is to understand that I love history.  I also very much enjoy the community in which our family has lived for nearly twenty years now.  These things influenced the selection of the name for the Shade’s Mills Group.

It is not an easy thing to come up with a business name!

A search of online articles suggested that using your own name or initials is typically not a good idea. I thought I would really like to come up with something that connected my business to my local community. A search of names utilizing Cambridge, Grand River or even Galt showed that many variants on these options were already in use.

Before Cambridge was formed through amalgamation in 1973, there were the original communities of Preston, Hespeler and Galt. Galt was originally founded as Shade’s Mills.

In 1816, Robert Dickson hired Absalom Shade to manage his lands along the Grand River. Shade built a mill, distillery and a general store where Mill Creek joined the Grand River. Around Shade’s buildings a community began to spring up. This community was known as Shade’s Mills until it was renamed Galt in honour of John Galt and the Canada Company.

I liked the idea of connecting my business to Shade’s Mills. The mills built by Absalom Shade were to support local businesses and farms along the Grand River and disrupt the flow of commerce out of the region to other business centres. In the Shade’s Mills Group, you can find world class business management, sales and strategy insights based right here in Cambridge!

There is yet another personal connection for me to the name Shade’s Mills and that is the Shade’s Mills Conservation area which is part of the Grand River Conservation Authority. The conservation area is within walking distance of my home and its trails are a favourite locale for my morning walks!

Put all of this together and the name “Shade’s Mills Group” just seemed to really fit.