A name to remember

The period after the dot com collapse and 9/11 attacks was a highpoint in new businesses starting up with more people choosing to go it alone than ever before. Much of it was possibly necessity – after being laid off you have a couple of ways to go. You can get on the bandwagon and start looking for your next gig, or get off it and do your own thing.

I see the same thing happening right now. People taking their severance checks and deciding to take that long dreamt step off the cliff and into starting their own business. And along with that leap comes the question that has the power to keep you up nights and drive you and those around you to distraction…

What should I call my new business?

When I started my first business (what seems like eons ago), the name was the product of Shorter Oxford Dictionary, a game of Scrabble and more than a few bottles of red wine. And while the business and the name it carried didn’t set the world on fire, it did serve its purpose – being memorable and a bit distinctive. However, I wouldn’t recommend this as the best route to your business name.

Many years and several more businesses along, I have learned a few things about naming, both from experience with my own endeavours but also in the work I do for others.

Whether you give your business your own name, or go searching through the Latin dictionary for one of the few terms still unused, or channel Lewis Carrol and start inventing words, naming a business can quickly take on mythic proportions. So in an effort to cut the task down to size, here are just a few obvious but important questions to consider as you get started.

(NOTE: For the most part, these also apply if you are renaming an existing business.)

• Does anyone else have the name you want (or anything that could be considered too close for comfort)? Sounds like a no brainer, but there is nothing worse than having to explain every time you say who you are, that you are not that other guy who sounds like you. Not to mention the problems of even registering a business name that is within cooee of sounding like a perceived or real competitor. Do a bit of research before you start and save yourself the headaches.
• Can I get the URL in some form (and if it is taken, who has it)? Finding a URL that is not taken can feel a bit like mining for that last bit of gold. But take heart, surprisingly, there are still good URL’s available out there. How important is it that the URL match your company name? Depends a bit on what business you are in (among other factors too numerous to cover here). If your website IS your business then I would say it’s just about the most important thing.
•  If it has multiple words, what is the abbreviated form? The only thing certain about multiple word names is that they WILL get shortened to an acronym. Count on it. So better make sure you can live with whatever it is before it happens (SEX is great but unless you are an adult entertainment business it is not an acronym you want to be stuck with).
•  Do you want it to be literal or lateral? There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Literal names make it easy for everyone to know what you do but are usually correspondingly a bit – well dull – and can be almost impossible to inject with any kind of pizzazz (think ANZ Bank or really any bank). Lateral names have loads of personality but it can take a lot of time, energy and dollars to build awareness (think Apple, Nike, Starbucks). Truth be told most business names will fall somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. Be aware of what you are getting into and choose according to how you want to expend your energy and the impression you want to give.
• What business are you in and who are your customers? You might like have a renegade streak a mile wide and correspondingly want a business name that goes along with it, but what will your customers think? That’s not to say you shouldn’t give in, just know that people do often judge a book by its cover and the title is a big part of that.

  Too many people just pluck a name our of the air and then find a few years down the track that it just doesn’t cut it anymore, or worse that it has become a barrier to growth and progress for the business. So the best piece of advice I can give is to make your business name a conscious choice not a spur of the moment whim.

To help get you started here are a few links:

Business Name Register

ASCI Business Name Register

State Registration of Business Names

Trademark Database

URL Search or another URL Search option

Be deliberate and happy hunting.

See you next week when I will explore the relationship between your business name and your Brand.

Alignment is Michel’s passion. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia, and Brand Alignment Group in the United States, she helps organisations align who they are, with what they do and say to build more authentic and sustainable brands.

To see more Michel Hogan blogs, click here.