diy tip: naming your business / by roel krabbendam

diy tip: naming your business

naming.jpg

How do you name your business?  The two most important criteria for most businesses are:
1. Can you get secure a domain name for your website?
2. Can you successfully incorporate in your State?

Since you compete nationally or internationally for domain names, and only compete within your own state and business type for incorporation, we suggest you start with your domain name.  We go to Godaddy.com because it's convenient, and type in possible domain names until we run out of ideas, noting prices and availability as we go along.  Then we go to the state for incorporation.  When we find a match we like, we have our company name.

The image above shows the brainstorming for our own company.  We wanted to build a business that wasn't tied to the founders names in order to facilitate succession in the future, and pursued a number of themes related to design: shapes, colors, imagination, inspiration, architecture, interior design, graphic design, ideas, invention....200-250 options, many of them goofy non-starters, and 3 or 4 hours of work, quite a bit more to complete the incorporation and secure the domain.

Most simple and straightforward domain names have long ago been secured by others.  A few strategies to consider:

1. Juxtapose two independent ideas that relate to your business, for a unique mashup.
2. Include your name.
3. Latinize: Go to http://www.quizopolis.com/latin-name-generator.php and type in anything for a pseudo-latin translation.  We don't know latin: maybe this is real.
4. Go to Google Translate and have fun:  imagine RED in Indonesian is bayangkan merah.  Pretty sure the domain name is available.

As with every element of your brand, each one is an opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition.  As one of the most basic elements of your brand, and a decision you'll hopefully be living with for a very long time, getting your name right is worth the effort.