How to Name Your Business

You have a wonderful business and now you need a name for it. You can find a title by considering your business's locale or function, or simply emphasizing your company's goals.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Brainstorm to discover the core of your company. Decide what to emphasize from among your product or service, location, company mission or a combination of these elements. For example, "Southern Hood Cleaning" emphasizes a general location and specific service. "Safe Haven Daycare" emphasizes your mission to fulfill a social need.
2. Choose a name that grabs attention by creating an identity with your customers. "Suffolk Hood Cleaning" identifies the company with people living Suffolk and is easy to remember.
3. Research other company names in the same industry to be sure that your name isn't replicating another company or is so close to another name that people might confuse the two companies.
4. Create several names to consider. Don’t worry about whether they are acceptable at this point. You are only brainstorming. You can include family names, create a totally original name or emphasize the service you are marketing, such as "Greenlawn Landscaping."
5. Seek opinions to see if your name is accomplishing what you wanted it to accomplish. If people laugh, express confusion or simply don’t know what your company does, reconsider the name.

Tips & Warnings

• Although it may not be easy, changing a company’s name is possible. So don’t freeze at the prospect of naming your company. The title doesn’t have to be set in stone.
• Your industry will often dictate your business name. For example, a law office name usually contains the partners' surnames. However, a fun shopping website could create a brand new company name from a nonexistent word.