Author: Mishal

Most people don’t realize it, but one of your first and most important business decisions can be picking your business name.  A great name is one that attracts customers and can really give your business legs in terms of starting a buzz.  Do you think Google would have created the fanatical sensation it has with a name like Search Engine USA?  If you are not the creative type, then bring in others to help you to name your baby.  Work with a team of advisors, family or even just some business savvy friends, but don’t delegate this task completely to someone else, and especially not to a stranger or some internet naming company.  A naming company is not going to understand your business or know you.  If it is your business it should be a name that you like and that links back to your unique value proposition and the personality of your company.  People will ask you, where did you come up with your name.  This can be a golden opportunity for you to say something really brilliant and memorable, come up with a name that allows you to take this opportunity.  If you are conservative, don’t be persuaded into something wild, that makes you uncomfortable and if you are zany, then don’t go conservative just because everyone else in your industry does.  Picking a name should happen over a period of time, not in a day or an hour.  Forcing creativity seldom works, so give yourself and your team time to percolate on it. Hold a series of brainstorming sessions until you are comfortable and excited about saying, seeing, hearing and owning a particular business name.  During these brain storming sessions you should work through these eight rules for choosing a business name:

 

1) Be distinctive and be memorable, but be easy to spell and pronounce.

Your potential clients should be able to easily remember your business name.  However, they also need to be able to find it easily if they’re looking for it in a phone book, directory or online.  So choosing a business name such as “Phorgetmeekknot” is not a good idea.  While we usually encourage the

For those of us who grew up with parents who worked for businesses rather than owned them, the world of business can be quite a mystery. Even more so if we’ve dared to try to start one of our own. There is the factor of what type of business to start – a product or service business. There are the issues of doing a good market analysis, licensing the business, understanding the codes of law governing businesses, and determining just what type of business structure to choose – especially if the business will have employees. For example, should we start a sole proprietorship or a corporate business? It’s a lot to work on, and it’s not an overnight process to the road of success. But, the most crucial challenge to whether a business succeeds or fails lies deep within the realm of emotional versus financial intelligence.Many start-up businesses fail within the first year of existence. This is especially so with businesses started from home, or exist without the traditional bricks and mortar structure we are so accustomed to. And, far too often the reason many start-up businesses fail has to do with the emotional challenge the new business owner faces. The challenge of seeing him or her self now as a business owner, rather than a paid worker for someone else’s business. It means dressing differently, thinking differently, and talking differently. It means believing that you are already successfully established even if you have a long ways to go on the business’s balance sheet. To put simply, if the business owner doesn’t have a firm belief and commitment in the business and his or her role as the owner, then others simply won’t be convinced that this business is the place to get what they need. Then, there is the crucial issue of having the financial intelligence to keep the business going in the direction the new owner desires. To put it simply, if the new business is only taking money to operate and not making money, it won’t be long before the doors of opportunity become closed. No matter how much motivational self-talk and emotional pump-me-up the new business owner does, it is the results shown on the bottom line that determines the future of the new business. And, if the bottom line is steady generating a negative, the business will eventually lose. Far too many new business owner simply don’t understand this simple fact and it’s incredible impact upon the future of his or her business. And, far too many system based business endeavors, such as network marketing, fail to properly focus the majority of their teaching on this.To keep the vision, motivation, commitment and, ultimately, the business alive, a start-up business owner must simply kno