Getting Started: Choosing Your Business Name

The new web worker faces a myriad of decisions, from what to put on business cards to what business structure to choose. Running through many of these decisions is a single thread: what company name will you operate under? Even if you’re a one man show (as many of us are), having a corporate identity can help make you look more legitimate to potential clients as well as help you treat your own work more seriously.

Naming, though, can be tough. Some people get hung up here, agonizing over potential choices and unable to move on with starting their business. Others go with the first name that comes to mind, and regret it later. If you’re just launching your web work career (or thinking of a renaming), here are five basic points to keep in mind:

Unless you’re famous, don’t operate under your own name: Doctors and lawyers traditionally do business as “John Doe, a Professional Corporation”, but for most of the rest of us that just looks pretentious. It also doesn’t tell potential clients anything about what you do, and misses a chance to make a first impression.

Namestorm: Think about potential names, but try not to fall in love with any of them. Write a bunch down that sing to you. Try to come up with names that describe what you do, what’s great about you, or that inspire customers. Run them by friends you trust to see their reactions, but remember that you’re the one who has to live with the name. When you have a pool of names to choose from, then you can narrow it down to the one that seems best to you.

Don’t tie yourself to a technology:  “Rails Wizards” may sound great now, with Ruby on Rails flying high, but what are you going to do in five years when some other technology takes over the market share? At best, you’ll go through a painful renaming; at worst, you’ll be trying to convince potential clients that you’re not an outdated dinosaur.

You must get the dot-com: It doesn’t matter how great the name is, if you can’t get name.com, it’s not worth having. People will look for you at the dot-com even if you’re registered at one of the other top-level domains, no matter how often you emphasize the difference. A corollary: if your company name is not easily and unambiguously spelled over the phone, you’ll regret it.

Don’t ignore the legalities: After you find the perfect name for your business, you need to make sure you can legally use it.  This involves conducting a name search to make sure you’re not trampling someone else’s trademark rights. Nolo Press has an overview of the process.

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