Selecting a name, be it for a person or a business, always involves many suggestions, dilemmas, and sometimes regrets. Imagine naming your business Curl up and dye salon and living with it after it takes off. Also, every time someone asks you to explain the name, the atmosphere becomes awkward. The name of your business plays a significant role in creating the first impression of your customers. Thus, before you name and add your business with legal paperwork, make sure to check whether your business name is appropriate. You might have heard many suggestions that would help you name the company, but we would like you to list some mistakes that you should avoid.

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1. Don't flaunt your vocabulary too much

To keep it unique, it might be tempting to go with an overly clever or technical one, but know that it would not stick with the customers. A company name that requires the customers to Google the spelling before searching will never take off. Thus it would be best to avoid complex and tricky words. 

You can merge two words to create a unique name or choose a fun one, but you need to spend much more on advertising. For example, GoDaddy was a fun name that quickly caught on but created great confusion about the business. Thus they had to develop extensive and campaigns to promote the brand. 

2. Don't settle with a plain one either

We are aware that this point might be contradicting the previous one, but it's all about the intensity. Avoid both extremes, and go with a unique but relevant name. 

For example, your business will never attract a customer's attention when named a tasty restaurant or good salon. These names lack uniqueness, and despite being easy, are hardly memorable. On the other hand, "The boring company" is one of the good examples since it is a unique and quirky name for a company that will provide boreholes around the cities for creating extensive subterranean roads. 

3. Avoid making the name too local

When you reach the inevitable block while selecting the name, it might be tempting to choose the easiest one, like naming it after your town, city, or suburb. This also lacks creativeness, and remember that most people will also make the same choice after being frustrated. 

Also, your business might expand in the future, and you cannot keep the same suburb name when you want to open a branch in a different area since changing the business name can be costly. Thus, keep the expansion in mind even if you haven't planned any, and go for a more global representation. 

4. Choosing a name without doing trademark search

There is nothing more frustrating than fixing a business name and framing the marketing strategies only to know that someone else has already been using it. Even for a tiny business, you cannot use a similar name if another company has already claimed it by trademark rights since you can get a cease and desist letter in the future for illegally using the name. Start with a simple Google search and seal it with a professional trademark search before fixing a particularword. 

5. Finally, do not underestimate feedback

It would be easy to fix on a name you love and just run with it. But when you discuss it with a third person, you might get a new perspective that you would have missed. 

For example, the initial name chosen for Amazon was Cadabra, as in abracadabra. But when Bezos floated the idea to his lawyer, all he heard was Cadaver, and thus the name got changed to Amazon. Therefore make sure to discuss your idea with several people and take into account user feedback. 

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One cannot underestimate the importance of naming a business. However, there is much more to making your business visible to your potential customers. For a great start, add your business to our small business listing since we have been helping small businesses generate more leads for over 20 years. Interested? Click here.