So you've got a great handmade business idea.
You've gathered your supplies, you’ve mastered your craft,
and now you just need to come up with a name for your new shop.
That should be the easy part, right? I don't know about
you but naming things is one of the hardest things for me.
And if you're like me keep watching this video where I will let
you in on how to come up with the best name
for your business.
Hi there, my name is Mei Pak and I help makers, artists,
and designers make a consistent income from selling their handmade products online.
I have a number of businesses of my own
from Creative Hive to my handmade jewelry shop, Tiny Hands,
and I just launched a new shop with my husband that's doing really well.
So I would say I have plenty of experience coming up with names
for businesses or products that bring in a lot of money for us. Believe it or not
the wrong name can actually limit your business and box you in.
If you're named after a specific product,
for example, it will be so much harder to sell anything but that product later on.
So while you might think that the product you're selling will be your only product forever,
as your business grows
you will likely want to expand
what you sell so you can reach more customers and offer a wide variety of unique high quality items,
right? So like a name like Bejeweled Earrings
will seriously box you in. It implies
that you only sell earrings, right? You can't really branch out of that later on.
I mean you can but it might be a little weird if a shop called
Bejeweled Earrings is selling leather bracelets.
So choose a name that's broad enough to describe
what you are without boxing you into a certain type of product. The name should also be easy to spell
and say out loud. Don't make it hard
for your customers to remember. If your customers can't remember it
how are they going to find it or tell their friends about it? At the same time
an easy to spell name will also save you from quite a number
of awkward conversations down the line
when you're describing your business to someone
and they can't really quite figure out how to spell it.
So try to avoid that. And along those lines,
you also want the name to be a recognizable word.
So that means I recommend avoiding creating a brand new word that no one's ever heard of before
or choosing a word that's totally unrelated to your product.
It will be harder to remember, it will be harder to spell, pronounce,
and it requires spending a lot of money on brand awareness. More than is necessary
anyway. So for example when Amazon was first created people only
associated their name with a river. They had to spend
so much more to get their name associated with their brand.
So other examples are like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, eBay,
and while it's not impossible to build a successful business with a name like that
it is a lot harder and a lot more expensive.
It's not something I recommend a small business owner do. Make sure the
business name is available on social media platforms
and that there is a .com domain name available that you can buy before you decide on a name.
You need to be consistent across all the platforms
so you're not Denise’s Designs
on one and then Designs with Denise on another platform
because that will create a lot of confusion. Not only will people not know your actual business name,
but you won't appear as easily in search results. To check if
your domain is available go to godaddy.com
and type in the domain name you want and they'll quickly tell you if it's available for sale or not.
You want a .com domain because that's
what most people will automatically
type when looking for a website. A .net, .org,
or really anything else just won't get
as much traffic and could cause some confusion
for your customers when they search for businessname.com,
and then a totally completely different business comes up.
So a .com domain name is a pretty big priority for me
as this is people's default expectation for websites these days.
This can be a little bit of a frustrating process
if you choose a name that you really love
and then find out that the domain name is taken. But I would much rather
you know that it's unavailable before you spend money on creating business cards
and making logos and make an announcement on your Facebook to your family and friends,
right? So to come up with a list of of options start by
brainstorming words that are related to your business
and see what you can come up with, don't filter yourself, and write everything down.
For example, my handmade jewelry business is food jewelry.
So I might think of words like sprinkles, sweets, candy,
bake, tasty, decadent, cherry, etc.
and just dump it all out on your notepad.
And something to help inspire you is if you like a certain word
or the meaning behind the word is going to find the synonyms to that word
to help branch you out into different words. When you find the right words,
make sure that the name itself is short and simple.
I didn't name my business
HandmadeFoodJewelry ThatReallySmellsLikeTheFood.com
for a reason. Tiny Hands is simple, short,
and easy to say and remember
and I do also have really tiny hands, if you want to see.
And it also doesn't limit what I can make or sell. The shorter the name
the more memorable and approachable it is,
but of course the more likely that someone else has already picked it before you. I also like to
mix and match to words together max to come up with your own unique name.
So just be patient with yourself.
While you might be anxious to dive right into the business,
choosing the right name does take time.
Trust me. Be easy on yourself throughout the process
and don't rush to choose a name just
so you can start selling. Ask people
for ideas and feedback as well,
as you sometimes get really good suggestions from other people. The names Creative Hive
and my program name A Sale A Day business system
were names that other people helped me
come up with so don't be shy to reach out and ask for help.
My last bonus tip for you is don't get too caught up
in other people's feedback on your shop name. The name you choose will elicit a lot
of different responses depending on who it is you ask
and sometimes it's not the response you want,
but that's okay. At the end of the day you are the boss of your shop
and the perfect name that everyone loves just doesn't exist.
It's impossible. So go with what sounds great to you.