We need a name for our consulting business. Help!

With names, you really need to start with the end in mind.  What is your grand plan for the business?

• Sell it eventually.
• Just have the business for a few years until you’ve worked out what you want to do longer term.
• Be consulting in your business until you retire.

If you think you’d like to sell it, then you’d be much better calling it something like “The art of consulting” whereas if you are planning to work in it until you retire you could go with something like “Bunny Consulting” – assuming that your name is Easter Bunny!

Once you’ve worked out your end game, then it comes down to…

Is your name:

• Too long?
• Too hard to pronounce for customers?
• Too hard to spell? Will you be spelling it every time you tell anyone your business name.
• Available as a domain name? (For example, www.bunnyconsulting.com and if it is it a .com or a .com.au or a .org etc?  What image do you want to project for your business will help you decide which ending you think you need.
• Available on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc – if you are into social networking, or want to use that as a way to promote your business.
• Is your name available to be registered as a business name, or has someone else got it?
• You also might need to look at what your competitors are called.

Also you will need to think about where you are planning to do business. I had to go with a new .com domain name for my business when I wanted to get into the US market, as a .com.au they just didn’t recognise and kept leaving off the .au when typing it in! 

Finally you need to be happy with the name. Will you be proud to say “Hello my name is Easter from Bunny Consulting” or will you be thinking it’s an embarrassing name?  The best thing is to brainstorm with friends and family, and if possible try to make your name mean something to you. Then when you become rich and famous it makes a good story!

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com and author of Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

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