How to Choose a Name for Your Business

Our tendency as humans is to treat the naming of a business as you would in choosing a name for a child or a pet.  The first thing you should remember in naming your business is, take the emotion out of it.

Naming your business should be an analytical task, beginning with what you want your business to mean in the mind of your customers.  Ideally, it should be short, memorable and say what you do or sell.

Some other tips for naming your business:

Make it yours – you don’t want to compete with an existing business, especially if that business operates in the same space you do and it is already established.  First, you could get sued.  Even worse, you could drive your prospects to a competitive website!

Be different – don’t try to sound like someone else, because you’ll only create confusion.

Be logical – humans embrace logic when it comes to Internet searches.  If we’re looking for a cell phone, we don’t search for “sell fone”.  Don’t make it hard for customers to find you.

Be practical – the fact is, most of the logical domain names are taken, so don’t get too invested in thinking your business name and domain name have to be an exact match.   And don’t stretch too far with a nonsensical name just to have a matching domain.  There are exceptions, of course.  Everyone wants to be a Google or a Yahoo – and you can be, too, if you have millions of pounds to spend in marketing your site.

Be aware – what’s great about having an Internet business is that you have a whole world of prospective customers.  Remember that when naming your company; you don’t want a name that might mean something offensive in another language.