Starting your own business:

Company name

You have developed your business idea, finished your market research, and now you need to decide on a name. The name must earn your potential customer's attention and trust. Start considering names in the beginning stages once you have determined your field of business. Use a serious name for a serious company. Use a fun name for creative company or a company that markets children.

Before you finalize your company's name, consider logo design concepts. They are difficult to capture on the first try. This is why a company should provide a designer with more information than just the company name. Consider the type of qualities you would like your company to portray. There are various logo design styles that portray different qualities. If you want to represent a very aggressive, high tech, corporate, and cutting-edge company, you should not come up with the name like 'Sloopy' or 'Scroochy'. Belive it or not, some of the names for clients in the past have been so inappropriate that it is not worth mentioning. The logo would look like Tinker Bell in a hockey Helmet!

Here are a few of the most important rules to consider when coming up with the best possible name:

• Shorter is better. It is easier to remember names like Nike as opposed to 'Kransferst Bayer Colombo Association of Michigan'.

• Make sure the name is easily pronounceable. It's very hard to pronounce 'Shmakhtnik', 'Kchichkus' or 'Xsassassas'.

• It may be helpful to get the name to match your companiy`s philosophy. For example a strong solid company should use strong, bold names such as: 'Bamm', 'CastleDom', or 'Gong'. A HighTech company could use a more creative name such as: 'Ampex', 'Freebee', 'Ciriu'. Design companies can use even more creative names such as: 'Venturius', 'BlueFrog', 'BlackInc'

• Try to relate the name to the field of business. For example; A food company - 'Bacon House'. An office supplier - 'BluePin'. A construction company - 'Golden Brick'

• Create a recognizable image. Come up with a meaningful name like an object name or word that has some kind of meaning like: 'Penguin Solution', 'Flying Frog', 'Walking House', or 'Yellow Pot'

• Do not forget your business's targeted market. Home insurance companies target a more mature market. It would be an absurd to use a name like 'HipHop BangBang Solutions'

• A good way to test your company name is to tell it to your friends and ask them if they remember it in a week.

This of course is not a complete guide to selecting a name, but these are some of the major factors to consider. There are also factors like personal preference, company location, specific market interests and many, other aspects.