Business naming advice for a budding entrepreneur? ;)

Stoudy

Hello All. So I've recently decided to give in to my entrepreneurial titillation. Early days though yet so I was brainstorming names today & I came up with one I really like (surprising). The thing is its in another language & that language or Country isn't related to my product directly, does this matter? One of the words is quite well known even by English speakers & it sounds very much like another big name. The fact that it sounds so similar to another big brand is nagging at me too but we would be in completely different markets & the spelling is completely different so my initial thought is it will be fine. I would love to hear some opinions on this if anyone is kind enough to take the time to help me out. Thanks in advance & Happy New Year

irish_goat

Hard to give advice if you don't give us any info at all.

jimmii

I guess its going to depend on whether its going to seem like you are trying to just rip off the name or not. If so it might cheapen what you are doing in some peoples eyes and while you think its clever it might do more harm than good. People ask about our business name a lot its nice to have a back story other than I just liked how it sounds.

Stoudy

jimmii wrote: »

I guess its going to depend on whether its going to seem like you are trying to just rip off the name or not. If so it might cheapen what you are doing in some peoples eyes and while you think its clever it might do more harm than good. People ask about our business name a lot its nice to have a back story other than I just liked how it sounds.

Hey Jimmy thanks for your reply. After spending hours brainstorming it was the first name I tried that didnt already have 1000000 google hits! I was so happy with myself
Only after I said the name to my friend did we realise just how similar it was to this Big Brand name & I wondered if this is why no one else has used it.
Since this isnt exactly my area of expertise I don't know if people would feel like Im ripping off the name to be honest. Maybe I could PM you the name & you could give me your thoughts? There is a bit of a background story to the two words I chose also but its a bit personal & I'm not sure my customers would care to hear the explanation
Hmm, back to the drawing board maybe then...I might be able to stick with the main idea but add to it so it changes it enough to not sound like a rip off.

*Puts thinking cap back on & boils the kettle*

Stoudy

irish_goat wrote: »

Hard to give advice if you don't give us any info at all.

Hi Goat, thanks for your reply. My bad! What info would you like to know?

jimmii

Yeah sure feel free to pm me!

If the name is something different then you'll also get asked about it in interviews! Don't want it to be something too awkward to answer!!

Stoudy

jimmii wrote: »

Yeah sure feel free to pm me!

If the name is something different then you'll also get asked about it in interviews! Don't want it to be something too awkward to answer!!

Well I feel like by the time I'm at the point where people start questioning the idea behind the name (rather than just what the name means in English) I should be more than comfortable talking about it I'm making it sound like a bigger deal than it is Just the usually BS that comes with life...that was my inspiration behind the name

So before I pm you is there anyway I can sue you if you steal the name from me?

Axwell

If its a business name..ie you arent a limited company then others can have the same name anyways. As long as they arent passing off as your business, so really unless you are setting up a limited company its no big deal to just say what the name is on here. Besides its impossible to give you any sort of feedback without knowing what the name is.

mneylon

Are you going to market your business using the name?
Is it easy to spell?
Is it likely to get confused with another business' name?
Is the .com domain name available?

jmcc

Also do a trademark search on the names you may consider using.

Regards...jmcc

Qualitymark

Also make sure the name doesn't mean something… unintentional

http://www.i18nguy.com/translations.html

Maybe concentrating on the business rather than the name might be best?

ladiesman217

Hi Stoudy. Choosing a name for your brand can be a difficult process and a frustrating one. Would be interesting to know what process you are using to formulate names? pm and I can send on some info in formulating names.:)

Graham

ladiesman217 wrote: »

Pm and I can send on some info in formulating names.:)

any reason you can't share that info on the thread?

Stoudy

Hey All!
Thanks for all your replies!
Heres the thing, I plan to start small so sell at Farmers Markets, Facebook, Etsy, Ebay etc. So I thought "Hey, gotta have business cards to try & get repeat custom" so this lead me on to deciding on a name.
Nice advice about checking if the domain is possible, didn't think of it yesterday just checked & no website at that address so looking good Can you tell me how I would go about purchasing it? Are the hugely expensive?
Now to address one of the earlier comments I genuinely don't know whether I should be a sole trader or a PLC or whatever. I'm hoping ye may be able to tell me that? In order to start out at farmers markets (quite a few locally to me) can I just paint a sign & print some cards & get the ball rolling or do I have to register before manning a stall & possibly selling online in order to avoid any troubles? I've come across people on Facebook who are doing it a little underhandedly & I would prefer to be proud of my business than to feel like I was ripping people off to make a quick buck.
I was tempted to just buy in stock I had sourced online but decided against it as I cannot guarantee the quality I can when I make them by hand.
Anyway thanks for all yer input guys keep it coming its much appreciated

Stoudy

Wow ..just saw how inexpensive domains are! Cant believe .ie is more expensive that .com & .eu ! I thought they would cost a couple hundred.
As soon as it asked me to pick a "registrar" & offered me a web site builder starter package and cloud lite & hosting I realized i was way out of my depth again

Axwell

.ie are reserved for Irish registered businesses - so not just anyone can register them, unlike .com which anybody can just go register without no paperwork involved. Hence the price difference, but at the end of the day you can get both of them relatively cheap. By the way hosting talk isnt allowed on boards so no talk of prices, who to register with etc.

As regards the domain you looked up - no website doesnt mean no one is using the domain, you need to do a whois search and see if its registered to someone. They may just not have a website active on the domain. If its a .com use whois.com if its a .ie look it up on the iedr website.

Stoudy

Axwell wrote: »

.ie are reserved for Irish registered businesses - so not just anyone can register them, unlike .com which anybody can just go register without no paperwork involved. Hence the price difference, but at the end of the day you can get both of them relatively cheap. By the way hosting talk isnt allowed on boards so no talk of prices, who to register with etc.

As regards the domain you looked up - no website doesnt mean no one is using the domain, you need to do a whois search and see if its registered to someone. They may just not have a website active on the domain. If its a .com use whois.com if its a .ie look it up on the iedr website.

Thanks for the heads up(hosting talk) May I just ask is that what their asking me for on the IEDR when they as me to pick a "registrar" their asking me to pick a hosting site is it?
Just checked on whois & all good & I had checked IEDR last night. Both are pretty cheap I may buy them & sit on them till needed.

Graham

Stoudy wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up(hosting talk) May I just ask is that what their asking me for on the IEDR when they as me to pick a "registrar" their asking me to pick a hosting site is it?
Just checked on whois & all good & I had checked IEDR last night. Both are pretty cheap I may buy them & sit on them till needed.

The IEDR manage the .ie domain registry but they don't sell domains directly to the public, that's why they're asking you to pick a registrar.

Your hosting company and domain registrar do not have to be the same company although it can make life easier for you if they are. That doesn't apply if you're planning to use one of the big international site builders (SquareSpace etc), if you go down that route, almost any of the .ie registrars will work for you.

Avoid any and all site builders offered by the Irish hosts/registrars, they are all beyond bad.

Stoudy

Graham wrote: »

The IEDR manage the .ie domain registry but they don't sell domains directly to the public, that's why they're asking you to pick a registrar.

Your hosting company and domain registrar do not have to be the same company although it can make life easier for you if they are. That doesn't apply if you're planning to use one of the big international site builders (SquareSpace etc), if you go down that route, almost any of the .ie registrars will work for you.

Avoid any and all site builders offered by the Irish hosts/registrars, they are all beyond bad.

Thanks for the info Graham. Sorry I'm quite new to all this but I must say i find it quite exhilarating, I can barely sleep thinking over it all lol If I was just to buy the domains for now & plan on doing websites way further down the line then how do I know which registrar to go for or does it matter?

Graham

Stoudy wrote: »

Thanks for the info Graham. Sorry I'm quite new to all this but I must say i find it quite exhilarating, I can barely sleep thinking over it all lol If I was just to buy the domains for now & plan on doing websites way further down the line then how do I know which registrar to go for or does it matter?

You absolutely can buy the domain name now, in fact I'd recommend it considering how small the cost is.

I don't think we're allowed to discuss specific registrars or hosting companies here on boards. Personally, I use one specific Irish registrar for .ie domains and another for all other domain names. I'm sure if you PM someone on this thread, they will tell you who they use.

Axwell

You need to register the business name before you can buy the .ie name as you will need the business number for the application. So you should probably decide on the name for certain now and if you plan to go sole trader or ltd then go back to organising the domain as it will take about 2 weeks to get the rbn if you go sole trader and more paperwork again if you go ltd.