Bizness Magazine: How to choose the right name for your business

A friend of mine just launched a new business magazine for Anglos in Israel called Bizness Magazine. He asked me to write an article answering a question and I chose the topic of  ”Choosing the right Name for your Business”.  Below is what was published.

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Choosing the right name for your business is one of the most important decisions you can make and yet if often the one that most people spend the least amount of time and money on it.
First impressions may not be everything, but it certainly does make an immediate impact.
Perceived Value is really what marketing is all about. Think about it, marketing is all about trying to get you to believe in the value of a product for more than the actual product is worth. If not, then no one would ever make a profit . The more they increase the value in your mind the more you are willing to pay for it.

That is why people are willing to pay $3.00 for a bottle of Perrier when they can get the same water with a Shop Right label on it for $.89.

Here are some important rules when choosing a name for your company:
• Shorter is Better
• Must be easy to spell
• Must be easy to pronounce
• Ask as many family and friends as you can if they like the name
• Make sure the name is not confusing with other businesses in your area
• Check to see if there is a Trademark or Copyright on the name you want to use
There are websites and companies that can help you choose the perfect name for your company and very often at a low cost. One place to check out is http://www.crowdspring.com/company-name

Now if you are starting a business online then there are a whole set of further rules you will need to follow in terms of choosing the proper domain name and utilizing the best extension.
Domain names are like online Real Estate. The better the quality the more it will cost you.
Perceived value kicks into high gear here. If you are selling furniture online and your domain name is furniture.com, then when you call a manufacturer, they will always take your call and give you better service then if you were to call and say you were from DovidsHemisheFurniture.com.

Chances are the domain you most want is probably registered already and may even be in use, but up to 80% of domain names that are registered are not yet in use and can in most cases be purchased.

Don’t be afraid to spend money on the perfect name for your business. If you are going through all the efforts of creating a business that will hopefully earn you tens of thousands of dollars a year, then paying even $10,000 for the right domain name could be money well spent. Each week there are domains that sell for the hundreds of thousands and sometimes even in the millions of dollars. You can check out http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm to see what sells each week.

The idea is to get as close to a perfect name as you can for the product you are selling. For example, I recently paid a couple of thousand dollars for the domain name KidsOutlet.com. I bought it because I know it is one of the best names to sell children’s products online. It’s a great name because:
1. It is very easy to remember
2. It is a “.com”
3. The term “Kids Outlet” is searched more than 33,000 times on Google each month in the USA
4. Has a very high perceived value. I know that when calling a vendor to sell their products through my site they will answer my call.
Since purchasing the name with a partner we have raised 5 figures and have found a couple of other partners in the States and we hope to launch in September. (You can sign up at http://kidsoutlet.com now and we will let you know as soon as we launch)
Purchasing this perfect name was the driver that enabled me to bring on partners and raise funds to launch this company.

(By the way, you can search to see how many times “keywords” are searched by following this link: http://goo.gl/7kgFB)

So where do you go to look for a name? To see if a name is available you can register a .com name for under $10 at Dynadot.com or name.com, but if the name you want is taken you can try buying it from the owner if his name is listed. To see who the owner of a domain name is follow this link: http://www.whois.net You will then have is email address and you can make an offer via email. Keep the email very informal and don’t use a business email address. If they think you have money they will try to sell it to you for a higher price. I always use a secondary email account and write something like this:

Subject: DomainIWant.com
Hey, I saw you have the name domainiwant.com and that you are not using it, I was thinking about using it for a project I would like to work on. Are you selling it for a reasonable amount?
Thanks so much,
Richie

I keep it very informal and sometime I will put in spelling mistalkes on purpose and use my nickname etc..

Now if you can’t get the name you want then you should go to the secondary markets and see what names are available that will fit your business. Very often you can find a great name for a reasonable price. One place to look is http://sedo.com. I have sold many names there. Another place is a domain name forum like NamePros.com. I have bought and sold hundreds of domains there.

Now even though .com is King, there are a lot of Queens out there. If your market is in Israel then you may want to use the .co.il extension and very often can find a great name. Getaways.co.il is an example of a company I co-founded that uses this.

Another popular extension is .TV. .TV was the extension given to the Tuvalu Islands. They really lucked out since “TV” is the most popular two characters in the world. Many years ago a company offered to market and sell domains with their extension and this has become a major source of income for Tuvalu.

If you are starting a video centric website then .TV name may be a good extension to go with as well.

One other very important area that you must pay attention to is “Social Media”. Social Media can be huge for your business since it relies heavily on friends telling their friends about topics, products, and brands that matter to them most.

The two largest sites that you should try and get your company name for is FaceBook and Twitter. Of course all the good names are taken. To see if your name is taken on Twitter just type in the url: http://twitter.com/yourcompanyname. If the name is available you will see a page that says “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!” Then you are free to register it.

With Facebook, you will need to set-up a “Page”. You can create a page for free and learn more by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages

In order to get a custom FaceBook link like http://facebook.com/israpreneur you will need at least 25 people to “Like” your page. Once you do you will be able to choose a custom name.

A quick way to get 25 likes without asking all your friends is using a site called Fiverr (http://fiverr.com). There you can find people that will get you 25 liked (and many other services) for just $5.00.

It is very important to try and use the same name for your domain name, twitter handle, FaceBook Page etc. This will strengthen your brand and make it easier for customers to find you.

There is a lot more to say on choosing the right name for your business, but space is limited. It is no doubt something that is worth putting time and effort into and should not just be an afterthought.

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