Share Your Best Advice for Choosing a Business Name

Hello Warriors,

I hope all is well with you, and that your lives are abound with many blessings. I've been lurking around these parts for some time now, and I appreciate the wealth of information you all share. I do intend to make myself comfortable, so get used to seeing my avatar!

Now, let's move on to the subject of this post. I need your assistance with a pressing matter, and any advice or suggestions that you can offer are very much appreciated.

I've finally decided to start my own marketing consultancy, but I'm having a bit (actually a lot) of trouble settling on a business name. I do know that I want to offer a full suite of marketing services, as well as business consulting. I've read up on the basic guidelines for choosing a business name, and I'm still bumping my head against the wall. I want something creative and fresh, while at the same time conveying a certain level of professionalism.

I'm going to be providing clients with the typical marketing-related web services including: web design, content development, SEO, email marketing, social media management, and mobile marketing. I'm sure that I'll offer more, but you get the gist of what I'm trying to do here. I will also be doing consultations from time to time, although, I'm thinking that this may become my lead service after a while; any marketing services would be secondary and exclusive to those who have gone through a full consult with me. Anyhow, that's to discuss at another time.

I want to assist small business owners with more than just their "web stuff." For instance, I've been developing some ideas for traditional advertising programs. Nothing that I'd say is new, but you know, with a twist here and there.

So, I need to come up with a business name that is versatile, and allows me some room for growth.

After brainstorming a bit, I came to a couple of conclusions about my possible choices for business name. Keep in mind, these are generalizations, but, you'll see my point.

If I were going to deal strictly in online marketing and web services some good examples of business names would be ABC Web Marketing, Horizon Web Consulting, or Profit Web Media. Of course, the use of the word 'web' isn't always the case when it comes to online marketing firms, but it certainly creates the impression of that exact type of company. This is what I want to stay away from since I'm not going to be focusing solely on online marketing services.

Since I'm going to be mixing online marketing with traditional methods, I need a business name that possibly reflects that ideal. I'm leaning towards business names like Superior Concepts Consulting or Innovative Business Marketing. I think that those names are kind of cheesy, but you get my drift. These examples aren't restrictive, and they have a more polished feel to them.

Now, I know that there aren't any absolute rules for naming a business, but there are some recommended guidelines. I'm having a hard time sticking to them, though. Most people would say, and I agree, "If it sounds good and it feels right, go with it."

That's some great advice there, but that's just it. Nothing seems to feel right to me. Yeah, I've come up with some pretty decent possibles, and they sound great too. I just can't think of anything that feels right. I'm under a ton of stress right now, so my creativity is a bit off. Even so, I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to overcome this tiny obstacle.

A lot of you are probably saying to yourselves that I should just do business in my own name to start, but I've got to make a decision about this. I'd rather do it now than later because I don't want it to put a dent in my productivity. Once I get everything started, I'm going full throttle and not looking back!

For those of you who have started your own marketing consultancy, what steps did you take to name your business? Did you brainstorm or just make up something off the top of your head?

Do you favor the use of either of the words consulting or marketing or media? If not, what are your reasons for being against it?

Is there anything in particular that inspired the business name you chose? And lastly, do you have any advice you could share with me (and others) that might be having difficulty deciding on a name for their consulting business?


P.S. I'm really struggling to decide on a name for my consulting business. I've been at it for longer than I'd like to say, and I really want to get moving forward. And no, this isn't an article...it's just a well formatted collection of my thoughts. I just hope that all my posts don't turn out like this. Although, that could be a good thing.

And please, if you have a tip that could help me get over this hurdle, then please do share it! Not only will it help me, but it could offer some solace to someone else that comes along having the same problem.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to all of your responses.