We’ve covered the services you plan on offering your clients so the next obvious step is to choose your company name. In Biblical times parents would choose their baby’s name based on the qualities they wished him to have or the purpose he was to have in life. The underlying meaning would remain with the baby for the rest of his life. The name you finally choose for your business should also reflect the business’ mission statement or purpose (think about the services you offer or your product). Aside from that, the name should be easy for your clients to remember.
You’ll need to brainstorm to come up with a name that best identifies your business and your personality. Take a sheet of paper and write down the first names that come to mind. Perhaps you can use a Thesaurus to come up with similar keywords to convey your message. Is it a good idea to choose a name whose initial letter is high up in the alphabet? Many go down this route as many directories list companies in alphabetical order and they wish to appear near the beginning of the listing and in so doing be viewed by more potential clients than those businesses whose name begins with the letter S for example.
Others like to incorporate their name or initials in their business name making it all the more personal and relatable to you. Mix and match the words on your list, playing around with mottos or saying involving your keywords. Try to come up with words that best express the benefits your clients should expect upon contracting your services and then personalize those words.
Think about who your business is aimed at. Are your clients mainly English-speaking or do you hope to work with a range of nationalities? If this is the case, your name should be easy for non-English speakers to pronounce and remember. Is it likely you’ll be forever asked to spell out the name? If that is a possibility, skip that idea as it’s obviously not the right way to go.
After you are happy with your potential business name, it may be a good idea to do some research to see whether said name is already registered locally or even further a field if you plan on working globally. You may opt to register your business name as per your country’s laws and regulations. Most countries work under the general premise of registering limited companies with the Central Mercantile Registry office so you must follow their guidelines in order to legally register your company. If you are an individual business owner, you would normally work under your name for tax purposes but that doesn’t stop you from having a commercial name. This requires a different type of registry that can either be limited to your area, your country or continent. I would recommend contacting a local business consultant to get all the facts about how to go about registering your name as the procedure will vary from country to country.
Next, test your name out on friends and family to see what image they get when they hear it. Is the message you want to convey understood? Do you have to explain what your company does or is it easily recognized by your name? Are they inspired by it? Is it catchy? If the answer to these questions is a resounding YES, the feedback you get is positive and you’re certain that this is the name for you, you’re ready to shout it out to the world.
This name will become your business identity so put it out there as much as possible. The same brainstorming methods can be employed for your company slogan or catchphrase. Use it on your business cards, flyers, advertising, website, email etc as this way it will be easily remembered and directly linked to you.
Stand out from the crowd and market a memorable, unique and meaningful name. Promote it like crazy and in time you’ll find that your business name will be instantly recognized especially on a local scale and will become a synonym for all that you stand for.
In my next post we’ll take a look into how to market your business and what strategies may be useful for you. Stay tuned…