- Decide the purpose of your name. If you want to clearly tell customers what you do, state your product or service with easy-to-understand language such as "Joe's Plumbing" or "Sally's Cookie Store." Other names convey a feeling or desired response such as security, warmth or well-being. Examples of this type of name include "First Alert Alarms" or "Ma's Homemade Diner." Clever or cute names may bring a smile, as long as they don't confuse a potential customer, leading to no response at all. A store called "Moos and Oinks" may sound cute, but does it convey good sandwiches or a working farm? Choose a name that accomplishes what you want it to accomplish, eliciting the exact response you want from your customer. Author Pat Williams points out that "a well crafted name . . . becomes a valuable business asset, which in the case of successful companies, can become worth millions of dollars."
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Evaluate whether you will use your legal business name only as a corporate identity or also as your public name; you can choose to make these two names different or idetical. Use a legal business name for executing documents, such as bank loans, vendor applications and government filings. Use your public name, or dba (doing business as), as long as it meets the requirements of your state for distinction from any similar entity. Check your local telephone books, real estate filings or your state's corporate registration information to find out whether another business uses a similar name.
You may also discover whether anyone already has a suggested name by searching online with "corporate name," followed by the name of your state. You may still have the ability to use your name idea by just adding a word or two. For example, even if you find an existing listing for "Great Ideas Company," you could still gain approval to use "Great Ideas Company of Wisconsin." Once you have gained approval for your name, complete the paperwork as required by your secretary of state and pay the appropriate filing fees; you can now use your new legal business name. - Changing your legal business name also offers a way to rebrand your products and services without changing your operations or staff. Your business name change will require appropriate filings with your secretary of state's office and will necessitate printing, marketing and promotional costs integral to educating the public on your new name and brand. Some businesses do this to separate themselves from an unpleasant past experience associated with their company, while others create a new name to reflect a merger between companies, with one company taking the name of another (AT&T merged with Cingular and subsequently dropped the Cingular name) or through a combination of names. When the newspapers "The Milwaukee Journal" and "The Milwaukee Sentinel" merged, the newly merged company called itself "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."
