Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Suggest You - Choosing The Right Business Name
Mike Duke spent 16 years working for retailers that competed with Wal-Mart. So when he joined Wal-Mart's executive team, Mike had a pretty good idea of what made the discount retailer so tough to beat."When you thought you had Wal-Mart pegged," Duke once said in a magazine interview, "they'd be evolving into something else."Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, instinctively knew that great leaders create ideas that are the key to organizational growth and success. And while the leadership has changed since Mr. Walton's death, Wal-Mart maintains its industry leadership position because its leadership maintains its commitment to new ideas.Such a commitment goes beyond merely coming up with ideas. Sure, leaders come up with ideas. That's part of the job description. But if no one else generates and improves ideas, then the leader is onl
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember
A use case details a flow of events that are executed in order to accomplish some business task. A use case can be as simple as documenting how a help ticket gets escalated or as complex as defining how a customer gets charged for shipping parts of an order to multiple addresses.The term "actor" is used to define a role that a person or some object plays in executing a use case. The actor might be a Customer Service Representative who is processing a refund request, or a server that processes credit card transactions.Writing usable use cases is an excellent way to derive functional requirements and to the software development process as a whole.Often times new analysts, or people finding themselves in an analyst's role with no training or experience, often wonder what should go into a good use case. Although some organizations may ha
First, you will lose ground in the marketing arena -- it takes time and effort to build up BRAND RECOGNITION, and that time is lost when you change names. You may also lose customers to the competition -- what are they to think when they go looking for “Joe’s Mobile Car Wash” in the yellow pages and you’ve changed your name to “Fast and Easy Auto Detailing?” They might think that you’ve gone out of business and it’s time to find someone else to clean their cards. And finally, changing names can cause you increased PAPERWORK and EXPENSE -- changing your bank accounts, credit cards, marketing materials, incorporation documents, DBA registration, etc. So why not get it right the first time? Here are some suggestions for choosing a business name that will serve you well for years to come.
IS IT MEMORABLE?
When people hear the name of your company, will they be able to REMEMBER it 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours, or a week later? When they decide to hunt you up on the web or in the phone book, will they be able to easily recall your business name? It doesn’t matter if you are choosing a fictitious business name or using your own -- the same rules apply. Your name should be UNIQUE enough that it will stick in a potential customer’s mind -- “Smith’s Gym” isn’t going to be nearly as easy to remember as “Work That Body.”
You also want to stay away from names that are likely to be CONFUSED with another company. You may think it’s a cute idea to come up with a name that closely resembles (without exactly copying) another company’s name. But calling your personal coaching company “Joys-R-Us” is confusing, unoriginal, and likely to bring about a lawsuit! And beware of phrases or ACRONYMS that are overused in your profession. You wouldn’t believe how many Professional Organizers use some combination of words that spell out SOS (usually “Someone’s Organizing Solutions”). Your company will stand out more if your name is truly unique.
IS IT EASY TO SPELL?
However, the next question is “when they do recall it, is it easy enough to spell that they can immediately find your listing?” You want to stay away from challenging spellings and pronunciations. Calling your restaurant “Phine Phoods” is just asking for trouble -- how is your customer going to know to look under “p” instead of “f” in the phone book? And if your last name is Piccalopoupoulis, you may be better off creating a fictitious business name. A good rule of thumb to follow is to pay attention to what happens when you tell other people your name -- if you are always having to SPELL or PRONOUNCE it slowly, it will be hard for people remember and find later on.
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember
It all started with Jane Fonda. She started an industry with a simple video tape that included a 30 minute beginners program followed by a 60 minute full workout. For Jane it formed the nucleus of an empire that included books, audio recordings and fitness salons that are still in existence today. More importantly, capitalizing on Jane’s success, her workout tapes were followed quickly by everybody with a cut chiseled physique or a machine to help you work off those extra pounds and bring out those abs which quite unbelievably is bigger today than it was yesterday but not as big as it will be tomorrow.Like they say in the record biz, the hits just keep on coming. Everybody has jumped into the market through the years: Chuck Norris, Lou Ferrigno aka The Hulk from the TV show, even Governor Arnold tried his hand at it. Models, celebrities and just
IS IT MEMORABLE?
When people hear the name of your company, will they be able to REMEMBER it 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours, or a week later? When they decide to hunt you up on the web or in the phone book, will they be able to easily recall your business name? It doesn’t matter if you are choosing a fictitious business name or using your own -- the same rules apply. Your name should be UNIQUE enough that it will stick in a potential customer’s mind -- “Smith’s Gym” isn’t going to be nearly as easy to remember as “Work That Body.”
You also want to stay away from names that are likely to be CONFUSED with another company. You may think it’s a cute idea to come up with a name that closely resembles (without exactly copying) another company’s name. But calling your personal coaching company “Joys-R-Us” is confusing, unoriginal, and likely to bring about a lawsuit! And beware of phrases or ACRONYMS that are overused in your profession. You wouldn’t believe how many Professional Organizers use some combination of words that spell out SOS (usually “Someone’s Organizing Solutions”). Your company will stand out more if your name is truly unique.
IS IT EASY TO SPELL?
However, the next question is “when they do recall it, is it easy enough to spell that they can immediately find your listing?” You want to stay away from challenging spellings and pronunciations. Calling your restaurant “Phine Phoods” is just asking for trouble -- how is your customer going to know to look under “p” instead of “f” in the phone book? And if your last name is Piccalopoupoulis, you may be better off creating a fictitious business name. A good rule of thumb to follow is to pay attention to what happens when you tell other people your name -- if you are always having to SPELL or PRONOUNCE it slowly, it will be hard for people remember and find later on.
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember
If medical billing software companies let the inmates run the asylum, nothing would get done. Total chaos would be the least of your problems. So in order for a medical billing software company to run properly, you need a few department heads to keep the inmates in line. What follows is a review of the key people you will need, why and what they must be able to do.To start off with, you're going to need an overall manager to look over the whole company. The reason is because there must be a coordinated effort between programming, QA and support, otherwise there is a strong potential that the three departments will go off in different directions. If this happens, the end product, plus the support that goes along with it, will be shoddy and poorly supported. So this person, whoever you want to call him, must make sure that these departments al
You also want to stay away from names that are likely to be CONFUSED with another company. You may think it’s a cute idea to come up with a name that closely resembles (without exactly copying) another company’s name. But calling your personal coaching company “Joys-R-Us” is confusing, unoriginal, and likely to bring about a lawsuit! And beware of phrases or ACRONYMS that are overused in your profession. You wouldn’t believe how many Professional Organizers use some combination of words that spell out SOS (usually “Someone’s Organizing Solutions”). Your company will stand out more if your name is truly unique.
IS IT EASY TO SPELL?
However, the next question is “when they do recall it, is it easy enough to spell that they can immediately find your listing?” You want to stay away from challenging spellings and pronunciations. Calling your restaurant “Phine Phoods” is just asking for trouble -- how is your customer going to know to look under “p” instead of “f” in the phone book? And if your last name is Piccalopoupoulis, you may be better off creating a fictitious business name. A good rule of thumb to follow is to pay attention to what happens when you tell other people your name -- if you are always having to SPELL or PRONOUNCE it slowly, it will be hard for people remember and find later on.
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember
Jet Aviation has announced that they have been sold, pending antitrust clearance, to the Permira Funds a leading international private equity specialist. Ending several years of speculation, the Zurich based operator of business jet services has finally accomplished what had long been expected: the sale of the Hirschmann family business to outsiders.As early as 2000 the sale of Jet Aviation had been expected by employees as well as by industry insiders. Indeed, Jet Aviation management had been marketed openly throughout 2001 by Goldman Sachs, but the sale was cancelled when a suitable buyer was not found and the terrorist attacks put a further drag on an already downturning economy. Still, rumors of the sale of the company persisted and heated up recently with speculation that one of Warren Buffet's companies, i.e., Gulfstream Aerospace, may have
IS IT EASY TO SPELL?
However, the next question is “when they do recall it, is it easy enough to spell that they can immediately find your listing?” You want to stay away from challenging spellings and pronunciations. Calling your restaurant “Phine Phoods” is just asking for trouble -- how is your customer going to know to look under “p” instead of “f” in the phone book? And if your last name is Piccalopoupoulis, you may be better off creating a fictitious business name. A good rule of thumb to follow is to pay attention to what happens when you tell other people your name -- if you are always having to SPELL or PRONOUNCE it slowly, it will be hard for people remember and find later on.
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember
When a manufacturer does that occasional bit of bottom-line soul searching, the most fundamental determination to consider is which parts, products, customers, projects, and/or jobs are profitable. To this end, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is used to identify, assign costs to, and report on manufacturing operations. To a large degree, ABC is a more accurate cost management system than standard cost accounting in that it is able to identify places where the manufacturing process can be made more effective, essentially by determining the “true cost” of producing a product. Shop floor work centers are particularly suitable for ABC because they produce identifiable and measurable units of output. With ABC, management can define processes, identify the cost drivers of those processes, and determine the unit costs of products for performance based bu
This is particularly important if you are planning to turn your business name into a DOMAIN name. Websites with long or hard-to-spell names get overlooked during standard searches. And try to avoid having to include a hyphen or underscore in your name to make it appropriate for the web. Short, snappy, easy-to-remember names work best in the translation from brick-and-mortar to internet.
DOES IT DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY?
Will customers learn something specific, unique, or descriptive about your business, just from hearing the name? Will they get a feel for WHAT you provide or HOW you provide it? Many individual service providers try to sound like high-end firms by using some derivative of their first and last name for their company identity – “Joanna Carrol and Associates,” or “JC Consulting,” or “Carroll and Company.” But what does that really tell a potential customer about your company? I don’t know if you are an insurance agent or an attorney or a professional organizer. Include something in your name that describes your product or service -- “JC Graphic Design” -- so customers aren’t left WONDERING what type of business you have.
You can also include some information about those special CHARACTERISTICS that make your business DIFFERENT from the competition. Okay -- so you’ve told me that you are a printer. Why should I hire you instead of the printer down the street? You might be faster, cheaper, provide better quality, have more experience, offer a higher-end product, or provide more services than the other guy. If it’s appropriate and pertinent, include one or two of those traits -- “JC Full-Service Graphic Design” -- in your name.
DOES IT LIMIT YOU?
If you are joining an industry that allows for “branching out,” be careful about giving your company a name that traps you in a very small service area. For example, a company that starts out putting in tile floors -- but has plans to expand into vinyl, hardwood, and carpeting down the road -- wouldn’t want a name like “TileMasters.” Something more along the lines of “FloorMasters” will give the company the FLEXIBILITY they need to grow and change later on.
And if you have intentions of ever expanding your service area, you need to be careful about a GEOGRAPHICALLY limiting business name. “Hair Over Atlanta” isn’t going to work as well when you open locations in Seattle and Los Angeles and New York. Be sure to check the US Patent And Trademark Office’s online database (http://tess.uspto.gov) to make sure your name is available for national use before you start printing it on your cards.
You also have to stop and think about whether naming your company after yourself -- “Bob’s Bar and Grill” -- will limit you in a different way. If you have ever read “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber, you know that having customers identify your business as an EXTENSION of you brings about its own special pitfalls. You become indispensable to the company -- people get used to seeing Bob behind the counter every night and that’s what makes it “Bob’s” -- the business can’t run without you. And if you ever decide that you want to take a break, let someone else run the
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.suggestyou.com/article/8402/suggestyou-Choosing-The-Right-Business-Name.html">Choosing The Right Business Name</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.suggestyou.com/article/8402/suggestyou-Choosing-The-Right-Business-Name.html]Choosing The Right Business Name[/url]
Related Articles:
All You Need to Know About Classified Advertising - from a South African Perspective
The Power of Personal Branding
Bookmark it:
|