What to Consider when Naming Your Business

So, you have gotten together all your information on the business you want to start and you are moving forward. Do you have a name for your business yet? Naming your business is a very important step. Here is some information you need to consider on picking your new business name.

What is in a name? Well there are actually many things to consider if you want your business to be a success. The first thing a person notices about your business is the name. Make the name of your business meaningful, think about the focus of your business and name it appropriately. You would not name your cleaning business "Bob's Company", that is not specific enough to let people know what your business is about.

Make sure the name you pick is easy to understand and pronounce. The reason is you want your business name to be passed along by word-of-mouth. That will be hard to do if people cannot say the name of your business. Short names are usually more memorable and less likely to be sources of confusion. Specific names make sense if you intend to stay in a specific area of business forever. If you plan to expand, however, you should find a name that is broad enough to accommodate your growth.

Make sure your business name is unique. You will have to fill out legal forms with your business intent and fictitious name you have selected. Your name must also be unique, since two businesses in the same geographic area cannot legally operate under the same name. You should have at least three or four alternative business names when you go to file, in case your first choice is taken.

Try your new business name of for size. Write down a list of possible business names and try them out on friends and family. Do not rush the process of deciding on a name, give it much consideration, and remember this name will represent your business. Keep in mind your business name must look good in print also, this will be the way most people encounter your business for the first time. Write the name out several ways; also experiment with how it looks in different sizes and type fonts. If your going to be located in a multilingual area make sure that your new name has no negative connotations in other languages.

After you have narrowed the field down to four or five names, you really like you should have a trademark search done. Many small businesses do not register their business names. As long as your state government gives you the thumbs up, you may operate under an unregistered business name as long as you like as long as you are not infringing on someone else's trade name.

To give you an idea of the risk you run of infringing on an existing trademark with your new name, consider this: when NameLab took on the task of renaming a chain of auto parts stores, they uncovered around 87,000 names already in existence for stores of this kind. This is a good reason you should have a trademark search for your business name. Ensuring that your business name is going to be federally registerable in important. Also, make sure that the individual states you are going to do business in will let you conduct business under that name. Obtaining the assistance of a trademark attorney or at least a trademark search firm before you decide on name is highly advisable. It may cost you extra money to begin with, but it will save you many headaches and more money in the end.

Now if you have decided on your name you will need to fill out a DBA (doing business as). Procedures for doing this vary among states. In many states, all you have to do is go to the county offices and pay a registration fee to the county clerk. In other states, you also have to place a fictitious name notice in a local newspaper for a certain amount of time. The cost of filing a fictitious name notice ranges from $10 to $100. Your local bank may also require a fictitious name certificate to open a business account for you.

In many states, corporations do not have to file fictitious business names unless they do business under names other than their own. If you have one business that is a corporation, incorporation documents will have the same effect as fictitious name filings do for sole proprietorships and partnerships.