How To Choose A Name For Your Business
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Hey it’s Q and A day and today the question’s from Sandra and Sandra asks,
“How do I know how to name my business? What do I name my business?”
And we had a personal conversation about this, we met at an event and she said,
“Do I name my business after me, after my name or do I come up with another kind of white label name to hide behind so that it’s not me as the business?”
And this is a great question and one that I think a lot of people come to when they’re creating their business and I have a few questions for you to consider when you are deciding for yourself. And I’ll tell you my personal experience that when I first created my company, I thought, “Do I want it to be Marley Baird Media or do I want it to be, I think the name I came up with was MB Media Lab, so that I could hide behind this name, the Media Lab.” Ultimately I came to the decision that I wanted to name it after me because I knew that I wanted it to be a personal brand, that I wanted to promote myself as the face of the business.
Whether it is me being the person that’s serving you or the team of people that I work with, as well, and you can do that with either option.
The one thing to also consider is how visible do you want to be in your business? And I do think that visibility is so important. People connect to brands and businesses because of their story, because of the personality you see from it.
I’ll give you an example of one of my clients that I work with that they’re a plumbing company and when I first started working with them, I’ll be completely honest with you, I thought, “Plumbing, gosh, this is going to be boring. How often can you talk about leaky taps and toilets and furnaces?” But, we actually made it so much fun because we started to show the personality behind the plumbing company. That it wasn’t just, “Oh, let us come out and fix your pipes,” it was, “This is this person and the manager and this is his story” and people on Facebook and other social media platforms know that this is the manager of the company and this is what he likes and these are his stories. We actually created a character out of one of the employees who was really funny and really great at improv, so he created this character called Plumber Dundee, he’d put on an Australian accent and take videos, like Facebook live videos, and be like, “I’m in the plumbing jungle right now.” It was through that personality and through those characters that we created for the company that made this company so memorable. Even for a plumbing company.
So, if you ever have any concerns about how do I make myself memorable, whether it’s a named company or your name as a company, it’s about sharing your story. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but I just wanted to share with you how you can really show your personality with whatever option you choose.
But, the big thing to consider is do you want to be the face of the business or do you want to have a name, a different name that is not a personal name, as the business? And either way, consider how you can share your story through whichever option you choose. Also, consider what is it that you’re selling? Are you selling yourself? Are you the main product or service that people want to hire you because of you? So, because of that, should your name be in the title? Or are they purchasing a product or a brand?
So, think of things like Apple and often the face associated with Apple is Steve Jobs, but they didn’t name it the Steve Jobs Company, they named it Apple and a lot of people very easily resonate with Apple. But, then we think of Walt Disney, that Walt Disney has this huge worldwide empire and people resonate with Walt Disney or Disney as a company because of the wonderful, magical, beautiful stories about who he was as a person, the stories that he created through his animations and the magic that comes alive connected to any aspect of Disney.
When deciding how you’re going to name your company, consider what’s the brand message behind your company. What are you selling? Are you selling yourself? Are you selling a service? Are you selling a story? Are you selling a product? And consider how that comes into play whether you decide to name your company after you or after any other kind of name.
Last thing what I’d suggest is poll your audience, see what they resonate with most and just because you name something, doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone, you can always rebrand.
And I want to give you an example. Kaelin Tuell, she is the owner of Lady Boss Weight Loss. Before, she had named her company Tuell Time, which, her last name being Tuell (was a play on words there) but then when she rebranded to Lady Boss Weight Loss, you think of that name and think, “I want to be a lady boss, I want to be part of that movement” and her company grew significantly with that rebrand.
So, keep that in mind when you name your company that it’s not set in stone. Ask your audience, see how they resonate with it and be adaptable.
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