I bet, by now, you’ve been obsessing over what to call your new business. After all, having the perfect business name is important, right?
That’s OK. We all do it. You might even have landed on one or two names you really like and are wondering when you can officially set that in stone.
When Do You Absolutely Need to Decide on a Name?
The first time you absolutely need to have a name is when you file the state or local paperwork to form the business.
If you decided on a sole proprietorship, you can use your personal name as the name of your business. You won’t need to file any paperwork.
If you are forming a general partnership, you can use all the last names of the partners as the name of the business. You won’t have to file an assumed name certificate either.
But if you want to operate under a trade name for either a sole proprietorship or a partnership, then you’ll have to file an assumed name certificate. So, this is when you’ll need to decide the name of your business.
If you decided on an LLC or a corporation, you’ll need to know the name of your business when you fill out the paperwork for your Articles of Organization (for LLCs) or Articles of Incorporation (for corporations).
How to Find a Great Name for Your Business
So, how do you come up with a really good name for your business? There’s definitely a flash of inspiration involved, but there’s a lot of perspiration too.
There’s very little I can help with the inspiration part, but I can talk a little about the perspiration part. There are actually some guidelines you can use to find a good name.
This is the start of a new series on how to find a great name for your new business. In this series, we’ll talk about how to pick a name that fits under good marketing and trademark practice. We’ll also talk about how to check if the name is already taken by another business. Finally, we’ll talk about the importance of having a domain name that reflects the name of your business.
The three articles are:
- How to Pick a Great Business Name: Marketing & Trademark Tips
- How to Check if Your Business Name is Taken: The Trademark Clearance Search
- When Naming Your Business, Include a Domain Availability Check
Finding a name is related to getting a domain name and trademark law. Both are complicated subjects in their own right. This series briefly touches on both. Stay tuned for separate and more detailed articles on each in the future.
Now That You Have that Perfect Name, What Next?
So you went through all three articles in this series on naming your business. You came up with that perfect name that’s memorable and rolls off the tongue. Nobody else is using it, and you’ve bought the domain name and secured the social media handles.
What next?
Before we go deeper into setting up your business, let’s talk about money.
Every new business needs money to get started. You can borrow from family and friends, of course, but that initial seed money most likely will come out of your own pocket.
Believe it or not, there’s a right way and a wrong way to borrow money from yourself. We want to cover this early in the process of setting up your business, so you don’t have to circle back to fix any mistakes.
So, our next blog is on how to Avoid This Common Mistake When Funding Your Business.
Questions? Comments?
