Whether you're starting a consulting business, or investing in a business opportunity that allows you to operate under your own brand, choosing a name for your new venture is important. After all, the name IS the company, will inevitable provide your potential customer with a first impression of your business and services, and it will be your trademark and brand.
When starting a company and needing a name, you have two choices: come up with one on your own or hire a naming firm.
A naming firm will save you time and a great deal of legwork. However, if you have the ability, time and motivation to research and choose your own company name, you'll save yourself quite a bit of money.
The pivotal first step is brainstorming, as Entrepreneur states "the more minds, the merrier." Have your friends, colleagues and partners join you in coming up with words that describe your business. Use all points of reference (think thesauruses, dictionaries, etc.) to come up with as many words as you can.
When listing words that will help you choose your name, consider your services, your customer, your industry and your competitors. Once you've got a full list of name-generating words, start matching them up and putting them together. Pull a solid number of names together that you like and think will portray your services well (5 - 10 is a good goal), then follow Eat My Words' "Smile & Scratch" test. According to EMW your company's name should make you "smile, not scratch your heads"! (Heed their advice, they've come up with some pretty nifty names).
SMILE - qualities of a powerful name
Simple – one easy-to-understand concept
Meaningful – your customers instantly "get it"
Imagery – visually evocative - creates a mental picture
Legs – carries the brand, lends itself to wordplay
Emotional – empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens
SCRATCH it off the list if it has any of these deal-breakers
Spelling-challenged – you have to tell people how to spell it
Copycat – similar to competitor's names
Random – disconnected from the brand
Annoying – hidden meaning, forced
Tame – flat, uninspired, boring, non-emotional
Curse of Knowledge – only insiders get it
Hard-to-pronounce – not obvious, relies on punctuation
Basically...don't make your potential customers think too hard about the name. Make it easy for them to refer you, your company and your website. Make sure YOU'RE passionate about it; if you're not, how do you expect your customer to be?
After you choose a name you love, it passes the Smile & Scratch test and is available for your use, get on trademarking it, buying the domain names and starting your business!
Learn more about this with the Business Name Gereator at Avsam.
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