For many people, coming up with their new business idea is the easy bit. Finding the perfect business name can be a little more tricky.

Use some creative thinking, and apply some of these techniques, and you should end up with a nice big pool of names to pick and choose from. Domain name availability will probably have the biggest impact on your decision,  but at least by doing this exercise you should end up with a number of workable alternatives.

Brainstorm all of the words!

This exercise doesn’t need to take long, but just make sure it’s focused. Set aside some time, grab some paper and pens (or your laptop) and  clear some mental space.

Take that blank piece of paper, and write down the product or service you will be offering at the top of the page. Then, start writing down all the words and ideas you associate with your product or service. Don’t stop to think, or to edit, just keep getting those words down.

Working example:

I want to start up a business as a holistic nutrionist. On my piece of paper, I write the following words:

Nutrition, holistic, health, wellbeing, food, delicious food, healthy food, etc…..

When you run out of ideas, grab a thesaurus (or go online, let’s be realistic here) and keep adding to the list. Let your creative brain just dump out everything it can, later you’ll go back to sift through the rubble.

Continuing our example, after some time with the thesaurus, I added the following words to my list:

Diet, nourishment, rations, snack, victuals, sustenance, alternative, therapy, healthful, wellness, physical wellbeing, prime, robust,  clean bill, euphoria, vigor etc…

Write yourself a mission statement

Don’t start getting self conscious now! No-one ever has to see these words and sentences (unless you choose to share them).

So, next step: write a mission statement. Not too much thinking, just write down a few sentences about how you visualise your business and what you want to achieve.

Working example:

As a nutritionist, my mission would be to provide healthy diet and lifestyle alternatives for my clients. I want to clearly demonstrate the benefits of choosing the right food for a healthy and happier outlook on life. I want to be seen as knowledgeable, caring and competent.

Read over your mission statement, and add the relevant keywords that jump out onto your list. (That list must be getting pretty big by now!)

Go back to your thesaurus again, and keep adding to the new words. Remember, keep an eye out for words that are striking, maybe a bit different (but not so different that they obscure your message), or that hit you in the gut as having some sort of potential.

This stage of the exercise is all about giving free rein to your creative instincts, so if a word jumps out and grabs you, grab it back and chuck it in your list.

Creative word combinations to find the perfect business name

Time for a break. Take a breath. Chances are you’ve got a mini-mountain of business-related keywords staring back at you. What’s next?

Go make yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Let your brain do some percolating below the surface. However, if ideas do start jumping into your mind, jot them down – no use letting them go to waste!

Sitting back down with your long list of words, start looking to see if you can combine any of them together. Keep an eye out for common sayings, alliteration (words beginning with the same letter or sound), words that rhyme, or words that contradict each other.

Now’s a good time to let your logical brain back in on the action. Don’t get too carried away with the rhymes or the poetics if they don’t actually reflect back to your core business. Keep going back to your product or service written at the top of the page. Also refer back to the mission statement you wrote – it may be clunky, but it will probably be honest.

Some examples from my pretend session:

Happy, Healthful & Holistic,  Prime Wellness, Caring Nutrition, Clean Outlook

These aren’t necessarily the perfect name yet, but there are definitely some with potential. Remember, I only did the exercise as a theoretical one, your results will be even better!

What not to do when choosing a business name

Try not to make your business name difficult to spell or pronounce. Avoid using negative sounding words.

You don’t necessarily need to find a name that encompasses EVERYTHING you do or offer – your business is going to grow and evolve, so don’t get too bogged down in a name that’s too literal.

Try not to pick  a very generic name – inject your personality into the process.

When you come up with a winner (or 2, or 3!) don’t commit straight away. The first thing you really need to do is check if the domain is available. This step may see you returning back to the drawing board over and over.

Tips on choosing your domain name

If you are looking for a region specific domain (.com.au or .co.uk) and that is available but the .com version is not, you need to think about your position in your specific market. If you know that you are only going to be targeting your region, then there’s a good chance that you don’t need to worry about your ‘competitor’ in the US.

With our nutritionist example, the target market is going to be local to her, so a competitor in the US is not likely to impact too much on her marketing strategies. If your business is going to be run more online, then not owning all domain names could be a problem.

If the name you pick is good across all domain name regions, snap them all up! It’s easy enough to redirect the extras to your main site, and at least you can’t be held hostage in the future if someone buys the domain and you want it.

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Making the decision to set up small business, or even to become a sole trader, is a huge step in your life. Most small business owners will have had to generate funds by borrowing from friends and family, saving extensively for a while, or by taking out a start-up loan. So you’ll want to make sure your venture is successful and generates a nice profit so that you can clear your debts and move things onward and upwards.

Here are my top tips to help with small business marketing to your potential customers:

1. Identify your customer base

2. Look professional

3. Attend exhibitions

4. Communicate with your customers

5. Measure everything

The post 5 B2C Ideas For Small Business Marketing appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

Deciding to take the plunge to start working for yourself is a big step. It’s a decision both exhilarating and terrifying, and you’re going to be on that emotional roller coaster all along the journey.

I know that when I started down this path, I could hardly contain my excitement. The ideas were bubbling over, I was frantically scribbling down lists and notes, creating half-baked flowcharts to stick and admire on the walls.

Once the initial excitement calmed down a little bit, I quickly realised that enthusiasm alone wasn’t going to keep me going in the long-term. Excitement is exhausting, and while great for brainstorming and getting lots of ideas flowing – for me at least – it works against me when I need to get things actually done.

My business much prefers me when I’m being calm, steady and disciplined. And while these personality traits aren’t necessarily the ones that come most naturally (or sound the most glamorous), I am working very hard on nurturing them and letting them guide my daily schedule.

So why do we put ourselves through this? What are some reasons for starting your own small business?

Work independently

I suspect this is a biggie for most of us. It can be hard to work for someone else, and to see the results of your labours line someone else’s pockets. To make matters worse, the often rigid working arrangements in most traditional companies means that you can feel like you have no control over your own life and destiny.

Now I’m out of corporate-world, the full absurdity of that system has really struck me. We grow up into independent adults, yet our jobs require us to have to ask for permission to go on holiday, or restrict our ability to find our own best productive hours, or don’t allow us to simply make a change to our working routine that will give us a better work/life balance.

I understand that some people thrive within this type of corporate structure, but some people just really don’t.

Working for yourself, however, you get to set your own hours and find out how you are most productive. Sounds great, right? All that freedom?

You need to bear in mind that your small business will only grow and flourish if you pay attention to it. You will probably find yourself working longer hours and having even less free time on your hands than when you were working for someone else.

Bu you know what? People aren’t afraid of hard work. As long as we feel empowered through the work we are doing, most of us are thrilled to be busy and engaged. Running your own business – supporting yourself through your own ideas and execution of those ideas – is extremely empowering. The lines between home and work may become blurred, but you are in control of how you define and work with that boundary.

Make easy money

The internet abounds with stories of entrepreneurs who came up with an idea, stormed in, built up a mega-empire and made scrillions of dollars, all in under 12 months.

Some of these stories may be true. I guess. If you dig a bit deeper, however, the get rich quick guys have actually been working long and hard behind the scenes for long before their meteoric ‘rise’ and success.

Which isn’t to say that you and your business won’t follow a similar trajectory. There is real money to be made through self-employment – and unlike a salaried job your earning potential isn’t capped by what your boss or your company thinks you are worth.

On the other hand, selling your product or services – consistently – is the key to building your own business and wealth. Anything is possible, but you will need lots of patience, a committment to the long-term goal, and a strong stomach to ride out the anxious days, weeks or months when your business slows down.

Have faith that you will arrive at your goals, and I’m willing to bet that you will see the financial return for all that hard work. It may not be easy money, but it will be money you funnelled towards you and your business through your own hard work and effort. That makes it satisfying money, in my book!

Niche market opportunity

You see a niche in the market. It’s a tiny little sliver that you noticed, and you’re convinced that you know how to carve something substantial out of it.

If you truly have found a market niche, that is the best way of guaranteeing long term success with your business strategy. Of all the reasons to start a small business, this is probably the most relevant.

Just make sure you do the research. There not only needs to be a market for your product or service, but you also need to be sure that there are people out there willing to pay for it.

If you’ve done the research, and feel that you’re onto a winner, then go for it! In many ways, it’s easier to do your marketing for a niche than for a broad and ill-defined segment, and the speed and level of your success should hopefully reflect that.

Time for a career change

This can be a tough one. I think we can all relate to the feelings of frustration and unhappiness associated with working in a job or industry that you feel is all wrong for you. I bet everyone has worked – at least once – in a job, or in a company, that was a completely wrong fit.

Perhaps you find yourself unemployed, another statistic of the global economic downturn.

The idea of starting up a business can be seductive in this situation, but as reasons go, you need to be careful with this one. Becoming self employed is a tough journey. You need enthusiasm and passion and a clear goal to keep you moving and engaged. Simply doing it as a default – because you think it will be better than the job you hate now – is probably not going to provide the motivation you need to see it through.

Think about why you want to do it, and what your motivations are. Don’t rush into it. Explore some hobbies, do some research to find a niche, and maybe start off small and part-time. See if you and entrepreneurship are a good fit.

Starting up your own business enterprise should never be a ‘safety net’ or default choice. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try if you’re not 100% sure. If all the signs from the universe are telling you that now is the time to throw yourself into a new venture, take a deep breath and plunge right it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Creativity

You have a burning desire to create, to innovate, to build.

Doing your creative ‘thing’ is often the easy part. Do you have the drive to knuckle down to the essential ‘boring’ tasks that your business requires? Marketing, book keeping, networking. All the nuts and bolts that keep your business together and functioning.

Are you ready for the idea that a lot of your time won’t necessarily be spent on the creative stuff that you love doing? Have you thought about how to build that into the cost of your services? Long term, how will you help your business to grow if what you actually want to be doing is simply writing, or designing, or taking photographs.

It could be tricky to manage, but if you want to be the creative force in the business, maybe you could partner up with someone else. Or at the very least, start outsourcing the stuff you really don’t like to do.

On the other hand, you may discover that you have a whole side of you that you didn’t suspect was lying dormant. Being a business owner allows you to wear lots of different professional hats, so you never know what type of job tickles your fancy.

There are plenty of reasons for striking out on your own. What were your reasons for starting your own business? And have they changed or evolved alongside your business?

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