Small Business Opportunities | The Perfect Company Name

Starscapes home-based business opportunity

What you call your business -- or your product -- can make abig difference in terms of how the marketplace responds to you. Should you have a family name like Smucker's, a serious name like Econoline, a "meaningless" name like Xerox? Or, should you simply go for good placement in the yellow pages and call your company A.A.A.A. Services? Is It Broad Enough?

To effectively name your business, you first need to firmly establish what business you're in. Be cautious though. You don't want to limit opportunities for future growth by being too specific about your company's purpose. For example, suppose you're starting a new business that specializes in lawn care services. You decide to name your company "Lenny's Lawn Care." Now, suppose that a few years down the road you wish to expand and offer corporate plant care services. "Lenny's Lawn Care" is no longer a very apt name for your company. It's not a name that would attract the new type of clientele you seek.

Consider the long-term potential of your company and the ways in which your company might grow. Once you've established a name it can be difficult to change that name to provide a new direction -- and costly in terms of the lost recognition you've established for your original name.

Is It Narrow Enough?
A caveat is in order here though. Don't be so broad with your business name that you fail to establish a market niche for your services. In today's specialized marketplace, the companies that are most successful are those that cater to specific market segments -- and identify, through their company name, the segment that they serve. Your name should be specific enough that it clearly conveys to potential customers that, "yes, this is the company I'm looking for."

For example, if you own and operate a boutique, you don't want to simply name the business "Bev's Boutique." You want a name that will indicate to customers the types of products you sell. A name like, "Bev's Botanicals" might be appropriate if you specialized in dried floral arrangements -- and would allow you the option of expanding into other plant-related services, oreven the sale of scents or potpourris.

Narrow names can also be effective when you're certain ofthe niche you wish to serve and confident that you will not want to expand beyond that niche. Consider, for instance, the well-known names of some narrowly-defined restaurant chains: PizzaHut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken (more on this one later). They've defined their specialty and, as consumers, we know that if we want pizza we go to Pizza Hut -- not Kentucky Fried Chicken (or vice versa).

How Does It Sound?
The name you choose for your company will be used in a number of ways. It will be used in print -- on your store front sign, billboard, in print advertising, on your letterhead, etc. It may be used verbally in radio or television advertising. It will certainly be used verbally in word-of-mouth exchanges between potential customers or clients. How your name sounds is a critical consideration, even if you never plan to use radio or television to advertise your wares.

When we read, we "hear" in our minds the word we're reading and we respond most to names that "sound" good.

Many small businesses decide to use their family name aspart of the company moniker. This is often done for ego gratification purposes. Nevertheless, it's not a tremendous downfall -- unless that name is difficult to pronounce or "ill-sounding." For example, a name like "Pfefferneuse, Inc." would be a mouthful. How would customers refer you to their acquaintances if they could barely pronounce the name. Strange sounding or off-putting names can be problematic as well.

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