8 mistakes to avoid when naming your business

Naming a business is a lot like laying the cornerstone of a building. Once it’s in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it’s off, even just a bit, the rest of the building is off, and the misalignment becomes amplified. So if you have that gnawing sense that choosing a name for your new business is vitally important, you’re right. To help you get off to a good start, read on to discover the top eight mistakes people make when it comes to choosing a name for their business:

Getting the “committee” involved in your decision

We live in a democratic society, and it seems like the right thing to do–to involve everyone (your friends, family, employees and clients) in an important decision. This approach, however, presents a few problems. The first and most obvious fact is that you’ll end up choosing only one name, so you risk alienating the very people you’re trying to involve. Second, you often end up with a consensus decision, which results in a very safe, very vanilla name. A better method is to involve only the key decision-makers–the fewer the better–and select only the people you feel have the company’s best interests at heart. Also make sure you have some right-brain types in the mix. Get too many left brains on board, and your name will most likely end up too literal and descriptive.

Employing the “train wreck” method of creating a name

When forced to come up with a catchy name, many aspiring entrepreneurs simply take part of an adjective and weld it onto a noun, essentially colliding the two words head on to create a new word. The results are names that have a certain twisted rationale to them, but look and sound awful.

Using words so plain they’ll never stand out in a crowd

The first company in a category can get away with this one. Hence you have General Motors, General Electric and so on. But once you have competition, it requires differentiation. Imagine if Yahoo! had come out as GeneralInternetDirectory.com? The name would be much more descriptive but hardly memorable. And with the onslaught of new media and advertising channels, it’s more important than ever to carve out your niche by displaying your uniqueness.

Taking the atlas approach and using a map to name your company

In the zeal to start a new company, many businesses choose to use their city, state or region as part of their company name. While this may actually help in the beginning, it often becomes a hindrance as a company grows.

Turning your name into a cliché

Once past the literal, descriptive word choices, your thought process will most likely turn to metaphors. These can be great if they’re not overly used to the point of being trite. For example, since many companies think of themselves as the top in their industry, the world is full of names like Summit, Apex, Pinnacle, Peak, Zenith and so on. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these names, they’re overworked. Instead, look for combinations of positive words and metaphors, and you’ll be much better served.

Making your business name so obscure, customers will never know what it means

It’s great for a name to have a special meaning or significance–it sets up a story that can be used to tell the company’s message. But if the reference is too obscure or too hard to spell and pronounce, you may never have the opportunity to speak to that customer because they’ll simply pass you by as irrelevant.

So resist the urge to name your company after the mythical Greek god of fast service or the Latin phrase for “We’re number one!” If a name has a natural, intuitive sound and a special meaning, it can work. If it’s too complex and puzzling, it will remain a mystery to your customers. This is especially true if you’re reaching out to a mass audience.

Taking the Campbell’s soup approach to selecting a name

Driven by the need for a matching domain name, many companies have resorted to awkwardly constructed or purposefully misspelled names. The results are company names that sound more like prescription drugs than real life businesses. It’s amazing how good some names begin to sound after searching for available domain names all night. But resist the urge. Avoid using a “K” in place of a “Q” or a “Ph” in place of an “F”. This makes spelling the name–and locating you on the internet–all that much harder.

Choosing the wrong name and then refusing to change it

Many business owners know they have a problem with their name and just hope it will somehow magically resolve itself. The original company name of one of my clients, for instance, was “Portables”, which reminded some people of port-a-potties or portable classrooms–neither was accurate nor something the business owner wanted to be associated with. This added to the confusion when sales reps tried to explain their new concept of moving and storage. After some careful tweaking, we came up with the name PODS, an acronym for Portable On Demand Storage. The rest is quickly becoming history as they expand both nationally and internationally.

In the fever to start your new business or expand a current one, take time to think through some of these issues. By tapping into your creativity and avoiding these potential pitfalls, you’ll be able to create a name that works for both the short and long term. Like the original cornerstone of a building, it will support upward expansion as your company reaches new heights.

Courtesy: www.entrepreneur.com