How to name your new creative business effectively – the ultimate guide
When starting a new creative business, naming it can be one of the most exciting things on your ‘to do’ list, but also one of the most difficult decisions to make. In this article I’m going to lead you through the steps to discovering your best brand name dependent on your own goals for your business as well as the things that mean the most to you, so you can create connection and show the true heart and soul of your brand.
Questions to ask yourself before choosing your business name:
1. Do you ever envision selling your business in the future?
If the answer is YES – then avoid choosing something that has only meaning to you, or uses your name in some way. Any prospective buyers will prefer an easily transferable name that isn’t tied to a specific person.
If the answer is NO – then you can add your own name (or versions of) to your possible list. Perfect as your name will almost certainly be unique in your field and is unlikely to have been taken by someone else.
2. What are your brand values, purpose, message and tone of voice?
It can be helpful to gather all the words you instinctively use to describe your business – think emotion, storytelling and meanings in your work. Try running them through an online thesaurus to try out different words that have similar meanings.
3. What is it you physically do?
For SEO purposes and for instant recognition it can be useful to add words in that a descriptors of what you do, eg floral design, photography. But again this comes down to your brand messaging and how and what words you use across the whole of your business. It is better sometimes to connect with words rather than tell.
4. What is important to you?
I’ve worked with many clients whose name is derived from much loved family members, places they grew up, music, books and films they’ve adored or approaches to life they follow. Running your own business is so central to who you are, drawing on your own passions and interests is often the easiest route to a name you connect with and that draws in like-minded people.
5. Is it easy to say and spell?
It’s good to be memorable, but make life easy for yourself and your clients and choose something people won’t be afraid to get wrong (unless it’s your given name – it can be a point of difference and a great talking point for your brand). Being found on the web is much easier if people can spell it right, especially if misspellings can lead to other businesses or industries.
6. Is it timeless enough?
It may be fun to think about using words or phrases seen in the Urban Dictionary, or tied to current technology, but these areas move very fast, and could quickly become obsolete in a few years’ time. You want your business to have longevity, so be careful when choosing current trends in your business name (I’d avoid altogether).
If after all this you still cannot narrow down your choices, or none of them seem to be ‘the one’, then now might be the time to find a copywriter who aligns with your brand ideals and can help wordsmith your brand name for you.
However, if you know you’re nearly there then here are the next steps to take.
How to choose from a shortlist of business names
Once you have generated 5 or 6 possibilities you can whittle them down by doing some practical checks first:
1. Is the name available (check Google, Trademarks and Domain availability, as well as social media handles).
In the UK the government has a Company Name Availability Checker
If you plan on selling abroad then you will also need to check other countries rules and confirm your legal right to use your proposed brand name there.
Checking to see whether your preferred Domain is available is also important at this stage (you can type it into Google Domains https://domains.google/) - a search will also provide all your alternate endings (eg .com or .co.uk) and state the price for purchase.
Search your handles on social media too and make sure there aren’t any big accounts very similar to the handles you would ideally choose. You don’t want to get confused for another business, or worse still look like you’re trying to piggy-back off someone else’s success.
2. Does it have any negative or alternative meanings (eg slang or different meanings in other languages) or illegal words (again check the government website for more information on banned business names).
3. If you are using words (not names) do a Keyword search (ie type it into Google) – if a word is very popular it may cause you difficulties if you want to rank highly on Google searches.
4. Get Feedback. Getting feedback from friends and family is fine, however do be aware that they are more often than not, not your ideal clients (ie they are not prospective customers) so their opinion whilst useful shouldn’t put you off if they don’t agree with your favourite choice.
5. Live with it for a bit. By this I mean printing it out and sticking it up around your home, get used to seeing it and how you feel when you do read it. You may even want to mock up a logo (Canva can be good for this) and see how you feel about it over the course of several days or weeks. If you still love it after a time, then it is likely to be ‘the one’!
What to do once you have chosen your brand name
Register it with HMRC in the appropriate way for your business structure (eg sole trader, partnership, Limited Company etc) and consider Trademarking it to protect your brand from the outset.
Buy your domain name (and any common variations if you can, eg purchase .com and .co.uk)
Secure your social media handles
Start to think about your branding (eg colour palettes, logos)
I hope this has helped you consider all sides of choosing the right brand name and got you excited for this important step in getting to launch day.
If you need further help setting up, structuring and marketing your business then do consider my digital book – How to launch a business in 12 weeks.
A digital book for anyone contemplating launching their own creative business. Now updated for 2024.
