How to Avoid a Business Naming Disaster

An entrepreneur of my acquaintance, in a rush to get his new company up and running, launched his new online publishing venture with a press release and great industry fanfare. Not three days later, he received the kind of letter business owners dread: a cease-and-desist request from the lawyer for a company that said the name of the new venture infringed on their trademark. Ouch! My colleague held emergency brainstorming sessions with his cronies, registered a new domain, announced the name change, only to receive a barrage of criticism from British and Australian colleagues that for them, the new name had negative and even somewhat obscene connotations. He changed the company name and corresponding URL again. Quadruple ouch! The moral of the story: Names matter. In your inventor's zeal for getting the technical stuff right, don't leave a blank for the company name and then pick one at the last minute. Take the time to choose a business name that has these characteristics: * Suggests the content or subject area of your business * Has pizzazz * Makes a positive impression on your target market * Can be easily spelled and pronounced * If the company will mainly do business online, corresponds to an available domain * Is legally available for use Tips for Brainstorming Names A comprehensive, free guide to brainstorming a winning company name can be found at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=6da0uq.1.1 Canada: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ Australia: http://www.companies.govt.nz/pls/web/dbssiten.main Name your venture well! Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and ten other books hailed for outstanding creativity. Find out more about her new discount naming company, Named At Last, which brainstorms new company names, new product names, tag lines and more for cost-conscious organizations, at http://www.NamedAtLast.com