Choose a Home Business Name that Describes
Your Business
How to choose a home business name is another step in your home
business marketing process. The name you choose will help you
create your brand of one, to help set your business apart from other
businesses.
In the process of choosing your business name, remember that it
will be the first impression that your customers or clients receive of
your business. A good first impression, as in any personal or
business relationship, is very important. The process of choosing
your business name will require some time spent brainstorming the best name,
a little creativity, and knowledge of your product and customer base
(your target market).
Consider the products or services you intend to sell, along with any
future product lines that may fit in with your future business plans.
I know that this sounds like an impossible tasks and can be quite
overwhelming, but good planning here can save you time and effort in the
long run.
Some good tips for brainstorming the name for your home business
are:
simple and descriptive of your business
a name that can be easily remembered
a name that is easily spelled
short descriptive names are best
avoid the use of initials in your business name as you start
out
avoid the use of cities, towns, counties, descriptive
locations, and states if possible
the use of personal names is not recommended
The business name you choose should tell your customers or clients
what your business is about. For example, Home-Business-Web-Link.Com
should impress upon you that my business is about "home business" and an
Internet connection or link to home business.
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Why a Descriptive Business Name is so Important.
A business name that is descriptive of your
business will reward you many times over. Consider a business card
or envelope that your customer may have with your company name on them.
Your customer should be able to quickly tell what your business is about just by
scanning the business name on the document or card.
If your customer can't distinguish what your
business is about by your business name, your business card, brochure,
or letter may get discarded with other items that are not identifiable
with value in her mind. Yes, your business information may end up
with her junk mail in the circular file! Your advertising efforts
will go to all the creatures at your local landfill - not a profitable
proposition in the least!
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Other Name Considerations Before You Choose a Home Business Name.
Before you get too far along in the
name choosing process, consideration should be given to an offline
business versus an online business, or both. When choosing a
business name that is also available online as a URL (i.e.
www.your-business-name.com), the process becomes a little more tricky.
If you're are looking into the
possibilities of a home business with a web site, you would want your
business name to be available as a URL address and as a home business
name that you could incorporate. Otherwise there is the
possibility of having two business names, one online and one offline,
which adds to the cost of doing business and creates confusion in the
mind of your customer.
An online business name tip.. .
Always consider using a URL with a ".com" versus a ".net", ".org",
".us"' etcetera. When most people type a URL address, they always
will use a ".com" (i.e. www.your-home-business-name.com) versus another
address. For more information see this link Home Business Online when
added to this site.
One note of
caution here - before purchasing a home business URL, I would
personally suggest that you decide who will be your URL hosting service
and follow their recommendations on purchasing your domain name.
Second note
of caution here - all web hosting services are not the same!
Do your home work and check out your options. There are hundreds
of web hosting services to choose from, but few who provide all the tools
and resources
for a home business to be successful.
My homework lead me to a web hosing
service called
Site Build It! It had everything I needed to build
a successful web site and guaranteed it. With all the tools and
direction that SBI provided, I was able devise and choose a home
business name that is very descriptive in a very competitive market.
Here are two of the free tools that
SBI (Site Build It!) provides that I used to help me to choose my home
business name.
Choose It!
- A simple, yet
complicated decision making software that can help with any decision
making process.
Search It! - a very powerful information and e-commerce
search tool. I am certain this will be a useful tool that you will go
back to time and time again.
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Check to Assure the Home Business Name you Choose is Available and
not Similar to Other Names or Trademarks.
There are two things here that you need to do before
choosing and finalizing your home business name:
1. Check to see if there are trademarks registered
with your home business name or portions of it. Check for
business names that are very similar to yours. You want to
avoid this situation as it could cost you your business name or
trademarks down the road which could be disastrous and costly.
There are some free searches out there on the internet for
trademarks to help you with this, but be warned now that they
are not very comprehensive or complete.
If you would like to perform a "trademark
search", you can use the Google search box below and "Google
it!"... to find your Google search results. Or click on
this
Search It! link as described above.
Whichever you are more comfortable with in using.
2. Check to see if your business name is available
in the state in which you plan to incorporate or form an LLC.
For more information on forming a Corporation or LLC, you can use
this link Home Business Resources.
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