ANSELEM KADIRI
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS NAME?

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What's your name? And no am not talking to you, am talking to your business. I never planned writing about a business name until only recently when i had a chat with a client. She sells tiger nut mix and wanted her customers to in her words "see all she sells from her business name". Which i good but she made the mistake of putting it all in a very long and unprofessional business name.

There are 3 things you have to know to drafting your business name.
Short, Meaningful, Available.

SHORT - Your business name must be short not just because people say so but because short names are memorable. If your birth name was Ogheneokarodafeosarodiameh and you cut it Osaro, you will understand what i mean.
If a customer can't remember your name how would s/he do business with you. The human brain can only remember so little. Make short names don't give your customers headache.

MEANINGFUL - Now imagine asking your parents the meaning of your name and they say " we don't know son, we just gave it to you". How would you feel?, now that's the feeling your business will give to customers. Say your name is short but because its has no meaning, customers cannot tell what you do from it.

When you give your business, or your son a name or even a street, it must be derived from something meaningful to you personally. Or its something that tells the customer what your business is all about like Facebook or Compaq (Computer packs). A name gives identity. If your name cannot give identity to your business you should change it.

AVAILABILITY - I recently worked with a business to register their name and when i searched it on the CAC portal it was unavailable. I told the client that he had to look for another name, but it was not that simple. He had already designed a logo with the name, he had customized his receipts with it, he had been using it for about 2 years and had grown attached to it.

It was a difficult decision and even till this week he is still battling with that. Many small businesses face this same issue. But you can avoid this by checking out the name of your choice on the Portal and even if you don't have enough money to register just the name at once, you can reserve it. Please this is very important.

For Inspiration, i like to show you how some business names came to be:-
1. From Mythology and Bible : ASUS (Mythical winged Horse named PergASUS, Nike ( goddess of Victory)
2. From Customer's Dialect : "Kwesé" was derived from the Shona word kwese which means "everywhere" and "anywhere"
3. From Owner's Name: Boeing (After William E. Boeing), Dangote (After Aliko Dangote)
4. From A Place: Amazon (Longest river in the world),
5. Mixed Up Words: Compaq

(Computer packs)

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I help small businesses create innovative value for their customers. We can assist you with business advisory services, Strategic Planning, and Content development
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ANSELEM KADIRI

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Starting and running a successful small business should not be a space lunch