Naming your organization can be difficult and time-consuming. Here are 5 tips that ought to help you find a great a new name for your company:

Company name

1. Take into consideration what you want your company name to convey. Your company name is an important part of your company’s identity. The name will appear on your business cards, letterhead, website, promotions, products, and many other places to identify your company or perhaps your company’s products and/or services. Service oriented businesses should think about whether it will be easy for their prospective customers to identify what services the organization provides, based on the name from the company (example: Friendly Dog Walkers or Bright Accounting).



Businesses situated in rural areas and serving rural communities might want to project a smaller, hometown feel using their name. However, businesses about to focus on bigger markets or bigger customers might want to project a larger, more corporate image using name.



2. Brainstorm to identify name possibilities. Once you understand what you want your company name to mention, you should set aside some time to brainstorm. Think about words that describe your industry or the products/services you offer. Think about words that describe your competitors and words that describe the differences between your products and services and those of your respective competitors. Consider too words that describe the advantages of using your products or services. Finally, think of words (and phrases) that evoke the sentiments you want your customers to feel whenever they see your company name.



While brainstorming, research Greek and Latin translations of your respective words - you will probably find new ideas from doing that exercise. Look at foreign words too (Swahili is always a great choice).



3. Keep the name short, simple, and simple to write and remember. Also - consider acronyms in the name. Think about the names of companies you admire. They routinely have a few things in common: their names are short, simple, all to easy to write and easy to remember. (Examples: Apple, Google, Virgin, Southwest).



Obscure business names are often difficult to write and even more difficult to remember. This is the problem because for most new companies, word-of-mouth advertising is easily the most successful form of marketing. In case your customers can’t remember your reputation or can’t spell it for some individuals, it will make it difficult to allow them to help promote your business.



Although it might be tempting, avoid a “K” in place of a “Q” or a “Ph” in place of an “F” when discovering your company name. Such letter substitutions makes spelling the name very hard.



Also, don’t forget to think about the acronym of your respective company name (an acronym is made up of the first letter of every word in a phrase). You may not use an acronym, however your customers might make reference to your business by an acronym. A name such as Apple Support Services may result in an unfavorable acronym - ASS.

Company name

4. Avoid names which might be too narrow or too literal. Consider how your company may evolve after a while and make sure that the company name can evolve with the business. For example, in the event you name your company iPod Accessories and then expand to sell accessories for other products, your original name will be too narrow and restrictive.

The identical advice applies regardless of whether your company sells a market product. For example, let's say you sell antique lamps, you should consider whether you might sell greater than lamps in the future. Naming your organization Peter’s Antique Furniture could possibly be too limiting when you later start selling antique coins and stamps.



5. Avoid decisions by committee but do “test” your reputation with others. It’s tempting to involve our friends, family, employees and customers to locate a name for our company. Sometimes, this can work out really well. But you can find risks. People could possibly be upset if you don’t pick a name they think is great. You’ll also find yourself trying to find consensus - which can lead to a very plain name. In case you must involve others, choose a small group of people who understand both you and your business (and select a mix of right-brain types and left-brain types to help you have some variety. Once you’ve selected a couple of possible choices, you need to share them with a few trusted friends, family and customers to obtain some feedback about the name.

Company name