Creating a new business start by choosing a good business name. This is one of the steps entrepreneur spend time with to define the right name that tells what the business is all about.
For some startups, this step is easy since the business has already the same name as the product. For others, this step is one of the most challenging and time consuming.
Finding a great name can increase your business success if it resonates with your audience. In the other hand, if your business name isn’t catchy enough, it can have a negative effect and make your business hard to stand up, which will cost you time and money to get customers against your competitors.
Why Choosing A Good Business Name Is Important
Choosing a business name that resonates with your audience save you money, because you don’t have to spend on advertising to explain what your business do. A good name will also put your business above competitors, help you get new customers and grow quickly.
A great name can help also push your business to the next level. In other hand, a bad name will break your business and take it to failure. So, what are the best strategies to find a great business name ? In this post we are going to give you many tips you can use to avoid making any mistake, and select the best name for your business.
Choose A Name For YOUR Business
Finding a great name for a business need a rational thinking. Because your business name will stick with you for very long time. Take your time to choose the very best one, before to start using any name and ruin your brand before to born.
You may like a specific name, but this name may not fit with your business. Choosing a name that reflect your business identity, will help your marketing strategy and make you successful. Below are tips to consider when choosing the right name.
Easy To Say And Spell
Choosing an easy name to pronounce and write is the most important point to consider. Making your customers love your business and find it easy to write your domain name and visit your website. Use a dictionary when looking and listing potential names for your business, will help you avoid strange names putting your clients in uncomfortable situations, making them avoid talking about your business, and talk to others for your business.
More important is to choose the name that identify your brand and what your business is all about. Even though, big brands usually use an abstract words like Apple, Google, McDonalds, HP, IBM, Uber, where it’s hard to figure out what the business do without them marketing their business, which made them spend a lot of money. But It’s a good idea for startups to use a name that reflect what the business do, like Toys Rus and General Electric.
This will make you save a lot of money, since the name is self-explanatory. However, if you have a very long term vision like all big brands, you can use an abstract or your own name if it’s fit your brand identity.
Keep It Simple
Always choose a name that is not too long or complicated. It should sound pleasant, familiar and give a positive emotions. It needs to be easy to pronounce and remember. Whenever you need to explain the meaning of your business name, it’s not a good sign except if you already have a reputation and the name is super cool.
Scalable
Choose a name that can expand your business. If you are selling weight loss products and services, you may expand your business to yoga and fitness. If you name your business WeightLoss. This may force you to change your established name in the future to expand your business and add yoga and fitness, or even create a new business with a new name and restart again from the beginning.
In this case, you may choose a broad name in the same niche, it may be HappyHealthy name instead. This will give you a good chance to expand and add more sub-niches in the health niche.
Another issue you can have when choosing the business name, is to name it according to the location, it can be a country, a city. NewYorkCooking for example may work fine in New York, but if you want to expand in the future and open new stores in other locations, this can be an issue, except if you offer the best cooking ever in the world.
Using Your Own Name
Unless you are an established and well-known brand, avoid using your own name, because it doesn’t say anything about your business and what products and services you are offering to your customers. This may even cause problems if a famous person has the same name as yours.
This can also make you lose half customers who don’t like your name or your personality. More than that, this will bloc you for the future if you want to sell your business. The best is to separate yourself from your business.
However, if you are a coach offering a specific services to your customers, and want to keep this business relationship with your clients. This can be a good idea because people already like your name and your personality, they trust you and your experience. The worst may be to not use your name in your business, making your customers losing the interest and the trust.
Avoid Same Name As Competitors
Avoid choosing a similar name as other businesses, which is not good for your brand image. Your customers will confuse your business with your competition, making it more difficult for your business to stand up, especially if they offer better services than yours. In this case, you can end up making marketing for your competitor by giving your customers almost a same name as your competitor.
Avoid Using Acronyms
Many big companies use acronyms in their name, like HP, IBM, KFC and more. Because they are well established brands and are created many years ago, where not many businesses exist. Nowadays, there is millions of business, and many are already using acronyms. You have a good chance to have the same name as existing brand, making you not ranking well in google search.
When you start a business, your goal is to establish your brand using easy and understandable name. acronyms will only confuse your customers, making them avoid the unknown.
Use One Or More Words
One word is the best business name since it’s easy to remember, to spell, and usually acceptable easily by customers. However, finding a one word business these days is becoming harder since hundreds of new businesses are created every day. But it’s still possible by using some technics.
If you are looking for a new business name reflecting your brand, try to use one word name by changing a little bit the main word. Using Designrr instead of Designer, Shopify instead of Shopping, and Staar instead of Star. You can also use some suffixes at the end of the word, like “ly”, “fy”, “my” and so on.
You can however use more than one word, tow and three max. By doing so, you give more sense to your business name, like TechTerms and MailGenius. Three words can also work fine, like SetOnlineBusiness and InstantDomainSearch. Using more than three words can be hard to spell and remember. Because using two or three words will be easy to find a business name, no need to use more than three words.
Mix Words And Be Creative
A good way to create catchy and memorable business names, is to mix many words related to the service you’re offering. Doing that in a creative way, gives you a chance to find a good business name still available. Since all good names are already taken.
For example, the names GlobeNewsWire and FortuneBusinessInsights are a little bit long, but easy to pronounce and remember, as well as it gives the meaning of the business.
You can also mix half words or change a little bit of the main word, this will also help you find the best business name. For example, DropiSpy and Fiverr. If you try to use the original name, you have a good chance that the domain name is already taken, or the price is very expensive. Instead, use this tips to find the best name you are looking for.
Check If The Domain Name Is Available
All the technics and strategies to find the best business name is because you can’t use a name already taken. And almost all taken names has a domain name already taken as well. The domain name is one of the business pillars. You need a unique domain name to create your own website, social networks and be distinctive from your competitors.
To check if a domain name is available, the best and easy way is to open GoDaddy.com website, enter the business name you are looking to use and check if it’s available or already taken. If the name is not available, change a little bit your name to make it different from the competition.
You may need to try many names before to find the available best name for your business. Yes, finding the best business name is time consuming, but it’s worth it the time spent, since it can be your best friend and help you grow your business fast and get successful.
Check Social Media
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Tiktok and all other social media platforms are your best source of traffic to your website and business. Whether you use them for an organic traffic, or for paid and advertising, they are mandatory in your online business creation. Before to select your business name and start using it, check if the name is available on social media even though the domain is available.
Imagine someone have a well-known and established online business, but is using only social media and don’t have a domain name. This will be a big issue for your new business if you use the same business name. Again, take time to find the best and unique name before to start using it. Be open to change the business name from the origin idea, don’t let the name bloc you from starting your business.
Legal Considerations
Many things to check before considering picking up the perfect business name. Because millions of businesses have started many years ago, and some of them are protecting their name worldwide and countrywide, like Coca-Cola, no one in the world can use this name, because is Trademarked. In other word, the name is protected, and if someone try to use it, he/she will have a legal trouble.
Depend on the country you are, go to google and tape “trademark search”, look for many websites where you can have the free database of all registered businesses in the world.
One thing to take into consideration, even though the business name is not trademarked in the whole world and is available in your country, but the domain name should be already taken. Then, the best way to make sure the business name is available, is to check the domain name availability, by looking into GoDaddy.com.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a name can be challenging and time consuming, but it’s worth it the time you spend for your own business and financing freedom. Just follow the tips given in this article, choose your best name using one, two or three words, use also suffixes, this will help you a lot finding a short and nice name. You can also ask your family and friends, they may have a good idea and can help you out.
A business name maybe the first step in lunching your startup, when you get the name you are looking for, follow-up to the next steps and to get your domain name, register your business, create your logo, get your web hosting and create your own website, to bring your business to success.
At the end, I hope this tips will help you find your dreamed business name easily. I hope all success in your new business.
Please feel free to ask any question you may have, leave us a comment and share your experience below.
