Isn’t this the first thing to do when coming up with a business or a book or any venture? Gotta name it.
As much as I’d argue to do the hard work first, I know we won’t. We sell ourselves on the idea that we can’t take any steps until we have the name down. That’s okay as long as we don’t take forever to come up with a name. (That’s where I come in.)
The first two tips came from yesterdays post: choose a name that incorporates something common and something uncommon. Here are five other tips to picking a name:
1) Forget words that start with A and words that are only three or four letters long. It’s unnecessary. If the business is remarkable enough, we’ll remember all the letters. There are very few people who will forget www.projectexponential.com (HT Michelle Welsch)
2) Understand that people need to pronounce it. Here’s some hard to pronounce brands. Want to discover even harder business names? Google companies that store and sell private information like Acxiom, Epsilon, BlueKai, V12 Group. All businesses that don’t want to be found.
3) Make a list of all the words associated with what you do and how you want your customers to feel. Breaking out the thesaurus will help here. Mix and match the words to follow tip number four.
4) Combine two words. Squid-do, Garth-box, Copy-blogger, Skyy-Gamut, and so on. Think of it like a phone number with “www” being the area code.
5) Don’t listen to what anyone thinks. Don’t ask for your family’s opinion. Don’t run it by a friend. YOU decide the name. I attempted to explain yesterday that you make the name, the name doesn’t make your book, your business, your venture. People never attributed Apple with design until Apple gave them a reason to. People never attributed millions of photos with Flickr until Flickr showed them they could.
That’s the scariest part of it all, isn’t it?
If you’re relying on the name to give you the leverage, the exposure, the attention you think you deserve – well, you’re in for one hell of a lesson.
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