How To Name Your Company

saatcham

How To Name Your Company

By Michael McDerment

When you start a company, eventually you are going to haveto choose a company name. You may not take the decision that seriously – buttrust me, a great name can make all the difference.

As the online marketplace becomes increasingly cluttered itis more important than ever to be memorable and to stand out. The name of yourcompany is a critical factor in this.

In the following article I will describe a process you canuse to discover and select a good name for your company; this process can beapplied to product and service names as well. Okay, let’s get going!
The Critical Steps to Generating A Good Company Name:
Step I: Set Your Constraints:

So what makes a good name? There are five maincharacteristics:


1. It’s easy toremember

2. It’s easy tospell and requires no explanation

3. It describesyour business category

4. It describesyour benefit

5. It describesyour difference

Here are three more constraints that I like:


1. It has to be oneor two syllables long – no more

2. Each syllablestarts with a strong consonant (B, C, D, G, K, P, Q, T)

3. It’s fun to say(”…that just rolls off the tongue”)

You can of course add to or remove from this list as you seefit. The most important thing in attempting to name your company is to pick alist of constraints and then to ruthlessly stick to it.

Examples of great company names that adhere to theseconstraints:


* PayPal

* Best Buy

* QuickBooks

Step II: Schedule Your Time:

Choosing a name is a process. Yes, sometimes a great namewill just fall in your lap, but more often it will take time to “discover” one.You need to make time.


1. Establish a‘Naming Team’ – three to four people who are responsible for meeting regularlyuntil they have found your name. Expect it to take eight to ten sessions of onehour each. That is about 30-40 hours of your organization’s time. It will bepainful. It will be worth it.

2. Get the toolsyou need:

* Thesaurus

* Dictionary

* Pads ofpaper and pens because everyone who is not on a laptop recording words ought tobe keeping their own notes with their own ideas. You can consolidate at theend.

*Spreadsheet

* We foundthat using a laptop with access to the web to check if the URL was availablebecame invaluable. Go Daddy offers a plug in for Firefox that might come inhandy.


Secret weapon:The New York Times “Crossword Puzzle Dictionary“.

It’s like anuber thesaurus and it lists words by length. Since you probably want shortone-syllable words, this thing is worth its weight in gold.

3. Identify a’secretary’ to keep everything organized. This should be someone who types fastand records the words in Excel columns as laid out here:
http://carsonified.com/blog/features/biz/how-to-name-your-company/

Iwillgetulater

Good info....I also put so much emphasis on company's name.