Picking a Killer Name isn't Rocket Science
A good business name is like a good pair of undies; it should fit, it should be comfortable and it shouldn’t hang you up.
Finding a name isn’t a process that should take a long time. You have more important things to do. Like make money.
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1. Sit down at a computer. You’re going to need a little help from the internet, here.
- If your business will involve the internet in any significant way, you need to find an available web address. Go to Godaddy and type in the names you want in their Domain Name Search field. Right there on Godaddy is the best place to devise a name since any name you come up with that’s not available is a waste of time. Though it’ll take some creativity, you probably want a dot-com name instead of a dot-net or dot-org name. If there’s another dot-com name out there that’s the same as yours, confusion will cost you money. Remember, this is ONLY if your business will involve the internet in a significant way. But there aren’t too many businesses that don’t involve the internet these days. If someone else owns the domain name, even if they’re not using it, remember that it’s a giant pain in the butt to buy a domain – and people usually ask too much money for them. You’re better off coming up with a more creative, and available, name.
- Once you think you’ve found a name, don’t buy it just yet. Go to Google and search for “(insert your state’s name) business name check.” Like "California business name check." This will allow you to see if there’s another business that shares your name within your state. If you’re planning to go national, that’s a little tougher. If you have the web address, there’s a pretty good chance the name’s yours nationally.
- You may also want to check with the US Patent and Trademark Office, just to be on the safe side. Visit the Trademark Office online and run your name. If it's clear, you're probably good to go.
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2. Sit down with your friends. I highly recommend that you build a BRAINTRUST for matters such as these. There’s nothing better than draining the brains of your friends and family when it comes to choosing a name. If you’ve done your job above, you’ll have several potential names. Run those past your BFFs and see what they say. The best approach I’ve found is to use email. Here’s a sample email letter you may want to use:
3. Once you get your emails back from your friends and family, add up all the scores and divide them by the number of people who replied. Don’t be upset if a couple of them don’t read your instructions and they fail to give you one-to-ten ratings. That’ll always happen. Just try to fit their responses into your matrix as best you can.
4. Check out your front-runners and take your pick. Remember, picking a name isn’t actually all that important. You can get hung up on the process for far too long – it happens all the time. Blaze through this and get your business going.
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Here are a few tips about picking an ideal name:
- Make sure the name clearly indicates what you do. Don’t be mysterious with your name selection. If you do home repair, don’t call your business “Home Wizards.” It’s not clear enough. Call it “Wizard’s Home Repair” instead. Or don’t call it anything with the word “Wizard,” better yet.
- Make sure your name is easy to spell. If you use words like “authentic” or “Einstein” in your name, be prepared for fifteen different spellings of your name. A hard-to-spell name can be a real buzz-kill if you’re an internet business and people are expected to look you up by punching in your web address.
- It’s nice to have a clever name, but it’s not required. If it takes you a month to come up with a clever name, then it’s not worth it. If you can make a bunch of calls to friends and come up with some swarthy cleverness in a single evening, then go for it.
- Make sure your name isn’t easily swapped around. If you’re called “Agency of Psychadelic Hydroponics” you can expect to be called “Psychadelic Hydroponics Agency.” And you can also expect a visit from the police. People will swap the words of your name around if there’s any possibility whatsoever. If you’re really smart, you’ll pick up the web addresses for all versions of your name – correct and confused.
- Acronyms aren’t bad, so long as they’re not bad. If you name your company Law Offices for Consumer Affairs, as I once did, you can expect people to call you “LOCA” which is Spanish for crazy woman. Make sure you can live with your acronym especially if your name is long. Also, try to get the acronym website address.
- If you use your name in the business name, that can make it hard to sell at some later date. It’s hard to imagine your little, bitty business selling someday, but that’s the American Dream. Naming the business after yourself, such as “Gertrude Bender Masonry” will make it tougher for someone to buy your biz after it’s a multi-million dollar masonry corporation. Also, when anyone calls pissed off, they’ll ask for “Gertrude.” It’s not always a good idea to name a business after yourself.{jcomments on}
