I’ve spent the better half of the last month trying to think of a name for my new company. It’s an incredibly challenging process. So, let’s talk about it.
A company name should be:
Memorable: Something that resonates with the audience. Catchy, but not too cliché, right?
Easy to pronounce or spell: You don’t want someone butchering your company name.
Searchable/ unique Tyson’s Social Media Group” is not unique enough. A friend of mine named his blog Artificial Simplicity. Good idea. Two memorable, distinct names. His blog comes up at the top of a search with those two names. (Hat tip to Scott Karamabis, @copia if you are keeping score at home)
Is the URL available? Probably not, but if you add “inc”, or “group” or “llc” to the name, you’ll have some luck- be creative….
Descriptive of your services and/or audience: Now this is where it gets tricky. How do you possibly do that in two or three words?
Active: If you name your company after you high school mascot, that’s great, but it’s a static name with no “real movement”. A company name I really love is from another friend who recently named his company “Ingage”. (www.ingageinc.com) It’s a terrific name that’s easy to remember, spell and it speaks to what he does as his business. (I thought of a similar name literally the day before we had coffee- darn it!)
A creative combination of everything I just mentioned. Now, I have to give a hat tip to Jim Spencer here who has recommended two good sites that are keeping me busy tonight and they are www.nameboy.com, www.makewords.com. There are a couple more I can’t remember right now, but Jim is a great resource for anything website related (and I highly recommend him check him out at www.jbspartners.com)
So, the company naming journey continues. Maybe there is some value in keeping it simple and naming my company “The Goodridge Group”?
There is a company name for me out there (ideas welcome), I just can’t find it tonight.
There’s a darn good reason why people charge good $$ to help name your company, it’s worth every penny. As an entrepreneur, I just wish there were more of those pennys to go around….
I met someone at a large software company the other day, and he asked a great (and pot-stirring) question- “So, Tyson, when is Twitter going to buy Google?”
Now wait a second here, Twitter couldn’t possibly buy Google… I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, but my guess is that it probably won’t happen.
But he gave a great example of the value of Twitter. Earlier in the day, he asked his twitter followers for some advice on how to add a watermark on a document.
He received a response in about 10 seconds, from a friend he trusted, and he got the information he needed right away.
Sure, he could have googled his question, but who wants to wade through pages of answers? Why not get your answers from a trusted follower?
Think about that for a moment….and keep thinking about that example as it relates to facebook, linkedin, ning or whatever community or social network you belong to.
If you’ve found the best plumber, real-estate agent, or interior designer, why not tell your friends about it? And if you are looking for something , why not tap your network first? Do you trust what Google search results have come up with?
Thoughts? Comments, let’s hear them.
