Developing a Business Idea
6 January 2025
Building Your Organization
16 February 2025
One of the most important and potentially challenging steps of starting a business is choosing the name of your enterprise. Naming your business or products is a serious matter. The name you choose can play an integral part in the marketing of your company. The right business name will help distinguish you from competitors, provide your customers with a reason to hire you, and aid in the branding of your company. However, your enterprise name won’t make up for serious deficiency in your business operations. Even if you have an idea of what to call your business, there are several rules of thumb to ensure you choose the best one:
Wording – Avoid being too clever, cute or subtle with a message that only some people might understand.
Acronyms – It’s temping to abbreviate your name by using an acronym, but as a small enterprise owner you don’t have the resources and/or marketing muscle to educate your market on what your acronym means.
Trademark infringement – If you choose a name that is the same as or like a well-known brand name for a similar product or service, you are likely to be asked to change it or be accused of trademark infringement. You can use a similar name for your business if another company uses it in an unrelated market or industry.
Geography – Including geographical references in your name can be limiting. If you include ‘international’ or ‘global’ you might detract from the position of being a highly focussed specialist. On the other hand, using a local geographical reference such as your town can limit your expansion options. A better option is to include any geographical reference in your tagline, which can always be changed.
Your own Name – While it is a good ego trip, it is not usually a good idea to name the company after you or a family member. It makes you sound like a small enterprise, and it can be less attractive to a prospective buyer if you choose to sell.
Website – In order to be consistent and help consumers remember your enterprise, try to make your web address the same as your company name. For best results, choose a domain with no hyphens or periods to make it easier for people to speak and understand how to reach your website.
URL Availability – Before moving too far along in the process, ensure that the domain name is available and not too similar to someone else. You not only wish to avoid lawsuits, but you don’t want people mistakenly to be routed to other companies. Part of your availability search should include a domain name search. If your business name is not available as a domain, you can consider using an abbreviation or an alternate top-level domain extension, such as ‘.net’ but not if competition owns ‘.com’. If you intend to do business in Canada, then .ca may be the best option since international companies must meet the “Canadian Presence Requirements.
- A corporation that is either nationally or provincially incorporated (including a Canadian subsidiary of a foreign entity)
- A Canadian citizen or a Canadian permanent resident
- A person who owns a trademark in Canada (but only where the domain name consists of or includes the exact word component of the registered trademark)
The Naming Process
- Identify the Fundamental Nature of Your Business
The best way to start the process of choosing a name for your business is by listing the key attributes. Consider your mission statement, your business plan, and your distinctive value. And don’t forget to think about your target audience and what you learned about it in your market research. Some considerations:
- What do you want people to think and feel when they see your business name?
- What are the names of your competition? What do you like and dislike about those business names?
- What message do you want to portray through your business name?
- What are your biggest priorities for your business name? Do you want it to be easy to pronounce, different and unique, directly related to your products and services, etc.?
- What is your business structure, and will your business name use a related abbreviation, such as Inc.?
- Does the length of the name matter? If so, do you want a short name or a longer name?
- Brainstorm the ideas
Conduct a series of brainstorming sessions, some with just you, some with a colleague or partner, to come up with as many business name ideas as possible. During your brainstorming, keep the essence of your business in mind, but also let your ideas flow unrestricted. Some common ways to start a brainstorming session include brain dumping, list-making, mind mapping, and word association. Write down words associated with your business on slips of paper and then mix and match in different combinations to generate business ideas.
- Let it Gel
As you sift through your ideas, it’s important to let your preconceptions and biases settle before you create your shortlist of best possible business names. After completing your brainstorming session(s), it’s time to review and analyze and narrow down your results. Go through your list and remove any non-contenders, sort similar names, and mark the names that immediately resonate with you. A few things to consider when identifying the best names:
- Does the name indicate what your enterprise is all about?
- Does it distinguish you from your competition?
- Is it easy to remember?
- Is it easy to pronounce, which is becoming increasingly important with the use of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant?
- Register Your Business Name
Protect your business name by registering it with your provincial or federal authorities. As well, you will need to register your corporation, which will also register your business name. It’s not required, but you may also want to register your business name as a trademark, to protect it from use by someone else.
Choosing a business name can be a lengthy process, but it is well worth the time you put in. Once you have chosen your business name, not only have you made a significant step toward officially launching your new venture, but you have also started branding your business and carving out your own niche in the small business world.
Over his long career Bob has held senior business development roles in both large corporations and SME in multiple industries including: medical devices and services, software development, environmental products & services and industrial & commercial products. After retirement he helped many organizations as both a consultant for his firm SoftAdvantage and
as a volunteer mentor. Bob is a graduate engineer.