Our Top 10 Tips For Naming Your Business

Oct 30

There’s nothing tougher than figuring out those couple of words that describe your business. For some of you, your business is your dream, your lifesaver, your passion, what gets you up in the morning. How the heck are you supposed to name something so important and feel confident in your decision?

We’re here to help if you’re ready to put pen to paper and name your baby: your brand, business or website. From working with countless companies and learning great strategy about how companies communicate with their audience, we’ve learned how to avoid common mistakes.

Here’s the roundup of our top 10 tips for naming your business so you can confidently start a memorable, sticky business name that will convert a passive audience to loyal customers.

01 – Keep it short and simple. If people can’t say or read your business name quickly, it’s not going to be effective. (PRO TIP: We feel the same about your Brand Bio. Get our formula here.)

02 – Make sure it’s available. Check to make sure the name hasn’t been trademarked yet. Check to make sure the domain is still available. Check to make sure the handles aren’t taken. That’s just three quick searches that can save you from a lot of headaches down the road after finding out someone already had the same idea.

03 – Make sure your product or service is in the name. At the very least, people should be able to tell what you do or what you sell with this name.

04 – Alliteration can be your best friend. Want your business name to sound silky smooth? Stick with words that start with the same letter for automatic flow when you say or read your business name.

05 – Use a name that can grow with you and your business. Do you have big dreams or see yourself expanding your services in the future? Or, better yet, do you know that you’re going to narrow down and find a specific niche? Save yourself the headache of starting from scratch with a name that can scale as you grow or specialize.

06 – Decide your name versus a company name. Generally, we recommend if YOU are the most important piece behind your brand, consider that in the name. However, if your product or service is the more important piece behind your brand, consider that. (PRO TIP: if you’re planning on growing into a team, consider the fact that some people would rather work for a company name than someone’s name.)

07 – Avoid cheesy titles and names. Think lactose-free & stay away from too much cheese. Being too cheesy or kitschy can cheapen your product, brand or service.

08 – Consider how it looks when it’s typed out. If you squint, do you get funky words in the middle? Suddenly a great company called Candles Cares reads Candle Scares in a domain name (www.candlescares.com).

09 – Make it easy to remember and easy to spell. Test it out on your grandma. If she can’t remember the name or how to spell it the next day, the general public won’t be able to either.

10 – Get inspired by your brand's benefits. Still stumped on a name? Start listing the benefits your product or service will provide to your customer. For example, one of our clients “The Six-Figure Chick” teaches customers how to make more money in their online business, with the ultimate goal or benefit that people will be able to reach six figures after utilizing her services.

Once you have your name, the next big steps we recommend are:

Nail down your Brand Bio so you can tell people what you do in 5 seconds or less.
Get your site launched & live using one of our easy-peasy website templates.

**CHECK OUT OUR Q&A WITH LINDA ABOUT HER RESTYLE**

Linda's got a few AMAZING stories about how her passion for photographing seniors developed and some KILLER tips of major lessons she's learned from being the photography business for 7 years.

GO LIVE: WHERE DID YOUR PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY START?

LINDA: I used to journal a whole lot through high school. You could see the progression in my journals and how the Lord directed and spoke through the journaling of this is what you need to be doing: Just love on people and make them feel beautiful. I love being around people and hearing their stories and what makes them tick. In college, I would take my friends, get them in front of my camera, go over to their apartment, and pick out outfits and do themed photoshoots. Having that all come together, I realized the Lord wants to use me to love on people and let them know that their uniqueness is important and not to be scared or shy because of it. It’s the way that the Lord made you and I want to photography that.

GO LIVE: WHAT'S THE BEST LESSON YOU'VE LEARNED IN YOUR BUSINESS?

LINDA: One of the ongoing lessons I'm learning is that once you find what you’re standing for and what your company believes in, stick to it. If it doesn’t fall into the realm of who you are as a business owner, don’t bend to it and make it yours when you know from the beginning you don’t have the heart for it, you don’t have time for it, or you should have said no.

GO LIVE: WHAT DO YOU WISH SOMEONE WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?

LINDA: [Invest in help!] We expect our clients to feel the same way about us. We’re an investment in taking these photos. We’re asking our clients to go with a professional and make the investment. Why would we not expect that for ourselves when it comes to taxes or any other element of your business?”

GO LIVE: WHAT ARE YOU GAINING BY NARROWING YOUR NICHE & SPECIALIZING IN SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY?

LINDA: I used to say I am going to do weddings because I enjoy doing them and it’s a good source of income, but if I could just shoot seniors, I would be so happy. I didn’t know if people would hire just a senior portrait photography and if I could make an income off that. But, to me, once you find your passion and your niche, people are able to buy into it and really believe in what you’re doing. If I could be the premiere senior portrait photographer in Lubbock, Texas, my creative juices will thrive in that.

GO LIVE: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE YOUR BRAND & WEBSITE FOR A RESTYLE?

LINDA: It got to the point in my business where I can’t justify NOT spending that investment and NOT doing this correctly. [In the past,] I did all the work on the backend, and it was fine, but a website is a physical storefront that I can’t afford to mess up on it this time. I can’t afford to do it myself. It’s time to let a professional do what a professional can do!

GO LIVE: WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS A RESTYLE BUT HASN'T TAKEN THE DIVE YET?

LINDA: You cannot NOT afford to make the investment for yourself. We spend so much time investing in our clients and cultivating those relationships. This is the one piece of the puzzle that is going to feed you as a business owner, so just do that one thing and knock it out, and you clients will follow.