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How to Choose the Perfect Business Name for Your Brand

How to Choose the Perfect Business Name for Your Brand
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One of the most crucial steps in starting a business is naming it–and a daunting one too. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in—if you work in an established company or a startup, getting and protecting your business name is critical for growing your brand and increasing value for your clients.

Not only does it help make it clear to potential customers what kind of company they’re buying from (and how they can work with them), but it also helps build trust with potential investors and other stakeholders in the business.

While many people have an idea of how they would like their company name to be, they may not necessarily know how to go about achieving it. If you feel unsure about how to go about choosing the perfect business name for your brand, this just the read you need.

Follow me as I give you a step by step guide on how to choose the perfect brand name for your business.

Step By Step Guide On How To Choose The Perfect Business Name For Your Brand

Choosing a business name requires thorough consideration and foresight. A great brand name can help you build a strong business. The following steps will help you avoid common pitfalls faced by business owners when choosing the perfect business name.

  1. Define Your Brand

Choosing a great business name is important for setting the tone and building your brand. Before you begin, it’s important to define your brand. What is your brand? How does it fit into the market? What is its personality? What is its purpose and mission? And finally, what are its values?

Think about your brand personality and decide how you want potential customers to see your business. The name should not only convey brand personality, style and brand promise uniquely but also communicate what makes your brand different from the competition.

To answer these questions, you have to describe what your business does—think about who you are, what you do and why you do what you do.

Some ways that can help with this are:

  1. Choose A Memorable Yet Unique Business Name

Choosing a great business name takes reflection, research and most of all, creativity. It can be quite tricky though because of the many factors involved. However, this breakdown will definitely make the process less tasking for you.

Alexandra Watkins, the chief innovation officer of Eat My Words, a San Francisco-based naming company says, “Any time you have to explain your name or apologize for it, you’re just devaluing your brand”. I agree.

  1. Consider Trademark And Domain Issues

Before settling on a business name, you must consider trademark issues. Ensure the name is not infringing on any trademarks. You can do this by checking the trademark database and also by searching for your chosen name on Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines. If there are no results for your proposed name, that could be a favorable indication that it is in no violation of someone else’s trademark rights.

Also confirm the availability of a related domain name by researching potential domain names(motivation.africa).

If you find out that another business has registered a similar domain name or logo with their logo owner, there are three things you can do;

  1. Think Way Into The Future

You want a name that is scalable (easily adaptable to any adjustments that might be made in the future). For instance, if you sell just lipsticks, you might decide later on to include other makeup items or if you’re based in a certain area, you might decide to move or expand. So choose a name that you can grow with.

  1. Consider Using Your Own Name If It’s A Sole Proprietorship

If you’re a sole proprietor, you can consider using your name in light of the previously mentioned factors. Some personal names make really good business names too. However, this is not advisable for startups because your name does not adequately convey anything about the brand to potential customers. It could also pose problems in case you want to sell the brand in future.

There are rare cases though, where this does not pose much of a threat even to startups – when the personal name can be creatively woven into the brand name. Some prime examples are PageRank(an algorithm named after Google cofounder, Larry Page) and Automattic (a brand named after Matt Mullenweg, its founder).

  1. Don’t Get Too Hung Up On Your Favourite Name Choices

I know you might have had fantasies of some really fancy names you’d love for your brand and this seems like the perfect time to bring it to reality but you need to be flexible with this. Choosing a business name is quite sensitive and you want to consider a whole lotta other things than favorites. Know what is important for your brand.

  1. Don’t Be A Copycat!

This is unoriginal and displays a lack of creativity and innovation which are not good public images for the brand. Avoid overly similar names, especially with competitors.

  1. Avoid Acronyms

The possibility that your business acronym will match with someone else is very high and this will make it difficult for you to rank in search engines. So for established brands, this might be a good idea but for startups, it will only confuse potential customers.

Benefits Of Choosing The Perfect Business Name

Final Thoughts on How to choose the perfect Business Name

Choosing a business name is an important decision. It’s the first thing that people who hear about your business will encounter, so it’s worth considering carefully. You may even have lots of ideas for a perfect name, but when it comes time to choose one or two possible names, things get tough. With this, you can now settle for the perfect business name with ease.

 

 


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