This post was written by me on behalf of Name.Kitchen. All opinions are 100% my own.

Picking a name for your business is no easy task. It can be mind wrenching and take a very long time. Your business name is the foundation of your business and everything will coincide with it. Following basic rules will help to streamline the process and help you to pick the perfect name for your business. After 30 years of stagnancy on the Internet, there is an amazing new world of choice in naming on the Internet. In a rollout that began in late 2013, hundreds of new domain endings — words to the right of that second dot — are now available for use when crafting the URL for your website.

The Do’s

• Know your audience and your voice- If your audience is the older crowd, you wouldn’t want to use words that they wouldn’t understand. This always goes for a business name.
• Stand out from the crowd- You should know your competition and you don’t want to use a common name that will fall into the sea of the industry. EX: Dairy Queen is very well known for their ice cream. Someone opened an ice cream shop and named it Dairy King. Most looked at it as an imposter and it closed down within six months.
• Make it memorable- You want your name to be easily remembered, however, great marketing and branding can make a unique name a household name. Try checking ‘not-com’ options which have obvious benefits, including memorability, meaning and creativity. Choices like .PIZZA, .FLORIST and .COFFEE immediately conjure images to the consumer where .com simply does not.
• Associate it with your business- Sometimes simple is ok (Ferrucci Home Improvement). The name should be the face of the business.
• Mastermind Team- This is not the time to invite all of your family, friends, and acquaintances to join in. Pick a few people who you trust and who can be open-minded if their suggestion isn’t favored. It’s also best to have people who think differently to view all the angles.
• Create keywords- Start with a list of keywords about your business (fashion, women, teens, shoes, trendy, online, luxury, etc)
• Make Lists- This will not be an hour long meeting and could go on for days. Keep adding ideas to a list and go through each name one by one. Find inspiration from Name.Kitchen’s “I am.___” video series showcasing businesses leveraging naming creativity + innovation at http://name.kitchen/be-inspired/
• Check your final five- Once you get to five names, check the domains and be sure to check the name in the state you’ll be opening the business in. (usually this is with the Secretary of State but could vary in different states)

My mom aka “Nonni” has an Italian cookie making business and we just found the perfect name for her including the domain! Nonnis.Kitchen. As you can see in the picture below, we started with Nonni’s Cookies but that limits her should she add her pies or delicious Italian sauce. With Name.Kitchen we found Nonnis.Kitchen which covers everything in the kitchen!

Kitchen, powered by Donuts, provides a kitchen atmosphere around the subject of name creation. It is especially geared toward entrepreneurs (aka “business chefs”) scratching their heads for ideas. We offer inspiration on cooking up that perfect identity.

 

The Don’ts

• Do not add a prefix– Don’t pick a name that someone has and add a prefix thinking once your business takes off you can buy it from them. If your business is doing well it will cost you an arm and a leg to get it.
• Do not include a city or state name- What happens if your business grows beyond the area you are in. If I’m in New York, I would stay away from “Rhode Island Movers” thinking it would be more expensive or not experienced in my state.
• Change it- Change can be scary but sometimes much needed. If you come up with a name and it is not working with your targeted market, it’s easier to change the name then try to change the way millions think. I am a part of a new company and we are decided that the name did not fit so we changed it. Once it was done, it was a breath of fresh air.
• Do not be cute- Trendy and cute is fun but beware. If you name a business after a trend what happens when that trend goes away?

Lastly, do not be afraid. So much goes into a business name and you will find a lot of experts who disagree on many of the Do’s and Don’ts. After creating it and testing it with outsiders, look at it again and do your research so you can be positive and ready to back your name and bring it to the level of greatness.

An example would be my bath and body product line. I named it Touch’d. I picked this name for a few different reasons but each one means a lot to me and fit within the brand.

#1- I like to be able to help people and make them feel wonderful. When my product alleviates their dry skin skin or eczema, I feel like we touched their life making it better.

#2 – I’m known to be a little edgy and I laugh when family and friends say “I’m a little touched”.

My frustration was I didn’t take into consideration that I couldn’t have the .com. I have been trying to get it now for ten years. I had to get touchd.net and I never got the business up and running online. It’s keeping afloat but if I didn’t have my other companies, I would have needed to either change the name or put a lot of marketing into it. With “not com” choices being new, the very best names are still available to be registered. And finally we all know that better names are more memorable names. I plan on finding my new domain now so I’m ready to go!

Name.Kitchen offers tips, advice and inspiration to help you jump-start the name brainstorm. Discover these tools and tips at http://name.kitchen/naming-tools.

Ready to get cooking with Name.Kitchen? Claim your name here http://name.kitchen/claim-your-name.

What tips do you have for naming a business?

 

 

This post was written by me on behalf of Name.Kitchen. All opinions are 100% my own.