Choosing a Name for your New Business

There are a lot of awesome things about starting your own business, but possibly the coolest thing is being able to choose a name for your new business. It sounds easy but it is not a simple process. You need to get a perfect name both to fulfill the legal requirement and to build a great brand for your business.

This discourse delves into the intricacies of choosing the right name and process to follow to fulfill the required legal obligation as a sole trader or a limited company.

Pass the right message.

It is important to note that your company name will convey a message about your business to the public. You should choose a name that expresses your desired feeling and message, be it your level of professionalism of something different. This name should send the desired message across different media such as website, signage, letterhead papers, etc.

Consider pronunciation and spelling

Think about it, how many times have to given someone your company details over the phone? You can image if you have to give your company name that is difficult to pronounce or spell over the phone. Will people understand you? You should choose a name that is easy to write and pronounce

Reflect what you do

When it is possible, chose a name that is a reflection of your type of business. As such, your potential customer will easily understand what your business is all about. You will also find such a name valuable for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by ranking a keyword related to your service. However, you should only implement this if your business direction is not likely to change in the near future.

Plan with the future in mind

You should always be mindful of the future when making the choice of your business name. How far will your business expand? Are you going to be offering additional services? The rule of thumb is to choose a name that will work for your business over the next ten years. Avoid a name that will limit your capacity to grow. Moreover, the words and terms that you use within your business name should be such that will not become old-fashioned.

Trading and corporate names

It is possible to have a registered “official name” for your business and also use a “trading name” to represent the corporate name. In essence, you can have an official name that sounds corporate and uses a creative “trading name” that is short and easy to remember. All that is required is to highlight the trading name and corporate name on all your official branding materials as well as your website.

Consider potential language conflict

If you will be doing business in another country, you should check that your business name does not represent something distasteful in another language. Do not limit the scope of your operations right from the start of your business, make a diligent check of your business name in other languages before choosing it.

Check availability

Pen down the ideas coming to your mind and check if the names that you have in mind to see if it is still available or has been registered by another business already. You can make use of google or social sites to check this to know if your business name can get a domain that is an exact match for your website.

Displaying your business name

It is legally required for all businesses to display their relevant details to show customers the entity that they are dealing with. A limited company should display the registered name on all business documents and correspondence such as letters, notices, emails, invoices, website, bills of exchange, etc.

Double check trademarks

Trademarks is another important issue to watch. Make sure the proposed business name is not the same or similar to an already registered trademark.