What To Consider When Selecting A Business Or Trade Name

Quite a bit rides on the name you choose for your business. Everything that represents your business–the name, stationary, your website, blog name, invoices, etc.–should be communicating your message, with the goal of making the sale.

Many people choose nondescript names that may be meaningful to the owner, using their child’s name, a foreign word, a historical or geographic location, or the ever-popular name of the owner. But what does this tell the reader? Nothing but a name, a word, a location… Why miss this wonderful marketing opportunity to further your likelihood of being selected by the searching consumer? What differentiates you to the consumer who is possibly looking at a list of alphabetical names in the yellow pages of the telephone book, or worse, just driving down the street, looking? Another possible issue is retention of your company name. Is it memorable? Does it tell a story? Or is it just another name soon to be forgotten, informing the consumer of very little?

When you’re driving down a street, scanning the store names and you see Chan’s Chinese Food, or 24-Hour Cleaners, you immediately know exactly what they deliver and whether or not it’s what you are looking for. If you see a nondescript name without a tag line you may just pass it by without further consideration, even if it is exactly the kind of store you are looking for. One of my clients has a terrific name: Affordable Electric Services, LLC. His tag line is “Quality service at affordable prices.” Pure genius, in my evaluation. Easy to remember because it makes sense, memorable because it informs the potential customer of the most important point, affordable quality, and it sells, sells, sells.

Sometimes, it can be argued that in a professional setting, the name of the principle is appropriate. I understand that; I am the product and the service provider, thus it may be appropriate to name my company after myself. However, I attempt to up the ante with two (not one, but two) always-present tag lines supporting my company name: “Solving difficult business problems” and “Building profitable organizations”. It is true that some professions limit the creative potential and dictate that the appropriate name is the name of the professional. If such is true with your profession, then it’s the tag line you need to focus on. If this isn’t the case for your business though, then perhaps you ought to consider another name that works for you in every way.