TENEBRIS LLC » Business – How to start one - Part III from VI BUSINESS NAME

Business Name – What is It

Business name is one of the most important things in planning and creating your business. This is one of crucial things in your new business planning right after business idea. The reason why NAME is an important thing is a brand that it will carry. What that means? It means that your business name will create a brand that will be associated with your business activities. Any potential client of certain services should familiarize them with your company name. This is why business name is an important factor in any business.

The process of creating a name is not that easy as it could look. Everyone thinks that you simply write first thing that comes into your mind and it is done. Unfortunately this is not a case. You have to be a little bit more creative and conscious as you cannot repeat name that is already in the market. Unless you want to be sued for copyrights.

Remember, when you put the name on the paper you must check it with company registry in your country or country that you want to start business.

How to create a Name

First of all you should remember that business name should be simple. Thanks to that the name will be easier to remember. Although it does not have to be short, just simple. When you create the name always think about your potential clients. Will it be easy for them to remember. Will it not be offensive, this is important especially if you create a name in foreign language. If you do make sure that you know what does it mean, that you will not be surprised.

You should know that the name of your business does not have to be totally related to your business activity for example: 'XYZ Restaurant' can be only 'XYZ'. Reason for that is to give yourself leverage over possible expansion or change in business activity. Good idea is to create a business name which would be for tax and legal purpose and then create a trade name. The trade name would be the name that you would be trading to your customers, it would be your brand. For example you name your company 'XYZ' and then you create a trade name for example 'ABC'. This allows you to focus on your brand and if you would want to expand to different activity you could simply create new trading name. Thanks to trading name you do not have to close your company if your business was a failure and you would have to move to different activities. The company name would be the same, you would have to just create new trading name.

This allows you to separate your company from the brand. Because of that failure of the brand would not push your company name under and you would not have to win back customers to your new venture.

Coming back to Name creation. Like I said must be original and easy to remember and it should not box your business in any category. Good idea is to write whatever comes into your mind, put down everything. Then go ask your family and friends what do they think about the names, which of them sound best. The reason to do that is simple, for most of us when we create something we know the concept and what message we want to send. This does not have to be same for someone outside. Having 'outsider's' feedback is more then helpful as it will show how other react to your business name.

Another good idea is to have a brainstorm with your business partners or if you are individual entrepreneur with your family and friends. You will be amazed of the effects.

Conclusion

Business Name is one of the most important things in your business as it will be a part of your brand. The name itself should be simple and easy to remember at must be original. However having a business name and then operate with Trading Name is also a good idea as it allows some sort of separation of the business activity from the business name. You should test your business name ideas in order to see how people outside react to it.