(Newswire.net — February 8, 2019) — Choosing the right name for your business is a critical decision. Fail to pick the right name and your business could be negatively affected and end up in an undifferentiated bundle with all your competitors. Unfortunately, many of today’s startup founders and business owners fail to pay enough attention to this core business development step – a step that larger companies regularly pay up to $50,000 or more to have accomplished. If you want to take a shot at choosing a name for your business or startup without relying on professional help, we’d like to provide some pointers and also five tools you can use, described by the world’s first Super Venture Partner™, IdeaPros:
First of all, the worst thing you can do when naming a product or a company is asking your friends, family or general consumers. Why? The names that are the most powerful are names that are evocative and even contain some “negativity” to them. Let’s provide some examples to illustrate:
- You want to start a new computer company. Your competitors are IBM, Microsoft, Digital Equipment, and several other “industrial” type names. Go ahead – do a consumer survey. Tell them you want to name your company after a fruit. You wouldn’t get one thumbs up from a thousand people. Yet, APPLE is the wealthiest company in the world and one of the most recognizable brands.
- You’re in the airline business. Your competitors are British Airways, Air France, Japan Air, American Airlines. How many of your friends are going to tell you that VIRGIN would be a great name?
- Caterpillar? For huge, indestructible, earthmoving equipment?
You get the point. A naming exercise is truly best left to the professionals. Same with logos. Otherwise, your company is going to end up like what could have happened to Blue Ribbon Sports. Their CEO was thrilled with the name, and the sneaker logo. It was so obvious that anyone would know what they sold – and that would be good, no? NO! Being obvious and explanatory is the worst thing you could do. Finally, the CEO of Blue Ribbon Sports reluctantly agreed that he would try out a new name and logo prepared by professionals. And then the name, NIKE, was born. And the well-recognized “swoosh” logo. We use the same level of professionalism when we go through the naming process – but if you do want to go it alone, you can use some of these resources to try to help you with the process:
NameChk
NameChk is a must-discover tool for business owners on the hunt for a new name. Type in your preferred business name and instantly find out which URL domain extensions and social media usernames are available for your company. NameChk shows results for everything from a .com extension to .org, .me, to usernames on Facebook and Instagram. If you only use one tool to find the right name and URL for your company, NameChk might be your best bet.
(namechk.com)
KnowEm
KnowEm is another excellent resource for business builders on the hunt for a new company name or social media handle. Search KnowEm to find a new name and URL for your business as well as social media and forum handles specific to your search. Find possible names on Reddit, FourSquare, Pinterest, Medium, and WordPress. You can even use KnowEm to find out if a trademark is available for your company’s name.
(knowem.com)
Namefruits
Namefruits uses artificial intelligence to help you choose a name for your business. Receive a name report from Namefruits with details relevant to your preferred business name. This tool charges for their service, but you may find the results more relevant thanks to their usage of artificial intelligence to better analyze your options.
(namefruits.com)
Startup Name Check
Startup Name Check is one of the simpler tools that helps you discover a new name for your startup or small business. Enter a name you’re thinking of using and Startup Name Check will tell you if the .com, .io, or .co domain extensions are available for your chosen name. You can also find out if Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram handles are available for your company’s potential name.
(startupnamecheck.com)
Name Grep
If you’re a data geek trying to name your new business, Name Grep might be just the tool you need. Enter a possible name into the Name Grep search engine and discover everything from hyphenated name options to datasets relevant to your preferred business name. Datasets include possible names without consonants, without vowels, and even phonetic alphabet spellings (alfa, bravo, charlie, etc.) for your business’ name. Be careful when tinkering with Name Grep; you might find yourself falling down the rabbit hole of business names.
(namegrep.com)
Check out each of these five business naming tools from IdeaPros to see which one can help you pick a new name for your company. Even if you already have a business name, you may discover social media and forum names you hadn’t previously thought of for your company. Have fun exploring your options!
About IdeaPros:
IdeaPros is the world’s first Super Venture Partner™, guiding both first time entrepreneurs and new companies through the complexities and pitfalls of the startup world. Set on elevating the success rate of startups with new, innovative product and app ideas, their team leverages 30+ years of experience to create well-positioned companies offering compelling products to maximize upside potential for their partners.