Consistent and unique? 11 steps to 'own' your business name.

You’ve had an idea for the name of your new business. Great.

One that accurately represents what you are doing, gives a flavour of who are you are and what your customers or contacts can expect from you.

It’s not simple, that’s for sure. But let’s say you’ve come up with a name you are happy with.

Now the fun starts!

Put that into your search engine. See what comes up.

You might need to rethink? Do not be disheartened. It’s all part of the process. It’s essential to put the time into getting the right name before you start.

Finding a unique name is important so that when your target audience googles it, you are found, no messing around.

When you type in your preferred name in the search engines, you want to see ‘no results found’ ideally.

This is not utopia, although it may seem that way at first. You might need to be creative and think outside the box. But getting the right name for your business sets the scene for everything else and can in itself spark marketing and promotional opportunities so don’t skimp on this.

It will take time and thought, but you’ll be so grateful when you’ve got the right name. Changing a business name after a year or so is costly and can feel like starting again. So get it right to start with!

1. Size is important! Try to make it 15 or under letters (so you can have it as a complete twitter handle). If there are others using your name, check to see what business they are in, you don’t want to confuse your target audience.

2. Consider adding ‘craft’ or ‘music’ or ‘bakes’ or ‘uk’ to differentiate it for your customers to find you.

3. Now check out the name with the word twitter after it in your search engine. You need a unique twitter handle which is as close to the original name as possible.

4. Put the word or name into facebook, all one word no spaces

5. Put it into instagram (if you use it)

6. Once you’ve got a name that you can run across all the platforms successfully, (at the very least twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and Google-although instagram is essential for visual products), go into the search engine again and type .co.uk after your desired name. If that’s not there are you’re a UK business, consider .com but be aware people will generally search for .co.uk so again, you don’t want to lose your hot leads.

7. If the desired domain is available buy it there and then! Doesn’t usually cost much, under £20 for 2 years for most unused name domains. This isn’t your website site hosting plan, just to buy the name.

8. Then go back and set up a twitter account. For this you’ll need a unique gmail account, if you’ve got a gmail account and not currently a twitter user, you can use this email. For others who already have one personal twitter account, you’ll need to set up a new one, as you need a unique email name for each twitter account. It’s easy and free. Usually it works to have the mynewbusinessname@gmail.com handle for ease.

9. Then when you’ve got that (takes minutes) go into your existing twitter account (if you have one) and click on ‘manage my account’ and click on ‘add account’. Simply add your new gmail account and then pick a password. And voila you’ve got your unique twitter handle for when you’re ready to set it up. No one else can use it, that’s the main point of doing this. You can come back to this in a few days unless you already know what you’re putting on your profile (unlikely if it’s a very new business at creation stage). So don’t panic. You’ll get there soon enough.

10. Then go into facebook. Go onto your personal account (set one up if you don’t have one) and then ‘manage account’. Go into the ‘+’ button at the top next to your picture and a pop down menu will appear. You want to ‘add page’. Then follow the instructions with your business name @alloneword. No spaces.Your password will be the same as your personal one so don’t worry about that.

You don’t have to do anything else at this stage, although you will be encouraged by facebook to write some words. No need, no one will see it til you start sharing it anyway. And like with twitter, you can come back and populate that when you’re ready.

11. Then go into LinkedIn. Either add the brand and update your personal page or set up a page for your business.

Hope you find this step by step process helpful. If you’ve got any questions, please email me on Helen@thomsontraining.com