Serving business owners since 2007
Tips & Advice on How To Name Your New Business
Our top 5 tips for creating the perfect business name now
Launching any new business can be a daunting challenge filled with difficult hurdles and stressful conditions, even in the best of business climates. From defining your product or service to producing, marketing and selling your product while developing customer loyalty—carving out your specific business niche can be an all-consuming drain on your time and energy.
One seemingly obvious but often overlooked aspect of any business launch, however, is creating the best possible business name for your business’s future.
Yet this basic step can help drive all your marketing and branding efforts and have a significant impact on your future business’s success. A weak, confusing or ill-defined business name, on the other hand, may not only fail to locate, create or connect with your customer base, but it could even result in counter-productive legal battles.
In order to sidestep these easily avoidable pitfalls and capitalize on the best business name for your particular market and brand future, here are our
Top 5 tips for naming your business:
1. Simple is strong (and catchy wordplay is good)
Simplicity is key to every strong business name. You want your name to be easy to read and remember.This name should also clearly define both your present and future brand. Choosing a name that creatively uses effective wordplay can also score big.
2. Connect your business name with your domain name
Along with creating your business’s name, choosing the right domain name for your business is a crucial step. When transforming your business name into an easily memorable domain name, include 2 simple features:
- A search-friendly domain name
- A business brand identity
And remember that with domain names, you won’t need to focus on correct spellings—think Digg or Flickr.
Also, don’t allow yourself to become paralyzed by the idea that you need to create a dot.com domain to achieve business success. While there’s nothing wrong with choosing a dot.com domain name from the start, many successful brands have started with a clear and descriptive name and then later explored an actual dot.com identity after they gained online traction.
3. Start slow with a pro (hurried work can be worried work)
Creating your first, best and only business name may seem overwhelming at first. This is one reason you may want to consult a business name generating site/service. There are a number of sites like Eat My Words, Looka and Namelix which can help you come up with simple, short and effectively user-friendly names for your business simply by entering a few of your own specific keywords.
Getting your business off the ground can be stressful enough without the burden of overthinking this critical initial step.
4. Research, check and double-check
Okay, you cleared your first hurdle and selected your best business name or at least narrowed it down to a very short list. Before diving into the online ocean of the internet, remember to check if your business’s name is already in use.
This research should be a matter of a quick search engine check, which will help establish if there are any similar businesses or websites currently using your new business name. Make sure to expand your search to include both local and international options. Also, be sure to include your national government website (.gov) in your online search when rechecking your business name’s viability.
5. Take time to test (and think big picture with maximum diversity)
Congrats! You’ve created your best business name—it’s user-friendly, Google-grabby and available for use globally, so you’re almost ready to launch.
Another step to consider before you hit the official launch button is beta testing your new business’s name with a carefully selected focus group. This step doesn’t need to be overly complex or time consuming.
Some options that may help provide valuable and immediate feedback include:
- Utilizing your existing network
- Creating a social media survey/questionnaire
- Feedback from family and friends
Questions to ask may include:
- Is our name easy to read and remember?
- Is our name easy to spell and search?
- Does our name effectively define what it is we’re offering?
Also, consider one final online search to uncover any possible negative linguistic or cultural meanings that may be inadvertently associated with your name (names which work on a national level can often have a completely different or even opposite meaning in a different language or national culture).
It’s time to make your move
Your business’s future is bright, and now is the time to make your move! You’re about to take one small step for your company, and one giant leap for your business’s future!
