This is an all too common occurrence when it comes to starting up a new business. Sometimes it’s easy, maybe you are selling some type of service…your last name plus the service name (i.e. Cole Web Design) and you’re good to go. Or maybe you had a stroke of inspiration and found the perfect name that embodies exactly what you’re company does. But for most of us that’s not the case.

I’m going to share some strategies that have helped me come up with names for businesses in the past. This isn’t the end all be all of business naming strategies…nor is it necessarily right for you. But it works for me and maybe it can help you get over the hump and on to the more important stuff like actually making money.

What’s everyone else doing

This is always the first thing I do when trying to come up with a name. Head to your favorite search engine and do a search for companies that are similar to the company that you are starting. Try to think of a few different searches and look at a bunch of sites, even ones that don’t seem to be related. This will do a couple of things. One it helps you weed out names that are already taken. Two it will help your mind open to different ideas. It is always interesting to see how different people have attacked the same problem. Write down any words or phrases that you see that pique your interest as you can use them in your next step.

Word Association

If you’ve ever taken any type of creative writing class you have probably done this before. Take a word or phrase that describes your company, you can even use one that you got from the last step, and write it on a blank piece of paper. I suggest using a sheet without lines and writing your phrase in the center, this helps free your creative mind a bit. I know that sounds a bit like voodoo but trust me it works, but you can do whatever you are comfortable with, that’s what’s important. Now clear your mind and focus on that word. Then start writing, anything at all that pops into your head, even if it seems stupid, just write it down, no one is grading this. Keep writing until you run out of steam, but at least do it for a good couple of minutes, this should fill the page. Now take the sheet and go through each word or phrase and circle or high light the ones that you really like. Keep this as we will use it in our next step.

More Words

Now take the list and sit down at your computer and head to thesaurus.com. Alternately you can sit down with a thesaurus but I find the computer to be much faster, I type much faster than I search. Now take each word on your word association sheet and search for the synonyms for it. Again write down any words that look interesting. As you are doing this try to keep your mind open as you will probably think of more words. If you do jot them down on the list and search for their synonyms also. Don’t worry if your list seems too long. It really can’t be, and we’re going to narrow it down from here.

Winnow

By now you should have a pretty good list of words and phrases that are related in some way to what your new company is going to do. Now we need to cut it down a bit so it is more manageable. Go through the list and look for any words that are too ordinary. For one they aren’t going to be memorable and two someone is probably already using them for their name. After that look for words that are too obscure or too hard to pronounce/spell. You want a name that will be easy to remember and to spell when someone is typing it in the address bar on their browser. Try to narrow the list down to maybe 10-15 words that you really like. Don’t cut it too much as you want some options when you go to look for a site or register your company name.

Finalize

Now you need to take the various name ideas you have and see if they are available. There are many resources you can use. You can search to see if a company is already using a name. You should also check with your local corporation commission to see if a name is already registered. Once you find a name you can head to a domain registration service to see if the domain name is available. This can be tricky as many domains have been registered by prospectors hoping to capitalize on them so you may have to look for a domain name that isn’t identical to your company name. This is why my site is cruciald.com as opposed to crucialdesign.com.

Conclusion

I hope this sheds a little light on the process of choosing a name for your new business. Just remember that the greatest ideas come with many failures along side them.

The hook is simple in practice. It is something unique that your site offers that no other site does. But on the internet this can be daunting. Every day hundreds of sites are born, each with their little hooks out, trying to gain visitors, and more importantly trying to retain them. So how do you make your hook stand apart from the rest? Follow me as I take you on a tour of what I would do starting a new site.

Research

Research is the backbone of any successful site. In my experience this is the step that is skipped more than any other in coming up with a successful site idea. When you come up with a great idea, hop over to your favorite search engine and start researching it. Don’t just search for one phrase, try to think of anything and everything that someone would type in to try to find your site. For our example we will be starting a site about restaurants.

First off I sit down with a blank piece of paper (yes paper, I know, low tech) and list every possible phrase that has to do with restaurants. Some of phrases I come up with are:

• Restaurant reviews
• Restaurant cuisine
• Restaruant atmosphere
• etc…

I take my various search phrases and run them through search engines and check out the sites that pop up. I will probably run through a half dozen search engines before I am done, clicking on anything that I think looks interesting. A nice feature that google has that can help with this is the search similar link after each result. This can help speed up your search. When you finish with this you should have a pretty decent idea of what is out there related to your idea.

Differentiate

Now that I’ve found a bunch of sites about restaurants I can figure out what I am going to do that is different than what everyone else is doing. After looking through all of the sites I decide that I haven’t seen much in the way of a community site where people can post reviews of restaurants in their local area and share them with others. Kind of like reviews on Amazon, but for restraurants.

KISS

Keep it simple stupid. We all know the mantra. We’ve all been to the sites that try to do too much and fail at everything. The secret to a great site is that it finds one thing, and does that better than anywhere else. For our site I decide that I want it to be a place that you can go search for a type of restarant in your area and find it along with any reviews from people who have eaten there.

That’s it. Notice I said nothing about color schemes, site designs, logos or even a name. In the end those things are all secondary (though still important). If the hook is good enough…then those things only matter if they don’t work. But no amount of beautiful design will make a worthless site viable. So before you call your web designer (hopefully me) up to discuss a new site you want to work on, go through these steps first. It will help you on your way to creating a great site that brings in, and retains many visitors.

As an aside this article illustrates another important point. Ideas are cheap, to the point that you can pretty much give them away for free. If you think the idea for restaurant site like I described is a great idea, go for it. Just make sure you go through the steps. Good luck!

When a company talks about shaping their brand, what they are really talking about is shaping the perception of their company in the eyes of the consumer. They do this in a variety of ways:

• Brand Name
• Logo Design
• Slogan
• Brand Promises

Each of these elements (and many others) help contribute to the consumer perception that makes up a brand. In future articles I will go through each element in depth and give some concrete advice on how to use each one to enhance a companies brand. But for now I am just going to oultine each one and take a brief look at how the contribute to a companies brand.

Brand Name

This can be either the name of a company or a product line. Companies spend alot of time and money figuring out the perfect name for a new product line. I myself have spent countless hours in front of the computer searching through the dictionary, the thesaurus and google trying to find the perfect name for a new project I am working on. A good name can set your company apart and help shape your company’s image in the consumers mind.

Logo Design

Many time a company’s logo design goes hand in hand with their brand name. Most copanies include their brand name in the logo, this helps to keep the brand focused and in site at all times. From typeface to colour each part of the logo helps to focus the brand image and solidify it in the consumers mind.

Slogan

Not all companies opt to include a slogan as part of their branding efforts, but many do and it can have a very positive impact on creating a brand. A good slogan helps to solidify the message that the brand is pushing. While the name and logo paint a subconscious picture of what a company is doing, a slogan puts it right out in the open for all to see. Slogans can be so powerful, in fact, that at times they can replace the name/logo as the most recognizable feature in a company’s brand.

Brand Promises

Brand promises are by far the most ephemeral of the parts of a brand, but can be some of the most powerful tools in the brand toolbox. Many brands have lost market share and fallen by the wayside simply because they couldn’t deliver on the brand promise they made. Brand promises are almost always left unsaid, though at times they may be part of the slogan, but the promise is always there in the back of the consumers mind. And when a company delivers on their promises a customer remembers, and is likely to come back for more

So what does this mean for the small business owner? While small businesses do not have the same resources that a larger corporation does to hone and perfect a brand through countless trials and focus groups, they do have the abitlity to find a brand identity and shape it through their own efforts. In many ways their brand can be stronger because of a tighter focus and the ability to control its development more completely. With good research, some smart spending, and mostly a lot of time and hard work, the small business owner can develop powerful and focused brand identity that can help their business grow.