Business & Finance

Your Company Name Can Make or Break You

By MartinZwilling

12 months ago

Read more: startup, marketing, entrepreneur, company name

First things first – your startup needs a name! This may seem a silly and frivolous task, but it may be the most important decision you make. The name of your business has a tremendous impact on how customers and investors view you, and in today’s small world, it’s a world-wide decision.

I’ll offer here a few key considerations when choosing a name for your company.

1. Make sure the name is available. This may sound obvious, but a miss here will cost you dearly. Your company name and Internet domain name should probably be the same, so check out your preferred names with your State Incorporation site, Network Solutions for the domain name, and the U.S. Patent Office for Trademarks.

2.Unique and unforgettable. In the trade, this is called “stickiness.” But the issue of stickiness turns out to be kind of, well, sticky. Every company wants a name that stands out from the crowd, a catchy handle that will remain fresh and memorable over time. Yet such names are hard to find, especially because naming trends change -- often year by year (remember the dot.coms).

3.Easily spelled out. When creating a name, stay with words that can easily be spelled by customers. Some business owners try unique word spellings to make their business stand out, but this can be trouble when customers ‘Google’ your business to find you, or try to refer you to others. Stay with traditional word spelling, and avoid those catchy words that you love to explain at cocktail parties.

4.Keep it simple. Forget made-up words and quirky nonsense. Make your business name short so customers can pronounce and remember it easily. Skip the acronyms, which mean nothing to most people. When choosing an identity for a company or a product, simple and straightforward are back in style, and cost less to brand.

5.Make some sense. Occasionally, business owners will choose names that are nonsense words. Quirky names (Yahoo, Google, Fogdog) or trademark-proof monikers concocted from scratch (Novartis, Aventis, Lycos) are a big risk. Always check the international implications. More than one company has been embarrassed by a new name that had negative and even obscene connotations in another language.

6. Give a clue. Try to include in your business name some information about what your business does. Calling your light fixture business “Rise and Shine” is appropriate, but the same name would not do well for tow truck business. Your business name should match your business in order to remind customers what services you provide.

7. Don't box yourself in. Avoid picking names that don't allow your business to move around or add to its product line. This means staying away from adding geographic locations or product types to your business name. With these additions, customers will be confused if you expand your business to different locations or add on to your product line.

8. Sample potential customers. Come up with a few different name choices and try them out on potential customers, investors, and co-workers. Skip your family and friends who know too much. Ask questions about the names to see if they give off the impression you desire.

If you want more, you should know that there are many dedicated firms, like Igor and A Hundred Monkeys, that can relieve you of $1M of your hard-earned funds to come up with just the right appellation. Hmmm. I wonder how much they spent on their own names?

Marty Zwilling, Founder & CEO, Startup Professionals, Inc.

This was originally published here

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