by Heather Skelly

What's in a Name?
Give your new business a boost with a winning name

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”

While this sentiment may be true for Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, a name means everything when marketing your business. It can help establish customer loyalty, define your business and product to consumers, and separate your business from the competition. In short, it can make or break your company, so the task of developing a business name should not be taken lightly.
“If you’re like most small-business owners, your company means a lot to you — in some ways, you consider it your baby,” says Terri Lonier, president of Working Solo, a New York strategic planning company for small and home-based businesses. “You’ve planned for it since its conception, nurtured it from birth, given it tender loving care, and have great hope for its future. It makes sense, then, to name your business with the same care that you would name a child.”

Corporate branding expert Naseem Javed, author of “Naming for Power,” agrees. “The selection of a name is an incredibly sensitive exercise.” Javed cautions that there are crucial factors to consider when choosing a business name, including creativeness, suitability and availability.

WHEN BAD NAMES HAPPEN TO GOOD COMPANIES

In this day and age of global commerce, large companies are forced to think of names that not only make sense in their home market, but in markets abroad as well. Case in point, the “Naming Newsletter” (www.namingnewsletter.com) reports that when Estee Lauder developed a new fragrance, Country Mist, it sort of hit the fan in Germany … “mist” is slang for “manure” in German. And when Japan’s second largest tourism office branched out into English speaking countries, they were mystified by all the crude phone calls they received. Kinki Nippon Tourist Company eventually changed its name.

5 steps to developing a business name

While artists and gallery owners rarely compete on the global scale that businesses such as Xerox and Microsoft do — who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop name and brand recognition — your business name should mean as much to you as Microsoft does to Bill Gates. You want your business name to be recognizable to consumers and synonymous with a good product. Lonier recommends keeping the following guidelines in mind when naming your business:

1. Make the name meaningful. Your business name is a powerful marketing tool; Lonier suggests avoiding vague names that are irrelevant to you or your product. However, using your own name can be an effective strategy. Some people, especially artists and designers like to include their names. This can help personalize your business or product, says Lonier.
2. Make sure the name is easy to understand and pronounce. This is especially important for artists and retailers who rely heavily on word-of-mouth to boost sales. Lonier suggests keeping the name short and memorable.
3. Choose a name that you can live and grow with. If you’re a retailer called George’s Glass and decide to branch out to selling pottery, fiber and wood, the name of your business won’t convey that to potential customers. Choose a name that gives your business room to grow; one that doesn’t pigeon-hole you into too specific a category.
4. Make it unique. Since you will need to
   file legal forms indicating the name of your business, choose something unique. No two businesses in the same geographic area can legally operate with the same name, so it’s a good idea to choose a few alternates when filing.
5. Try it on for size. Before you file your name and have it printed on business cards and packaging, spend a few days with it and get other people’s opinions.

I’ve chosen a name, now what do I do?

Once you’ve developed the name you want for your business, it’s time to legally make it yours. The first step is to check if another business already owns the name. For business names that have been registered at the federal or state level, Nolo.com, an online self-help law center, recommends doing a name search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site at www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tmebc/index.html, or through your home state’s Secretary of State office.

For unregistered business names, it’s a little trickier. A search on the Internet may reveal whether your proposed business name is already in use, or you may have to look to other resources. Nolo.com recommends searching on the Thomas Register Web site, www.thomasregister.com, and
the Network Solutions Web site, www.networksolutions.com.

Another way of determining if a business name is already in use is to search through your county’s fictitious names databases for unregistered trademarks. Your county clerk’s office can do this for you and will tell you if other databases exist in your state that need to be searched. And if you’re forming a corporation, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) or limited partnership, your state filing office can tell you if your proposed business name, or one similar to it, is already in use.

Seal the deal and own the name

If you’re organizing your business as a corporation, LLC or limited partnership, your business name will become yours under the articles of incorporation. It is protected from any other business in the state in which you’re incorporated from using it.

But if you plan to operate a business with a name other than the legal name (the one used for the articles of incorporation) or you’re not incorporating your business, Nolo.com recommends registering your name in a government fictitious names database. Depending on your state, this can be done through the county clerk’s office or the Secretary of State’s office, and costs around $50. Without this registration, you aren’t able to enforce any policies under your business name or open a banking account for your business.

For added protection, you may want to consider registering your business name as a trademark. If your business operates across state lines or has various locations in different states, you may be eligible for a federal trademark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark filing forms are available at www.uspto.gov, along with detailed instructions for filing. Protection usually costs around $325 and lasts 10 years before re-registration is required.

The most important thing to remember when developing your business name is to have fun. “After all,” says Lonier, “you’ll be spending a lot of time with this baby.”