What’s in a name? A lot, actually. When you’re deciding on the word that’ll stick into any potential customer’s head when they first hear about your product. You may be further on your way to choosing the right name for your business by avoiding these eight mistakes:
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Trying to outsmart a successful large company by using a clever knock-off of its name. Big companies have expensive lawyers, and as an entrepreneur, you probably don’t. Keep this in mind even when designing your logo—the number of lawsuits involving cases where a certain famous mouse’s image was used either deliberately or accidentally is nearly legion!
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Using personal or family names. Unless it is your intention to keep the business forever in the family, just don’t do it. It’s more likely that you’ll want to sell the business at some point, and a name that you have branded will add to the value. Unless, of course, you’re like the someone who came up with the idea for that famous mouse and get immensely lucky.
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Choosing a name that’s difficult to spell or pronounce. Avoid homophones like to, too, and two, as they may be misinterpreted or misspelled in searches. Imagine, if you will, the shock of someone searching the Web for a line of children’s pants that you cleverly named “Bear Bottoms.” The PR you’d receive would be the stuff of legends, but that’s not the kind of press you want your product to encourage.
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Not researching what the name could mean in a foreign language like Spanish, French, or German. Opening a restaurant with the name “The Gate” may seem harmless enough until your realize the word means “spoiled” in French.
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Not performing an Internet search. Make sure the reputation of any similarly named company is solid. You don’t want people thinking your company is a similar one with a horrible reputation. (We’ve wisely decided not to give any examples, but please don’t name your investment firm Madoff & Madoff)
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