How To Generate Business Name Ideas And Choose

A Company Name
You’re lying in your bed. Tossing and turning. It’s 4:26 in the morning and getting back to
sleep is not going to happen. You’ve made a mistake. The mistake of turning on your brain.
You started thinking. Yes, you have, about a new name for your business.

All kinds of names fly by as you lay there, on your back, staring at the pitch black ceiling.
Some are pretty good. Some are too much like the names of other businesses you know.
Some are worth writing down, but you don’t have pen and paper nearby. And you don’t want
to break your creative flow.

Finally, you reach over to grab your phone and write down the short list of names you think
are absolutely awesome. But then… seeing them there, written down, reading them…
makes you second guess yourself. Now they seem somewhat less awesome.

You look to the side and back to your screen and back to the side again. And you’re
wondering if your spouse would mind if you woke ‘em up to ask their opinion…

At that point you get out of bed, take a hot shower and decide to google it for some
inspiration. There have to be others that went through this process.

Indeed there have…

Let me tell you how we came up with the name BizCoacher. And then I’ll give you some
additional tips that I researched for you, that might be helpful.

How We Generated Business Name Ideas And Chose

BizCoacher As Our Company Name.

Step1: Gather all the ingredients

The first thing we always do is describe what our (new) business does. From the customer's
perspective. That’s important. We write down our vision and mission statements. We think
about our target audience. Where they are. How they feel. What problems they may have
that we can solve.

We think of the effect our business will have on them, much more than what products or
solutions we provide. And then we write down some aspects that are specific to our plan.
Like the fact that we want to establish a multi-lingual community and we want to do that on
Facebook.
At this point, although we didn’t have a final version of the payoff or slogan we wanted to
use, we did have a draft. A working title if you will. In our case, the early draft version looked
something like this: “Offline Success Through Online Tools & Strategies.”

We knew we would want to create ‘tracks.' Very practical online step-by-step coaching and
guidance to start from scratch and reach a goal. Goals can be; make a website, set up a
Facebook page for my business, set up a mailing list, etc.

All of these things are just ingredients.

But together they build a deep understanding of your business in your subconscious. And
that helps when you need to come up with a good name.

So to summarize step 1, here’s what you can write down for yourself:

● What will / does my company do in the eyes (and words) of my customer?

● Company Vision Statement
● Company Mission Statement
● What is my target audience? (male, female, location, age, income, etc.)
● What feelings, problems, and emotions does my target audience have?
● What will the effect of my business be on my target audience?
● What products and solutions do I offer?
● What are some aspects of my plan / approach that are specific to my business?
● What is my slogan or payoff?

Step 2: Develop a feeling for your not-yet-existing business

Yes. Step 1 is a lot of hard work. But it’s also fun :-)

After thinking deeply about your business, you develop a certain feel for your business.
Subconsciously, you will know what words will fit and be appropriate for your company and
what words would not match at all.

This is important.

Summary of step 2:

● Just go through all the stuff you have gathered in step 1 and absorb it.
● Let it simmer for a few days.
● Then go to step 3

Step 3: Brainstorm names

First I’ll tell you how Robert and I do this. But further along in this article, I’ll share some
additional ways you can do this.
Is the domain name available

For us, since we make all of our revenue ONLINE and worldwide, the most important criteria
for the company name is if the .com is still available. No matter how nice the name might be,
if the .com is not free or for sale for a reasonable price, we move on.

I know, there are hundreds of TLDs (the extension behind the . of the domain name). But
unless the TLD can be half your brand name (like www.swifty.site) a .com is always better.
Especially if you sell worldwide.

When you are a local business, you might want to check if the domain name for your new
company is still available in your country TLD (domain extension).

In our case, the brainstorm and domain check go simultaneously. But you can do it in two
separate steps if you like.

Brainstorm environment and setup

So Robert and I sit across from each other with our laptops. We open a domain check in one
tab and thesaurus.com in another tab. And then we let our minds run wild.

We work in a cloud document like Google Docs or a card on Trello so that we see the names
that the other came up with. Seeing each other's ideas often sparks another idea or a twist of
what the other thought off.

Look for synonyms

Thesaurus.com is a great source to find synonyms for the words you want to use, but that as
a domain name are already taken.

Try phonetic spelling

Another idea is to try phonetic spelling of the words. A great example of this is of one of our
fellow Dutchmen; Joost De Valk. He is the founder and CEO of the wildly popular WordPress
SEO plugin called Yoast. His company name is based on his first name, which in English
sounds like “Dzjuiced” but in Dutch is pronounced, you’ve guessed it; “Yoast.” Brilliant. And
the .com was still available ;-)

Try descriptive names

We like a somewhat descriptive name. A name that reveals a bit about what the company is
about. SwiftySite (build a website fast). BizCoacher (business coaching).

Try non-descriptive names

You can also pick almost any random word and load it with meaning and significance
through your marketing later. That’s called branding. 75 years ago, my grandfather named
his furniture business Tiver. His name was Tiny Vermeulen, and he combined the first
letters of his first and last name. Joost came up with Yoast. But it can be any word. Think
Apple.

Keep it short and snappy

Think about it. The brands you know all have three syllables or less. Apple. Facebook.
Microsoft. Samsung. Toyota. Starbucks. Slack. Trello. SwiftySite. BizCoacher.

Then arrange the list in order of awesomeness.

Step 3 summary:

● Do a brainstorm.
● Make sure you have a brainstorming partner, preferably with a different character than
you.
● Use an online document of some kind so that you can see each other's ideas
● Check if the name is available as your preferred domain name.
● Use Thesaurus.com or your language equivalent to find synonyms
● Try phonetic spelling if it makes sense
● Try smart, somewhat descriptive words
● Or pick a cool word that you can load with meaning through branding later.
● Order the list in order of awesomeness

Additional Brainstorming Method

We didn’t use this method for ourselves, but I think it can work really well, so I included it for
your benefit. You decide.

● Gather a group of about five people.

● Have them go through the ingredients you’ve assembled in step 1, so they get a feel for
your business.
● Ask them to throw out words they associate with your company and put them on a
whiteboard or beamer. Anything goes. Nothing is rejected at this stage. Freedom rules.
● Then sit down in a circle around a table, all with a piece of paper and a pen.
● Everyone writes down five company names in 5 minutes. No talking. It’s important to
keep the timeframe short. Use a timer and call out 2 minutes left. 1 minute left.
● Then explain we love every idea for 5 minutes, slide the papers to the neighbor on the
right and ask everyone to come up with five more names that build on what the other
person came up with, but this time in 4 minutes.
● Then move the papers to the right again and do this one more time, now five names in 3
minutes.
● Now every page has 15 names. Slide the papers over to the right again, but now the job
is to circle or highlight the three best names on that paper.
● Slide the paper over to the right again and again circle the top three names. Some or all
may be the same as the ones that are already circled. But not necessarily.
● Gather all the papers and write down all the circled/highlighted names on a whiteboard,
flip over or beamer for all to see. You’ll have anywhere from 15 to 30 names at this point.
● Now have the individuals of the group vote for names. Each individual gets five votes
and can only give each name a maximum of 2 votes.
● This should bring you to a short list of 5 or so names that the group thinks are the best.
Of course, you as the owner, the founder, have the last word. But it’s smart to use the
wisdom of the group.

Step 4: Do some background checks

Is the domain name available?

Again, if you haven’t done so during the brainstorm, now is a good time to check if the
company name is available as your preferred domain name.

Are the social media names available?

It depends how important this is, but having your exact business name as a twitter handle or
facebook page name is pretty nice. Try to claim them as soon as possible.

Check with your local Office for Intellectual Property

You don’t want to spend a lot of money on business cards, flyers, website, and stickers on
your van, only to find out you are violating someone’s trademark. Changing all that can be
costly. So take a moment to check the IP office.

It’s not a problem if the trademark already exists. But it is a problem if it is registered in your
line of work. For instance, it’s perfectly fine if I want to name my oriental carpet company
“Apple.” But if I want to sell computers, the name Apple is off limits. Makes sense, right?

Get Feedback

Ask friends what they think of the name. How it resonates with them. Ask people on the
street. Ask your target audience. Make sure they know how to spell it, and otherwise register
the typo domain names as well.

Final thoughts

Now think back to that first moment, when you were alone with your thoughts, laying there in
bed, trying to figure out this name on your own... Unless you’re pretty good at it and have
done it a few times before, it can be tricky to generate business name ideas all by yourself.
Sure, you of all people will use the name all day every day. Hopefully for the next 20 years.
And it is important that you really like the name. But more importantly, your customers need
to like it. It’s intended for them. So it’s important to involve others in the process.

Until next time.

- Chris