Naming Your Business Can Have a Big Impact on Its Future
Naming your business is a crucial step toward ensuring the success of your new enterprise. You want a name that readily defines your brand’s identity, as well as one that is easy to remember and understand. Your business name can be one of your biggest marketing tools.
Naming Your Business: First Steps
Start by brainstorming. Write down adjectives and words that describe what you do. As well, think of your core values, and key attributes you want customers to think of when they see your name. You can even jot down things you like – colors, concepts, interests – to personalize your business.
Once you have a list, pull out the thesaurus and look for new words related to the ones you’ve written down. They could lead you in an entire new direction. You might even consider inventing a new word by blending syllables from relevant words.
You can also try the Google Keyword Planner. Type in your business category and see what potential customers actually search for most on the Internet when it comes to your type of company.
What to Avoid
Avoid names that are hard to spell or include non-standard spellings of words. Those can make you hard to find. Skip names that are hard to say. Avoid names that are limiting. That means things like trendy buzzwords that may age out of style. Or words that tie you to a single product or geographical location (this can limit you when you want to expand).
And stay away from names that offend. Also avoid names that mean something entirely different in another language.
Naming Your Business: Next Steps
Don’t choose a favorite yet. Do an Internet search on your top candidates. Make sure someone else isn’t using the name already. You’ll also want to check with the Washington state Secretary of State’s office to see if another company has claimed the name first. You can also search the USPTO database[https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search] to see if a name is already trademarked.
Check to see if the internet domain with your name is available. And you should aim for .com (instead of .net or .biz) to make yourself easy to find. Similarly, look on social media to see if the handle is already in use.
Once you’ve pared down the list, ask your friends and business associates which ones they like or find most memorable.
When you’ve got a winner, grab that domain name, register with the state and hang up your sign!
Links
Canva has an AI-based business name generator that’s free.
Lastly, you can learn more about our services here!
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