Bookkeeper's Blog

First Things First!

I once had a client that operated his business for almost a year before he had to come up with a name.  He was an auto mechanic and working out of his home on the weekends and at night.  But when it came time for him to open up an actual commercial garage, he had troubles since every business name he wanted was “taken”.  Back then it wasn’t too much of a big deal, his only concern was advertising in the yellow pages – he didn’t want to be the second “Joe’s Garage” listing.  Just imagine the ramifications today of waiting so long in the not so simple task of selecting a business name.  Many more aspects come in to play today than yellow book advertising.

Speaking of yellow pages, who uses them any more?  Who advertises in them any more?  I would love to take those yellow page advertisers’s yearly ad budget and make a true impact on their business with Internet and social media advertising!

It is very important to have a business name well thought out and well long before you actually start doing business.  Sure you have to have a somewhat unique business name to be “legal” business entity in the State of Wisconsin, but I feel it’s much more important to have a unique business name for branding purposes.

I once was a partner in a real estate company called New Start Homes, LLC.  I was in charge of selecting the name of our company as my partner was not really concerned with it; he just wanted to get started.  I thought it was a catchy business name.  This was a New Start for me, a New Start for my partner, a New Start for the type of homes we were purchasing and selling (foreclosures). Many marketing possibilities existed just with that business name.  This was back in 1999.  We never did a thing with that name come to think of it, but the point is, Think Ahead!

In the State of Wisconsin, if you are going to operate an LLC (the most common business entity) your company name must be distinguishable from other businesses registered with the state.  For instance “Customized Business Services” is distinguishable form “Customized Business Solutions”, however, “Customized Business Inc.” is indistinguishable from “Customized Business LLC”.  Click HERE for a link to the State of Wisconsin’s FAQ page for further information and clarifications of all of the state’s guidelines.

Besides needing a legal unique business name, and one that is marketable, it must also be researched to avoid conflict or misperceptions with another existing company.  Obviously you wouldn’t want to create a company called “Hewlit Packard”, while it may be allowed to use in the State of Wisconsin, you might find yourself in a heap of trouble down the road.  Google the name and carefully review the results.

In general, here are my top suggestions for picking a company name:

1.  Make the name representative of what the company’s service or product is all about.  Sure you can always do a “dba”; but give some thought to your ultimate goal with this company.  Do you want to make it obvious as to your service or product such as “Wisconsin Tools, LLC”, or do you want to make it a little more vague, such as “Wisconsin Products”?  Take my company name for instance.  Customized Business Services is intentionally indistinguishable since I don’t want to limit myself to doing just one service.  If my company name was “Customized Business Consulting” I would never get a call to do bookkeeping – and vice versa.

2.  Make the name legal and distinguishable to avoid conflict with other registered companies and companies that may be out of state but still have a presence locally.  Be careful not to use a name that already has a trademark!  Use websites such as USPTO and ThomasNet .

3.  Make the name marketable, memorable.  Be creative.  Remember what we all thought of company names like “Yahoo” and “Google” when we first started hearing them.  Obviously this is contingent on your service or product you sell.

4.  Is the domain available?  I still feel .com is a must, some SEO experts will certainly challenge me on that, but remember if you use .com you can simply state “check out my website at Taylor Info Systems” instead of “check out my site at Taylor Info Systems dot NET or whatever the extension may be.  Grab the mobi, info, biz, etc. domains right away, they are cheap!  I know that my SEO friends will agree with me when I say having a keyword in your company name (and subsequent domain name) is a huge advantage.

5.  Branding.  How easy is it to brand your company name?  Branding is vital to company growth and either your company name can make it a somewhat easy task, or it may fight you the entire way.

6.  The name should not only be memorable, but easy to spell and pronounce.  Also, is there a way for you to stand out from your competitors just with your name?

7.  Avoid naming your company “Milwaukee This” or “Waukesha That”, unless you never intend to move or grow your company.  Location names, while easy to remember may limit you in the future.

8.  If your domain name is already taken, check out variations of the name.  I like GoDaddy’s website myself.  When you enter in a domain name, you can look at suggested variations they offer.  Maybe adding the word “Go”, “Best” or “Online” to your domain isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

These guidelines should help you in your company naming process.  You should also have a tagline or two come to you while naming your company.  If you can’t get it said in your company name, get it done in your tagline!