WHAT'S IN A NAME

Ok, you have finally decided to take the plunge to start your own business. No easy decision. You have decided what you can offer and you think you can make money from it.

But before it all begins you just need your company name. Easy, you think. Or not, as I recently discovered.

The key advice for selecting your business name is that it needs to be relevant to what products or services your business will be offering. It needs to unique to ensure it stands out from your competitors. Is it catchy? Easily remembered? It should try and mean something to you. It shouldn't be offensive (bear in mind future customers might not share your sense of humour). And is there a domain name available for it?

I am setting up a new marketing consultancy. I need something creative that new clients will be impressed with and therefore just using my initials wouldn't work. It needs to be relevant so I will need to include 'marketing' somewhere in it. It shouldn't be too hard to think of a unique name for a new marketing agency. After all, I'm usually quite creative and managed to think of my husband's business name.

Well, I was wrong. It came apparent that all my 'new creative ideas' were already being used. Even my initials were being used. I thought of different places, animals, marketing theories that were all relevant but no all these were all taken. If I just put the word 'marketing' after any word, I generally found that it was taken.

After many many sleepless nights, I finally came upon HP4 Marketing Solutions. Great for the search engines as I live in Berkhamsted and offer my services to the local HP4 area. But also found it can also stand for Hands-on Practical marketing solutions 4 small businesses. And, that's me. I offer practical hands on marketing help, suitable for all budgets for those that struggle to find the time or those who are not sure where to start!

And with my name, at last I could design the logo, order those business cards, organise my domain name and design my website. PHEW!