Naming your business is an interesting combination of exciting and stressful. It can feel like the moment you make everything official, where you really decide to go for it and do your own thing. It can also feel like if you screw it up, you’re going to doom your company. The truth is, your name (unless it’s really, really bad), probably doesn’t matter that much.

The world isn’t fooled by flashy designs and clever names. Sure, we’ll still ooh and ahh at them, but they don’t really change anything. They’re certainly not enough to keep your business running. However, you’re still going to stress out about it. So, here are a few tips:

DO

• Take your target audience into account – Could you see them having an internal dialogue of “people like me go to places like _________” and being proud of it? Seth Godin uses the “people like me” phrase in his book This is Marketing. It’s a good read if you’re thinking about how to brand your business.
• Keep it short and simple – The best speeches and articles are written at roughly a 6^th grade reading level. My PT business is named Rehabilitation & Performance Institute. Try and say it. I’ll wait… Imagine how much our front office team likes saying that when they answer the phone 100 times a day – sorry, McKailla. Be kind to your future employees and make the name something that can be said and understood clearly and quickly.
• Make it something you like – A lot of branding is about connecting with your target market, but that doesn’t mean to take it so far that you name your company something that you dislike. You’re the one who has to look at it every day. Make it something you are proud of and enjoy hearing.

DON’T

• Don’t use your name – I like to avoid writing things that someone else has already written better. Check out Pete Dupuis’ article about it on his blog. To sum it up, an owner of Cressey Sports Performance advises against using your name in your business.
• Avoid words people have to look up – Sure, the Latin word for “happy” sounds great (sanus, if you’re wondering – thanks, google). How likely is someone to go through the process of looking up the origin of your company name? Chances are, you’ve just added confusion and an inconvenient step to your clients. How many of them know or deeply connect with the Latin language? I’m guessing none.
• Don’t use a name that makes you sound arrogant – Better yet, maybe just don’t be arrogant? If your plan for your name is to use it to let people know you are better than the competition, then you probably aren’t ready to start your own business. It’s not about you. It’s about what you can do for others. Never forget that.

ALTERNATIVE OPTION

If all this talk of naming a business stresses you out and you’d rather focus on more important areas of planning, don’t worry. You can basically outsource anything nowadays. Check out Naming Force, a business-naming contest website that starts at only $175. Users submit name ideas, Naming Force ranks them, and you pick a winner.

THE GIST

A great name won’t make your company, and a bad one won’t break it. The businesses that do great things are not the ones with great names, they’re the ones with great plans and, most of all, great people.