Hi there.
It's Sue.
And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
If you'd like to submit a topic,
DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped Today,
I'm going to give you a number of things to consider
while you're brainstorming the name for your business.
But I would be doing you a disservice.
If I didn't remind you that this is not the first
thing you should do,
when thinking about starting your business,
although it's naturally what you'd think you should do and what
most do.
Nope. The very first thing when considering starting your business is
to validate your product.
You can hear more about this in the tips and talk
66 episode.
And I walk you through how to do this in detail.
In my start with confidence program,
you can see more about that on my website.
Once you validated that there's a market for your product,
you're ready to start your business in earnest.
Now it's the time to decide on the name and register
it officially.
So how do you decide on that all important name?
There may be a name that you've been thinking about all
along, or you may be starting fresh by brainstorming all the
possibilities. Your business name is an important consideration,
but can also be a stalling point.
I've seen too many people spend weeks if not months with
their business on hold because they can't decide on the perfect
name. So my intent here is to help you along with
making a great choice,
or if you're wondering if the name you currently have could
use a refresh,
stay to the end,
to hear a story about just that to start with.
I want you to consider four things as you look at
your list of possible names.
First off,
is it SEO worthy?
If you have a name that strong for search engine optimization,
you can get found organically online more often.
That's a huge benefit to do this.
Make sure to add into your name at least one key
word that people will search for more on this later.
Second, confirm that you can acquire all the social media platforms
of the same name while not a must have.
It certainly makes life easier and presents you as a more
professional and stronger business.
Credibility and presentation is everything.
When someone finds you for the first time,
it's also best.
If your name doesn't need dashes dots or underscores,
it's much too hard to direct people with those hard to
describe and remember details,
which leads to 0.3
is the name of memorable.
This doesn't mean it has to be fancy or even unique,
but if someone has seen you online or been at your
craft show booth,
can they easily recall the name of your business later?
Sometimes simple can do the trick like Joyce's gift baskets.
Sometimes a little flare is just right,
like love that spice and 0.4.
Are you using the common spelling of the words?
This should be the general rule and a preferred option,
especially if there's another company selling the same thing as you
are, and has the commonly spelled words for their name.
If you add your own spelling,
twist, not everyone is going to remember that.
And you'll be driving a portion of your hard earned prospects
directly over to that other business.
Now rules are meant to be broken.
If you do want to add some spelling pazazz to your
name, make sure you can also get the domain of the
common spelling and then redirect it to the creative URL site.
This you can do only if someone else doesn't have it
already. Of course,
but if you're set on creative wording,
this will ensure that people end up on your website,
even if they enter the general spelling.
Okay? Now that we've got this initial checklist out of the
way, let's move on to some ideas to help you brainstorm
names. The first two are specifically strong to boost your SEO
potential location.
How about adding the name of your hometown to your company
name? This works particularly well.
If you live in a tourist area or your location as
well known for something people search location names all the time.
Bailey bill bake,
shop Santa Barbara,
gift baskets,
the Hershey gifting company.
These are all great examples.
The only reason I wouldn't add a location to your name
is if you think at some point in the future,
you'll be moving and taking the business with you.
On the other hand,
a strong location name could add significant value.
If you're looking to sell your company down the road to
product category,
think about including the name of your product.
Specifically Yankee candles.
Doesn't leave much doubt about what they sell yet.
It does add additional personality with the word Yankee.
The more general here,
the better,
although the popular general names,
aren't going to put you at the top of search.
When they're combined with other terms like candles,
Austin, Texas,
soy wax,
it can lead people directly to you.
These next three name brainstorming ideas.
Don't give you a lot of SEO,
but can be reviewed as options.
Adding your name as the maker.
This could be a great idea and definitely positioned to you
as the creator of your products.
However, if you do this plan to be front and center
and show yourself in video and images of the business,
having a name attached means nothing.
If I can't relate it to you,
Cassie from Cassie's country,
cupboard is an excellent example.
Here. You can also name your business after a late relative.
And if you do that,
make sure it's clearly understood with pictures and explanation of the
inspiration they provided that has resulted in the name.
Another idea is originality.
How about those businesses whose names have no correlation to what
they make at all?
They're just random interesting combinations.
I love these because they're so unique,
but be prepared to do a lot of informative marketing,
explaining what your business is since it won't be immediately apparent.
One thing that can help here is to add an image
along with the name as your official logo.
And finally,
what about an aspirational name by this?
I mean,
including in your name,
what the results are from using your products?
An example that comes to mind here is thrive.
The makeup line that gives back to various organizations to help
women do just that thrive.
Go read their story over at thrive,
cosmetics.com, so inspirational and a great example of an about us
page. By the way to summarize,
I've given you four guidelines and five idea generators around selecting
your business name.
What if you already have a name,
but it doesn't follow what I've been talking about here,
or you've been questioning for a while,
whether it's time for a name change,
perhaps you did what I cautioned about in the beginning.
And you have a name that no longer aligns with what
you sell.
Maybe you should change your name.
I know,
I know it's a major pain and you'll incur some costs
with a name change,
but the results may very well be worth it.
Within this last year,
I need a Houseman has seen the positive result of changing
her name for over 10 years,
her company was called treasured touch.
She's gone through her share of product validations adjustments and ideal
customer focuses.
And our business was steadily chugging along.
She was emotionally tied to the name and felt she put
in so much time into getting people familiar with it,
that she was way too far down the road to make
a change.
But deep inside,
she knew it wasn't a fit.
People didn't immediately know what she did,
which then required a lot of explanation.
Some people even thought she was a massage parlor.
I've been on her about her name for years,
and finally resigned myself to the fact that treasured touch was
here to stay.
I'm not sure exactly what prompted her to decide to make
a change,
but hurray,
it's now done.
Her company is now called the Hershey gifting company.
She lives in Hershey,
Pennsylvania, by the way,
her product focus has switched only slightly,
but the results have been dramatic.
I've observed an obvious change in the confidence and optimism as
she speaks about her company.
Now you can hear this for yourself because she shows up
regularly in the bashes.
She's also gotten a lot more visibility in online search,
which has led to significant new business.
And it goes without saying website,
traffic is up and all signs lead to more and more
growth. Anita still works really hard in her business,
but sales are coming easier.
And the way she presents her business feels in line and
powerful. This no doubt has helped with sales as well.
And her overall pride in her business,
whether you're choosing a business name for the first time or
thinking about making a switch,
review these points against your brainstorming list.
And I'm sure you'll land on the perfect one to add
some fun to the process.
I want to offer you a special gift.
It's an exercise that I'm pulling out of my makers MBA
program and is a fun lighthearted exercise.
You can even do with a few friends that can result
in a whole list of fun,
creative name options that most importantly reflect you to download your
copy, go to gift biz,
unwrapped.com forward slash name generator,
happy name,
creating. That's a wrap.
I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
of yours.
Share your handmade products with us.
We want them and they bring us both so much happiness.