Step 3. Naming Your Online Business

After you've found a suitable online niche for your business, and worked out a revenue plan that will make setting up a business worth the long hours it will take, it comes time to name your fledgling business.

Don't get this backwards. I've met a few business-fools who own some nifty domain names and want to start a business to fit the names. Wrong. Without a niche and a sound business idea, you don't have a chance of success -- even with a good domain name. You're much better off to sell unneeded domain names to someone who can use them (or someone foolish enough hold them for ransom).

Step 1. Develop a clear, simple statement describing your business

The name should evolve naturally from your niche. As I was reading Dan Janal's new e-book Branding on the Internet, I came across a wonderfully simple positioning exercise which Janal calls his Fool Proof Positioning Statement. It is a extremely useful fill-in-the-blank approach. First, you need to decide what to put in the blanks:

Now let's fill in the blanks of the first sentence:

_(Name)_ is a _(Category)_ that helps _(Core audience)_ achieve _(Key benefit)_.
"Acme CeilingGrip is a sheetrock screw that helps contractors attach sheetrock ceilings more securely."

While the first sentence helps you state the benefit clearly, the second sentence helps you differentiate yourself from competitors.

Unlike other _(Category)_, _(Company name or product)_ has _(Key differentiating feature)_.
"Unlike other sheetrock screws, Acme CeilingGrip doesn't rust when wet."

This may seem simplistic, but take a couple of minutes right now to see the power of it for your own online company. You might want to stress different key benefits to other core audiences, but this will give you a start. Keep working on your two or three sentences until they are clear and compelling.

Another term for type of short statement is a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that describes how your company uniquely meets the needs of your customers. Whatever you call it, the positioning statement or USP will help you name your company. Remember, you don't start with the name, you start with the concept, and the name flows from that.

Step 2. List all the words that relate to your business idea

Next, list all the words that relate to your business idea, its category, products, services, core audiences, and key differentiating factors. The longer this list, the better you are at loosening up your brain so you can come up with a business name that is striking and memorable.

Step 3. Brainstorm business name word combinations

The chances are that each of these keywords has already been taken -- by themselves. But now you take the list of words from Step 2 and begin to form two-word combinations. Ideally, you'll come up with a business name that propels you to stand out from the crowd. While you're not quite at the stage of selecting a domain name yet, the characteristics of a good domain name that I outlined in my article "How to Select a Domain Name for Your Company" are apropos: http://wilsonweb.com/wmt5/domain-select.htm

1. Short
2. Memorable
3. Not easily confused with others
4. Hard to misspell
5. Relates to your core business
6. Sounds solid to your target audience

Hopefully, you'll find some word combinations that fit many or most of these criteria. Run them past some other people to see how they react.

Good Names, Bad Names

I'm a bit mystified at companies which name their products or business with words that don't have any meaning in their target language. At the risk of offending, let's look at Hewlett Packard's new company, Agilent Technologies. http://www.agilent.com

I'm guessing that Agilent is a combination of the word "agile" and a common English suffix. It expresses HP's corporate desire to move quickly and agilely to innovate in the Internet space. But "agile" isn't immediately obvious unless you think about it. Nor does it express a clear category, product, or service. To be fair, HP needed a name that bridged more than one category. But in order to firmly imprint and position "Agilent" in their potential customer's mind, they're going to have to rely entirely on hard advertising to make the name familiar, since they're starting nearly from scratch. Small businesses have the advantage that their names can help position them and be memorable.

In a number of ways, coming up with a company name is like creating a brand. It shouldn't sound stogy. Reading music isn't enough. A good name will be able to sing, as well. Let me illustrate.

Wilson Internet Services. When I began my company in 1995, I called it Wilson Internet Services. Stodgy -- and easily confused with the type of name used by Internet Service Providers. When I look back on it, I think that kind of naming was a mistake. I named the company without a clue that I was naming a brand. I did better with the domain name, wilsonweb.com. It is memorable and sings much better than the company name.

Web Marketing Today and Web Commerce Today. My next attempt was Web Marketing Today®, my flagship e-mail marketing newsletter. It's better. Each word in the name adds to the meaning. And it's somewhat memorable. The domain name webmarketingtoday.com is pretty clumsy, however. When I named my premier e-commerce newsletter Web Commerce Today® http://wilsonweb.com/wct/ in 1997, I made a mistake. I wanted to build on my success and reputation with Web Marketing Today, but I succeeded in confusing people. The name didn't provide a clear way to distinguish between my two publications.

By last year, however, I was beginning to understanding the importance of branding. I launched two publications, the weekly JesusWalk: Disciple Lessons from Luke's Gospel http://jesuswalk.com and DoctorEbiz, a weekly Q&A column for small business about doing business online. http://doctorebiz.com In each case I looked for word combinations that would explain exactly what the product was about, and I feel I succeeded pretty well:

JesusWalk^TM. The words indicate the goal, to help individuals learn about Jesus from simulating the kind of training that his twelve disciples internalized by just walking along with him. The name is memorable, descriptive, and simple. http://jesuswalk.com

Doctor Ebiz^TM. The words indicate that this is an e-business doctor, someone who helps diagnose and cure e-business problems. And that's exactly what this weekly column is designed to do. The name is memorable, descriptive, and simple. The only problem with the name is that "doctor" can be abbreviated and the name can be hyphenated in different ways, which required me securing a number of domain names for the most common misspellings. http://doctorebiz.com

Remember, your online business name may be different from the name of your traditional business. You may need to file with your local government for a Fictitious Business Name Statement for a new business name, and list your old business name "D.B.A." (doing business as) the online company name -- but that's usually not too expensive. Don't be blocked by a poor existing business name; take advantage of going online to brand your business well.

Step 4. Check domain name availability

Only when you have developed a number of possible company (or product) names, should you begin the domain name search. The reason is this: so many good domain names are taken already, that you may be influenced to only use what is left over. A good place to check your domain name possibilities is the Whois database at 000domains.com. http://000domains.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?affiliate_id=drebiz.com I used to routinely use the Whois database at Network Solutions, but found that they no longer list full domain ownership information about domain names not registered with them. For other than .com, .net, and .org domain names, consult a domain name registrar in your country. http://www.norid.no/domreg.html

Check all of your top name choices, and minor variations of them. Note which domain names are available as a .com (or with your country designation, such as .fr or .de). Also note which have already been purchased. These days there are many more domain names than there are active websites. In most cases, overeager domain speculators have bought up blocks of names, and are having a difficult time unloading them at the level of prices they were hoping for.

Step 5. Check trademark availability

In conjunction with deciding on a business name and a corresponding domain name, make sure you check the trademark database for your country. You can also find databases online for most countries. Make sure you cover your own country first, then other countries where you want to avoid confusion. Some online databases are:

US Patent and Trademark Office http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=6a1nm0.1.1

Canada http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/cgi-bin/sc_consu/trade-marks/search_e.pl

UK http://www.patent.gov.uk/dbservices/tm.html

Australia http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/T_srch.htm

More international links from Gregory H. Guillot, Chartered http://www.ggmark.com/

Step 6. Purchase relevant domain name(s)

I used to be concerned about the price of my favorite previously-purchased domain name getting jacked up if I were to show an interest. No more. This is how I suggest you handle it. Find out the owner from the Whois directory http://000domains.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?affiliate_id=drebiz.com and then write an e-mail kind of like this:

Dear domain owner,

I've been thinking about starting an online business selling sheetrock screws to contractors. I've come up with about a dozen really good possible domain names, one of which is yours. If you're interested in selling, I'd like to see if we can come to an agreement about price. Fortunately, since I've identified a dozen good domain names, I'm not under pressure to purchase the one you own, but if your price is right, it might help me select yours, and put some fast Christmas cash in your pocket.

Sincerely,
John Doe
Sheetrock screws par excellence!

This way you don't sound too eager, but willing to deal, and the domain name owner knows you have other options, so he can't push the price up too high. I think domain name speculative prices are nose-diving as fast as the NASDAQ stock exchange -- except for the very best names. Venture capital funding initially drove up prices and created greed in the speculators. But VC money has pretty well dried up for start-ups, and there are many, many domain names waiting for a business. My guess is that if you were to get your hoped-for domain name appraised by Domain Appraisal System https://www.solutionhome.com/appraisal/index.cfm?af_id=459 for about $15, you could use that as leverage to purchase a pretty good name for your business. You also should consider having others appraise your domain name picks at Afternic.com. http://www.afternic.com Purchasing the domain name may cost you $100 or $250 or $500 or $1000 depending upon the owner's and your respective negotiating abilities, but a memorable domain name is an important marketing investment -- don't skimp here!

Step 7. Apply for a trademark

A trademark is a graphic logo or a unique name that is used in trade to identify a business, product, or service. In general, the first company to use a name in trade owns it. If you plan to use a trademark, you should place the letters "TM" in superscript next to the trade name to indicate your intention to use it as a trademark. The letters "SM" indicate "service mark," though the usage often blurs with that of the word "trademark." To protect your right to use a particular business name, you ought to register the trademark with the official government agency in your country, and other countries where you expect to do much business. In the US this could cost $500 to $1,000 (including search and attorney fees) and can take a year or two to be completed. If you are successful, and your trademark is registered, you are entitled to use the ® symbol to indicate registration of your trademark.

Many online businesses have learned the hard way that it's cheaper to register the trademark up front, than to wait until another company files for registration ahead of you. If you can't afford the filing and legal costs, I understand, but make this one of your early priorities as soon as some revenue is generated, if it looks like your business has commercial potential. Just because you own a domain name doesn't automatically mean you own the corresponding trademark. Since your business, by definition, will be national or international when you get on the Internet, you can't afford to ignore the legal threats you may face to your unique business name. More information is available at http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/law.htm If you're interested in US trademark law, you might read the book Trademark: Legal Care for your Business and Product Name (Nolo Press, 1999), by Kate McGrath and Stephen Elias. http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087337519X/wilsoninternetse or these authors' Trademark Registration Kit (Quick & Legal Series; Nolo Press, 1999). http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0873374347/wilsoninternetse

I hope this will help you see the process involved in naming your online business. As one who has made some serious marketing mistakes here, I hope that my advice will save you some headaches. Remember, the main costs of naming your business are:

• Fictitious Business Name Statement. Local government. $10 to $50.
• Domain name. $10 to $500, or more, depending upon your country, and the price you have to pay for an already owned domain name.
• Trademark registration. $300 to $750 or more, depending upon your country, and whether you file forms yourself or get legal assistance.

Even if you're trying to name your business on a shoestring, make sure you don't scrimp where it counts.