The Breakthrough Series

Don’t Overlook The Importance of This Step in your Business

Choosing the right name is hard but not impossible

A famous computer science quote attributed to Phil Karlton working at Netscape at the time is incredibly relevant in business as well.

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

When starting a business or forming your LLC, this is literally one of the first steps you take. What do you name your new business? It’s the first impression customers have of you. You can always create different brand names later, but that takes significant effort for your customers to recognize a new (brand) name. Awareness marketing is not in the budget, so you need something short, catchy, and reflective of your values and philosophy. Pretty easy to come up with. Not.

Naming is Incredibly Difficult

Central to this challenge is the fact that every English word, standard compound word, and many slight derivations are already taken, trademarked, or have a domain already registered. So we need to get creative. There is help out there if you need inspiration. I like Hipster in particular as it helped me find a storefront name I liked. It produces two-word name patterns, so if you don’t like that, you’ll want to look elsewhere. If you have a base name in mind, you can use Wordoid to help find the right derivation that fits your style.

For my website Freelante, I used a procedural approach. Freelancing is my topic and I wanted that to be foundational in the name. However, many of the variants that I liked were already taken. I then decided to try adding different suffixes to form other names. Eventually, I used the Spanish suffix -ante to form the name “Freelante”. The suffix is interesting as it is used to form both a noun and an adjective. The object takes action in the manner implied by the word. An example you will recognize is:

picar (to be hot, to be spicy, to sting) — picante (hot, spicy)

The dream of an entrepreneur is to use their skills and abilities in a manner of their choosing. They want to apply their skills in a way that benefits their clients and brings them joy in the process. The root “free” then had to be the anchor for the name. Pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams with the freedom to do this. That is the vibe that I wanted the name to exude. That, and the domain name was still available.

Use the Name App to quickly find whether your desired name is available in any number of domain formats as well as social media platforms. This is a valuable tool as you try out different combinations and variations looking for the right one. It can also be exhausting as you come up with a great idea only to find that it's not available on the platform you want. Don’t give up though, your name is out there.

What’s in a name?

Phil Karlton was so right when he uttered his quote. Names are crucially important. As humans, our name is what identifies us but is also synonymous with our reputation. “Our name” in the bigger sense represents not just who we are, but also what we stand for.

I was reminded of an alternative view when introducing my teenager to one of my favorite films ever, Pulp Fiction. Yes, I know, probably not the best film to show your kid but I hoped and believed the artistic style would overshadow the pulpy content. The jury is still out on that one, at least in the eyes of my teenager.

As the character Butch (Bruce Willis) escapes in a cab, the driver Esmerelda asks him what his name means. He replies, “I’m American, honey. Our names don’t mean s**t.” Civilization has a long tradition of putting importance and meaning in names. There is a good deal of truth to Butch’s observation, but I wish it wasn’t so. It is quite a challenge to come up with what you believe is the exact right name, but it’s also extremely satisfying and rewarding when you do.

What’s this other cache thing that Phil said was hard?

For anyone not in the information technology field, cache invalidation is knowing when to forget something and verify the truth again. Let’s assume you have an inside office with no windows. Your spouse calls you numerous times a day asking if it is raining. After the first call, you walk down the hall and see there is plenty of sunshine outside. You go back and report no rain in sight.

However, you get twenty more phone calls that afternoon. Do you run down the hall each time they call, or simply report back that it is still not raining? After enough time has passed, you decide the weather conditions might have changed. You decide to forget, or “invalidate”, your belief it is not raining and go verify for yourself what the current weather conditions are by looking out the window.

Again, Phil’s quote is remarkably relevant for life and business in general. We all have beliefs that we hold true and use as the foundation for our decision making. But we learn as we go. New data and information become available. How do we know when to forget our current beliefs and update them with a new viewpoint or outlook? This can also be difficult to do, but adjusting to conditions on the ground is mandatory for any successful business person.

What if the name you chose doesn’t work out?

We learn by doing, and sometimes a name ends up not being what you wanted in the end. Don’t be afraid to invalidate that cache and try something different. You have a few options. While your official LLC or company name is fairly set in stone, you have a few options. You can add an alias, formally known as a DBA (Doing Business As). This provides a good deal of flexibility.

Alternatively, you can launch a new brand or website underneath the umbrella of your current corporate structure. I have done this, and the good news is with the tools available today, it is fairly inexpensive and quick to launch a new website or brand name. Marketing and customer awareness are still challenges that require time and resources.

Studies show that it is 5 to 25 times more expensive to obtain new customers than it is to retain existing ones. Brand awareness plays a big part in this cost, so it's not free. But don’t feel stuck with something you aren’t happy with. You should always look at the data available to you and use it to make the best decision going forward.

Have a great day and good luck on your name search!

Darren is the founder and editor of Freelante.com offering resources and insights for freelancers and those considering going independent.