Thanks for the insight again!

Matt D

I created a random name generator and believe it or not, some people use it with very little thought. They dont consider any points from your list, not even no.2. Its typical of the whole web2.0 movement tho – act now, think later!

Luc

Another big mistake business owners make is by naming their business with their initials. (I call it … “when nothing comes to mind”).

I wrote my own list on this topic before in my blog. If you allow me to place a link here …. this is it. http://www.bizmord.com/Blog/archives/62

The answer to your question all depends on your business’s purpose. Do you want your company to be a recognized name in your industry where people can easily approach you on their own for your services? Or would you rather “pound pavement” and find your next project on your own? (And FYI… There’s NOTHING wrong with that approach)

A brand name is intended to be memorable – and I’m sure it is memorable to the clients you’ve already worked with – but I unfortunately can’t imagine it becoming a super-brand without a great deal of marketing supporting it. BUT, who am I to make that assumption? I am just one of many people in this world, and I could possibly be the ONLY individual who feels the way that I do.

There’s always hope for any combination of letters to become a recognized brand name – It all depends on your purpose for it, and how you’re going to position it to the public.

And if you’re happy with the current performance of your brand, then that’s honestly all that matters. But if you feel just a shadow of a doubt towards its effectiveness, you might want to consider tweaking it a bit.

Good luck Hero, and keep up the good work. The portfolio on your website proves that you’re definitely talented!

bizMAVERICK-
Brad Williamson

My business name is my name itself. It’s not even an Englsh name and I haven’t met any one who can pronounce my name correctly.

I’m not planning to make it a brand name or a corporate though, it’s just a simple graphic design and web design business.

I needed a web site that I could show some of my portfolio to the potential clients and maybe attract some more local small businesses.

At the very beginning, I was thinking between choosing my own name as the business name and picking a name tht sounds more “business” or “corporate”. As you stated at #9, I believe that I’ve chosen the right way.

• No Inc at the end of the name because it’s not an Inc.
• No business like name because it’s not a “business” even though I’m making money through this job (freelance graphic design and web design).
• No business look web site, because I would disappoint the potential clients.

Can I grow my business with this name? I don’t think the name I picked is the best name for a graphic studio or whatever it would grow.

I recieved confirmation that it was a good name recently when I was on the phone with a photo lab I do business with in another state. They knew me right off the top of their head without having to look up my account because (as they told me) I was one of only a handful of the thousands of accounts they have who didn’t use the photographer’s own name in the company name.

So I guess that is what I am adding – unless YOU are a known and respected individual in your field, maybe you shouldn’t name your company after yourself.

We are a film and video production house and back in the early 90′s when we developed the company name our focus was to try and position ourselves as a producer of feature-length motion pictures (hence the “Pictures”). But as we’ve grown we’ve became recognized as a leader in the arena of educational media (a long way from feature films). The problem worsened because we still do features, so in a sense we’re like multiple companies under the same name.

To help solve the problem we set up several dba’s… Paladin Education, Paladin Transfers, and Paladin Audio now all fall under the umbrella of Paladin Media Group, a name that much more acurately depicts who we are and what we do. Of course for the motion picture side and for legal purposes we still use Paladin Pictures and Paladin Pictures, Inc.

The name Paladin dates back to the knights of Charlemagne who were charged with the task of preserving the values and virtues of their culture. That obviously has significance to who we are as a company, but a lot of folks only know the word from the old TV series and automatically think “have gun will travel”.

We do have occasional issues with how Paladin is pronounced (point #7) since it’s not a real common word. Some people put the emphasis on the wrong sylable while others butcher it by turning it into palladian or paladine.

I remember sitting in a diner back in 1991 with my original biz partner and a dictionary (point #11). As we wrote down all the possibilities for a name. It’s amazing the things you can come up with late at night with a waitress continually bringing you food and drink.

Thanks, Brad, and keep up the good work!