Choosing the Right Business Name

Question

I am looking for a name for my business and all I can come up with is names that are already taken or are very corny. Is it important that the name of my business communicates clearly what niche I am aimed at (so that my target market knows I'm the one for them) or can I go for something either a bit more subtle (just because I like the name) or a bit more generic (in order to keep my options open)?

Answer

The Abundant Private Practices system really encourages you to make your practice all about you and be coming from your heart, this is key to your success in that your integrity and passion for your work come through your business. However, that is only true of the vision, mission and values of the business.

The next thing you need to understand is that your practice then becomes all about the client! In other words you need to let go of things you like, anything quirky, inside jokes or things you understand but the rest of the world doesn’t because you are going to confuse people. The name of your business is really important on two levels

1. Your business name needs to describe clearly what you do or at least describes it in conjunction with a tagline.

2. When people type a search string into a search engine like Google, the closer your name fits with words in that search string, the more chance you have of coming up near the top. This is invaluable if you have a website and these days a website is pretty much a given.

The clearer your business describes what you do, the easier it is going to be to get clients. Sadly this means that sometimes the name could be very boring or you could get very clever like the door company did that named itself “Well Hung Doors”. I love this business name because it totally describes what they do with lashings of humour. With a name like that though you better not get some boring person to come to hang doors that doesn’t have an ounce of humour. Your name needs to match the vision, mission and values of the company.

Therapists love to come up with exotic sounding names from Sanskrit messages or terminology from their modality or names like “Flowing River Sunset Rhythms” but unless you take river cruises with live music, this is probably not going to identify you as a natural therapy business that can sort out someone’s sore back – Julies’ Back Massage Service, although a bit boring, will work better to attract clients. If you can give your card to a 15 year old stranger and have them understand what you do, then your business name has hope of being understood by the general population. There is elegance in simplicity so keep it simple and obvious.

Anther key thing to consider is names that rank alphabetically in advertising etc – it’s always good to be at the top of an alpha listing, hence one of the reasons why I called my business Abundant Private Practices :-)