Kooralbyn Valley Chamber of Commerce Inc.

Choosing a business name

One of the first things to consider when starting out with any new business is the name you wish to trade by. A good business name is absolutely critical as it will convey to your prospective customers what your business is, what it may stand for, and what it delivers. A good business name can help deliver a successful business outcome, whereas a 'bad' choice could actually harm your chances of success.
Some things to carefully consider in choosing a 'good' name, by hypothetical example are:

Kooralbyn Organic Landscaping Services
This name may be great if you wish to attract local clients in a geographical niche. Most people prefer to shop locally, so it could give a great start. But supposing a few years down the track, you have 2 employees and you wish to expand, to finance a new piece of equipment. Whilst it is not impossible to expand your business into Boonah and Beaudesert, the use of the name Kooralbyn could see you overlooked in these other places. Remember the fact, that people prefer to buy local. It could possibly also work against you once you venture outside of your local geographical area.

Blue Jacaranda Nursery
A descriptive name like this will indicate that you have a niche or boutique nursery business. If your goal is to sell only this plant the market will know exactly what you are about. It is an excellent choice if you wish to become the best supplier of Jacaranda trees in SE. Qld/Queensland/Australia or go international. However, it would be extremely difficult to branch out into some other plant species or product not directly connected with jacarandas with a name like this.

Main Street Hair Salon
Many explain where your business is locally, but every town has a Main St. and your business name may be taken in other States. This could limit your advertising and marketing, and prevent you from getting a web site or domain name using main street in any title. A name like this could hamper any expansion plans that may come along in the future, and not let you trade off your established reputation.

Before choosing a name, reflect where you want to take your business; where would you like your business to be in 5 years time? A name needs to be:

Descriptive of what you do
Easy to spell
Easy to pronounce
Short
Easy to remember
Unlike any competitor's name
A name that will not date quickly: Would you ring 'Polaroid Camera Repairs' to service your new 15 megapixel digital camera?
Not a 'joke' name, nor one that may offend. For example, 'Bill's Erections' may be hilarious to a crew of carpenters over a few beers, and be quite memorable, but many other prospective clients and suppliers may not share your humour.

You can spend a lot of time coming up with a great business name, so make sure you protect your brilliance by registering the business name with the Office of Fair Trading (Qld) to prevent anyone else from legally claiming, and using your business name. It could sadly end with you getting a legal enforcement notice to ensure you stop using 'their' owned business name. This has happened.
If you have a distinct product, or can establish a brand, consider taking out a trade mark also. This is moderately expensive, but great protection for your branding and good name.

CONSIDER
It doesn't matter how good your business trading name is; if you don't deliver the performance you offer your clients, the best business name in the world will not save your business.