Here are 10 simple tips to consider when deciding on how the site will look and how customers will navigate through it:

1. Immediately tell visitors on the site what the company does.
2. Get users to the information they want in two clicks or less.
3. Consider including headers and links that give the store’s name, and include a “breadcrumb” showing visitors where they are in relation to the “Home” page at all times. Visitors should know where they are within the website at all times.
4. Allow visitors to find answers to questions easily.
5. Incorporate sufficiently large fonts and images, as well as audio descriptions where appropriate, so that content is accessible to users with disabilities.
6. Pay special attention to the quality of information, and ensure that the text is written well and spelled correctly.
7. Use buzz words sparingly.
8. Include a link to the homepage on every page so that in one click, users can be led there.
9. Develop visuals that are useful, not flashy and distracting. Useful visuals include illustrations or photos of products, graphics that separate categories of products, or maps with directions.
10. Determine which technologies are appropriate and which are overkill. For example, developing a landing page in Macromedia’s Flash technology may be a nice design feature, but it is annoying to your visitors and completely ignored by the search engines. Don’t use it.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Merchants should use photos showing their items from a variety of angles and, in some cases, position them next to something else to show the relative size (a cell phone the size of a lipstick, a bench that’s knee-high).

When formulating a product marketing strategy, consider the following:

• Avoid over-describing or over-selling offerings on the site. Information should be useful to the shopper, bringing out all the positive benefits of the product or service in a conversational tone.
• Offer complementary products or partnerships to bolster a store’s offerings. Businesses that don’t carry a wide variety of products often partner with other merchants to offer complementary items.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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And if you roll out a large traffic campaign before you’ve tested your site to make sure it converts maximum visitors into buyers, you risk losing sales and looking unprofessional to potential business partners and affiliates.

So you’re caught in a vicious cycle: Before ramping up a big traffic campaign, you need to test your sales process, but without any traffic, testing is difficult–if not impossible!

Here’s an eight-step action plan that will show you:

• How to get cheap, instant traffic to your website so you can test key components of your sales process–your sales copy, order form, navigation and opt-in offer–before rolling out a large-scale traffic campaign.
• How to ensure that every element of your sales process is optimized to convert maximum traffic into maximum sales.
• The most effective strategies for attracting thousands of highly qualified potential buyers to your site right away.
• The secret to putting your entire traffic campaign on autopilot.

So even if your site is getting no traffic right now, you can be testing the key elements of your sales process tomorrow–and as soon as two weeks from now, you can be rolling out your traffic campaign in full.

1. Get the traffic you need to test your website fast! But, you may be asking yourself:
   • How do I test my site?
   • What do I test on my site?

   As you may already know, there are an infinite number of things you can test on your site to help you increase sales. From layout to copy to design, there are limitless combinations of changes that may improve your visitor-to-sale conversion rate. But what’s “enough” when you’re just starting out? What elements should you focus on testing before rolling out your traffic campaign?

   Stick to the basics. Focus on testing your:

   • Salescopy: especially your headline, benefits, guarantee and call to action
   • Order process: which needs to be simple enough for a novice web user to place an order
   • Opt-in offer: so you can determine if you’re successfully capturing your visitors’ contact information
   • Site navigation: so you can figure out how many clicks it takes to buy. Ideally it should take less than three.

   These are the four critical aspects of your sales process that need to be tested before you start driving traffic. Later on, once you’ve generated sales and have some steady traffic, you can move on to testing other parts of your site.

   Of course, all this talk of testing your new site raises one big question: How can you test without traffic? Because if you’re just getting started, chances are good that your website doesn’t get much traffic yet.

   The solution is simple: Buy traffic through PPC search engines. Pay-per-click search engines are a lot like auctions–they allow you to bid for top-ranking positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor who searches the keyword(s) you bid on and then clicks through to your site, you pay whatever you bid. Prices typically range from five cents to a few dollars per click-through for popular keywords. There are a ton of PPC search engines out there.

   With PPC search engines, you get cheap, instant, qualified traffic–provided you bid on targeted keywords. Not only that, but bidding on traffic in the PPC search engines can help your site get ranked in the free search engines, too!

   Here are a few tips to help you start bidding for traffic without breaking the bank:

   • In Yahoo Search Marketing, bid to appear in the top three listings whenever possible, since these results are also “pushed” to appear in many other search results–reaching a large percentage of all internet users.
   • Bid on targeted, descriptive keywords. So don’t just bid on “sock;” bid on “red wool sock.” Not only are targeted keywords and phrases usually cheaper to bid on–they’ll also attract more qualified potential buyers. Use a keyword selection tool like Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool to research targeted keywords that attract maximum traffic for minimal cost-per-click.
   • After you’ve tested and tweaked your site with a limited amount of purchased traffic, it’s time to start generating qualified traffic for your site on a larger scale. But how do you go from some traffic to a ton of traffic?
2. Get cheap traffic quickly with PPC advertising. Once you’ve tested your site with limited PPC traffic, the fastest way to ramp up traffic to your site is to roll out a PPC campaign on a larger scale.

   This is also a great time to get started with Google AdWords –Google’s own PPC contender. With Google AdWords, you get instant traffic with no waiting. Because as soon as you put the money down on your keywords, your ad goes up and starts working for you.

3. Get free traffic from search engines like Google. Now that you’ve bid on keywords for a strong showing in the PPC search engines, it’s time to tackle the organic search engines and directories. Search engines like Google and directories like Yahoo! can still be a great source of free traffic for your website. The trick is getting a competitive ranking for your best keywords.
4. Give away irresistible free content for priceless publicity. Believe it or not, a really easy, frequently undervalued strategy for getting traffic is giving away free content to other websites. Even just two or three well-written articles can generate truckloads of traffic, as long as they don’t contain a sales pitch.

   You want to include rare, hard-to-get information that’ll lend your articles automatic value–the kind of information that establishes you as an expert in your field.

   Once you’ve finished an article, write a short bio paragraph about you and your business and place it at the end of your article along with–and this is the most important part–a link to your site.

   To locate sites that might be interested in your content, e-mail other website owners in your industry–be sure to choose sites that receive attention and visits from your target market–and invite them to use your article on their site or in their newsletter at absolutely no cost.

   Many site owners need fresh content, so they’ll be more than happy to post your articles–and it won’t be long before those articles start driving traffic back to your site.

   Another option is to give away your articles through free content websites like these:

   • www.ezinearticles.com
   • www.freesticky.com

   Your articles will automatically be made available to thousands of websites seeking free, quality content–and all you have to do is submit your articles once.

   Don’t underestimate the power of giving away free content. And as your articles gain more exposure, don’t be surprised if you’re contacted by high-profile magazine and portal sites related to your industry looking for free articles to include on their sites, too.

5. Get free word of mouth publicity using viral marketing. Simply defined, viral marketing is a way for you to spread your marketing message like a virus. You encourage people to pass on information about your site to others, and you use that word-of-mouth publicity to advertise your business. Once you start the “virus,” it spreads without you lifting a finger.

   Need an example? Try Hotmail.com, the free web-based e-mail service provider. At the bottom of every single Hotmail e-mail sent by Hotmail members, there’s a simple one-line message:

   “Get your free, private email from MSN at http://www.hotmail.com”

   How much time do you think it took Hotmail to include that signature line as part of their e-mail service? Not much at all–but look at the impact this simple strategy had on the growth of their business. In my personal experience, more than 35 percent of all e-mail users have Hotmail accounts!

   You can easily duplicate this strategy by doing something as simple as including a “pass it on link” at the end of a free newsletter, something as simple as:

   “If you’ve enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!”

   By simply asking readers to take action and forward your newsletter, you’ll prompt free word of mouth exposure for your business without any extra cost or hassle.

   How else can you put viral marketing to work for you? Here are a few simple ideas:

   1. Give away free articles (like the ones I describe in Step 4) that include a “pass it on” link.
   2. Give away free demos of your product.
   3. Offer a free trial of your service with a “share this great resource” button on the page.
   4. Hold a contest on your site, and give participants an extra entry for every friend they refer.
   5. Start an affiliate program (see Step 7 below).

   As you can see, you don’t need to be the next Hotmail to get started with viral marketing. By simply encouraging people to “share this resource with friends,” you can attract some great word-of-mouth traffic.

6. Get free links on other high-traffic websites. Link requests require minimal effort from you, but they can absolutely explode your traffic numbers overnight. How? If your site is a featured link on a major site in your industry–one that receives a ton of attention–your site immediately benefits from all the exposure their site receives.

   Getting started with this strategy is simple, but you should follow a standard process every time you request a link. Let’s break it down into a few easy steps:

   1. Do a Google search for your standard keywords–the ones that people generally use to find your site.
   2. Make detailed notes about the sites that appear regularly in the top ten listings for your major keywords.
   3. Use the Alexa Toolbar, LinkPopularity or Technorati to find out what other sites these sites are linking to, whose linking to them and how much traffic they’re receiving, then look up their contact information.
   4. Before making contact, make sure you know the correct URL for the site, the URL of the sub-page on which you want your link to appear, the name of the site owner or webmaster, the date you last visited their site, and a brief description of the contents of the site.

   When you’re ready to contact the owners of these website and request a link, write a personal e-mail–don’t use form letters. Be sure to include some positive comments about their site, information about you and your site (along with your URL), an explanation of why a link to you would benefit them, and instructions for contacting you to get started.

   You want your request to be thorough and professional. If you can present a persuasive argument for why the link request benefits both of you, you stand a better chance of forging a connection. And if you’re really eager to get your link on their site, be prepared to up the ante by offering them a commission or a link on your site in return. The investment could be well worth the extra exposure your marketing message receives.

   When other businesses request links on your site, my advice is, be stingy. Just as links on others’ sites serve as a personal recommendation of your site, links on your site are recommendations for their businesses. Only recommend the best!

7. Get thousands of websites to promote your business for free. Imagine hundreds, even thousands, of websites promoting your product or service without spending a dime until someone refers a paying customer. You can do this with what’s called an affiliate program.

   Affiliate programs–also referred to as “reseller” or “associate” programs–are a great way to get other people (called “affiliates”) to promote your product or service for you. For every paying customer your affiliates refer to your site, you pay them a commission. And since you only pay when you make money, it’s an extremely low-risk option.

   Here’s how it works: Your affiliates send visitors to your site using banner ads, text links, letters of referral and so on, while you track these referrals using special software. It’s an extremely powerful way to grow your business because it automates your traffic generation. To get started with your own affiliate program, you need to:

   1. Establish your commissions. To keep your affiliates motivated, you should pay them 40 to 50 percent of your profits per sale.
   2. Get software to track the traffic and sales of your affiliates so you know what to pay them.
   3. Provide your affiliates with tools they can use to promote your products, such as e-mails, banners and so on.
   4. Recruit more affiliates. Look for sites that target your market, and invite them to become affiliates.

   Affiliate programs are an ideal way to automate your traffic generation because other people are marketing your site for you. Your sales increase on a daily basis–but your affiliates do all the selling for you, and it doesn’t cost you a dime until they send you paying customers.

8. Use e-mail marketing to attract repeat visitors. Getting lots of traffic to your site is great, but if you aren’t collecting the contact information–the names and e-mail addresses–of visitors, you’re wasting every single click. If visitors leave your site without buying your product, there’s a good chance they won’t ever be back–and you’ll have absolutely no way of following up with them. It can take up to seven points of contact to make a single sale.

   You’ll want to begin collecting visitors’ contact information from day one using an opt-in form on your home page. Then send them e-mail messages to follow up and keep them thinking about your site. Need some ideas for e-mails you could send to follow up with your opt-in subscribers? Try these ideas:

   1. Monthly or bi-weekly newsletters that include tons of tips and information
   2. Free reports on topics your market would appreciate
   3. Answers to common questions people ask about your product
   4. Offers for products similar or complementary to ones you may have already offered them
   5. Free product trials that give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer
   6. A “downgrade” offer for a product that’s less expensive or robust than your featured offer

   Following up with the addresses you gather is quick, easy and simple with e-mail management and automation software. You can create e-mail messages called “autoresponders” that potential customers receive automatically as soon as they opt-in on your site–within seconds–no matter what time of day it is or whether you’re even at your desk!

   That’s right: As soon as your visitors opt in, they’ll start hearing from you on a regular basis without you having to deal with the stress of writing a ton of e-mails to individual addresses. This is a process you can put on autopilot from the very beginning.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, we’ve covered a lot of ground in this article, before you dive into any of these strategies, you’ll need to do a bit more reading and research on each of these topics in order to understand these tactics in depth.

This article was meant to be a clear road map of exactly what you need to do first, second and third to test your website to maximize conversion rates and then roll out an effective traffic campaign that attracts swarms of potential buyers–automatically–for years to come. But reading more on each topic will help figure out exactly what you need to do for your site to make it a success.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a common thread that links all our most successful clients who have internet businesses: They have all focused on implementing one or two marketing strategies really well.

Don’t feel like you need to become an expert in all the strategies covered here. Focus on becoming really proficient at one or two–because this may be all you need to dramatically increase your traffic–and sales.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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You may also try other companies that specialize in issuing accounts to online merchants, including:

• Cardservice International
• VeriSign
• Credit Card Processing Services
• The Processing Network
• 21st Century Resources

Or, log onto Google and search for credit card processing. You’ll find many dozens of outfits, large and small, that are on the prowl for startups seeking merchant accounts.

Credit cards aren’t processed cheaply, however, at least not for a startup. A typical fee schedule for a small-volume account (fewer than 1,000 transactions monthly) would include startup fees amounting to around $200 and monthly processing fees of around $20.

Making Customers Feel Secure

The one must-have for online credit card processing: secure, encrypted connections. You’ve seen this many times yourself. Go to virtually any major e-tailer, commence a purchase, and you are put into a “secure server” environment, where transaction data is scrambled to provide a measure of safety against hackers.

Truth is, these worries are generally unfounded–the odds of a hacker grabbing an unencrypted credit card number from a non-secure website are pretty slender–but buyers feel reassured when they see they’re entering a secure site, and that means you need to provide it.

Is this a technical hassle for you? It shouldn’t be. Whatever vendor sells you credit card processing should also, as part of the package, provide a secure transaction environment. If they don’t, look elsewhere.

Fraud Prevention Tools

Contrary to reports of rising fraud rates, credit card payments remain one of the safest payment methods available online. Sophisticated internet solutions, such as the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway, process credit card payments in real time using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, which encrypts all confidential information during the transmission and authorization of transactions.

Other fraud-prevention tools, such as the Address Verification Service (AVS), make online credit card acceptance even safer. The service compares the numerical information in your customers’ addresses with records stored by card-issuing banks. It then returns codes that indicate whether the numbers match.

Although the information provided by the AVS does not affect the authorization of your transactions, it can help you make informed decisions about suspicious orders.

Besides the AVS, you can protect yourself by using the card validation code 2 (CVC2) and the card verification value (CVV2) verification systems of MasterCard and Visa, respectively. These verification services use the three-digit codes printed on all MasterCard and Visa cards to help you determine whether your customers possess legitimate cards.

Special Considerations

Be sure to ask prospective processors about the costs of storefront solutions that you must have to effectively operate your website, such as shopping carts, Web hosting, payment gateways, virtual terminals, virtual checks, databases for fulfilling orders, customer tracking, and a way to calculate tax and shipping charges.

Typical Fees

Shop around for a credit card processor that best suits your needs. Talk to several different processors and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Find out about:

• The discount rate: The percentage of each transaction paid to the merchant account provider. If your monthly charges are less than a certain volume, the processor may charge a higher percentage.
• Transaction fee: A flat rate charged for each transaction processed.
• Equipment: Some examples include point-of-sale terminals, printers and peripherals. Also find out about installation costs. (This may or may not apply to you as an e-business.)
• Monthly minimum fees: These are minimum fees that the merchant account provider collects each month from the merchant if the merchant’s discount rate and transaction fees don’t add up to the monthly minimum specified on the original merchant application. It is usually about $25 per month if the monthly minimum volume isn’t reached.
• Reserve fees: If your credit history is in question, or if you own a new or high-risk business, you may be required to set up a reserve account, which protects the processor from any future losses. The reserve account is calculated as a percentage of your sales.
• Chargeback fees: These are the costs charged by a processor to cover disputed charges.

Other Payment Options

• Money orders. For customers who don’t have credit cards, money orders are a great payment alternative, particularly if you sell your products in an online auction environment, such as eBay.
• Existing checking accounts. Services that transfer checking account funds electronically are another quick and easy option for customers without credit cards. Western Union’s MoneyZap service, for example, lets buyers pay merchants online from their existing checking accounts.
• Check cards. Offline debit cards–aka check cards–are typically issued by large credit card companies through their participating banks. U.S. consumers today make the majority of their offline debit purchases with the Visa Check Card or MasterCard’s MasterMoney card. These enhanced ATM cards carry the Visa and MasterCard logos, respectively, and may be used everywhere the credit cards are accepted, including over the internet.
• Electronic checks. These are another emerging e-payment option. Through a process called check conversion, brick-and-mortar merchants can transform their customers’ paper checks into electronic transactions that are processed through the automated clearing house (ACH) network.
• Internet checks. You can also accept checks over the internet using payment-processing software, such as LinkPoint International’s VirtualCheck. Customers who elect to make check purchases from a website are prompted to key their information into a browser-based form. Again, data is encrypted and captured by the transaction processor’s payment gateway.
• PayPal. Based in Mountain View, California, PayPal is the world’s largest online payment system. Recently acquired by eBay, PayPal lets consumers send money to anyone with an e-mail address through their credit card or checking account. Consumers sign up once for the free service-after that, they use their account number to buy products online securely, conveniently and cost-effectively.

Are You High Risk?

Just because some merchant account providers lump e-businesses in with other high-risk businesses, like telemarketers, merchants in the travel and cruise industries and internet auctions, it doesn’t have to mean you won’t be able to open a merchant account. It does mean, though, that it may be more challenging to set one up.

Merchant account providers–banks and independent sales organizations–will also consider how long you’ve been in business, your credit history and any previous merchant accounts you’ve held with other processors.

Your length of time in business matters because merchant account providers want an assurance that you understand the business environment in which you operate, can identify the potential risks you face, know how to prevent or reduce fraud, and understand how to manage credit card acceptance. Regardless of risk, this kind of knowledge comes only with first-hand business experience.

Your credit report will show how well you’ve repaid past loans, and if you’ve had any liens, judgments or bankruptcies filed against you. A favorable credit history will go a long way toward establishing your credibility as a prospective merchant.

And if you’ve had an earlier, well-maintained merchant account, it’s a positive indicator of how you’re going to deal with your new processor. Terminated merchant accounts will show up on the Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants file, also known as the Combined Terminated Merchant File.

If your previous processor terminated your merchant account because you defaulted on it, or if you incurred too many chargebacks, this may negatively impact opening a future account.

To increase your merchant account eligibility, follow these tips:

• Ensure a positive credit rating. Remove any past bankruptcies, late payments or liens from your credit report before you apply for a merchant account. To obtain your credit report, contact a credit reporting bureau such as TRW or a company that provides merged credit reports from major reporting agencies, such as Equifax, Experian or Trans Union.
• Be honest about previous merchant accounts, bankruptcies, liens or judgments. By acknowledging past financial challenges, you improve your credibility and may encounter one less barrier to opening a new merchant account. You cannot hide information that’s part of the public record.
• Be willing to pay higher fees or accommodate special account requirements. If you need to abide by special restrictions or pay slightly higher fees in order to open a merchant account, by all means do it! It’s worth it to provide your customers with as many noncash payment options as possible. It will help you generate revenues and stimulate impulse purchases.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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There’s a lot of controversy over what makes a good business name. Some experts believe that the best names are abstract, a blank slate upon which to create an image. Others think that names should be informative, so customers know immediately what your business is. Some believe that coined names (names that come from made-up words) are more memorable than names that use real words. Others think most coined names are eminently forgettable. In reality, any type of name can be effective if it’s backed by the appropriate marketing strategy.

Do It Yourself?

Given all the considerations that go into a good company name, shouldn’t you consult an expert, especially if you’re in a field in which your company name will be visible and may influence the success of your business? And isn’t it easier to enlist the help of a naming professional?

Yes. Just as an accountant will do a better job with your taxes and an ad agency will do a better job with your ad campaign, a naming firm will be more adept at naming your firm than you will. Naming firms have elaborate systems for creating new names, and they know their way around the trademark laws. They have the expertise to advise you against bad name choices and explain why others are good. A name consultant will take this perplexing task off your hands–and do a fabulous job for you in the process.

The downside is cost. A professional naming firm may charge anywhere from a few thousand dollars to $35,000 or more to develop a name. The benefit, however, is that spending this money now can save you money in the end. Professional namers may be able to find a better name–one that is so recognizable and memorable, it will cut down your costs in the long run. They have the expertise to help you avoid legal hassles with trademarks and registration–problems that can cost you plenty if you end up choosing a name that already belongs to someone else. And they are familiar with design elements, such as how a potential name might work on a sign or stationery.

If you can spare the money from your startup budget, professional help could be a solid investment. After all, the name you choose now will affect your marketing plans for the duration of your business. If you’re like most small-business owners, though, the responsibility for thinking up a name will be all your own. The good news: By following the same basic steps professional namers use, you can come up with a meaningful moniker that works . . . without breaking the bank.
What Does It Mean?

Start by deciding what you want your name to communicate. To be most effective, your company name should reinforce the key elements of your business.

Gerald Lewis, whose consulting firm, CDI Designs, specializes in helping retail food businesses, uses retail as an example. “In retailing,” Lewis explains, “the market is so segmented that [a name must] convey very quickly what the customer is going after. For example, if it’s a warehouse store, it has to convey that impression. If it’s an upscale store selling high-quality foods, it has to convey that impression. The name combined with the logo is very important in doing that.” So the first and most important step in choosing a name is deciding what your business is.

Should your name be meaningful? Most experts say yes. The more your name communicates to consumers, the less effort you must exert to explain it. Alan Siegel, chairman and CEO of Siegel & Gale, an international communications firm, believes name developers should give priority to real words or combinations of words over fabricated words. He explains that people prefer words they can relate to and understand. That’s why professional namers universally condemn strings of numbers or initials as a bad choice. On the other hand, it is possible for a name to be too meaningful.

Naming consultant S.B. Master cautions business owners need to beware of names that are too narrowly defined. Common pitfalls are geographic names or generic names. Take the name “San Pablo Disk Drives” as a hypothetical example. What if the company wants to expand beyond the city of San Pablo, California? What meaning will that name have for consumers in Chicago or Pittsburgh? And what if the company diversifies beyond disk drives into software or computer instruction manuals?

Specific names make sense if you intend to stay in a narrow niche forever. If you have any ambitions of growing or expanding, however, you should find a name that is broad enough to accommodate your growth. How can a name be both meaningful and broad? Master makes a distinction between descriptive names (like San Pablo Disk Drives) and suggestive names.

Descriptive names tell something concrete about a business–what it does, where it’s located and so on. Suggestive names are more abstract. They focus on what the business is about. Would you like to convey quality? Convenience? Novelty? These are the kinds of qualities that a suggestive name can express.

For example, Master came up with the name “Italiatour” to help promote package tours to Italy. Though it’s not a real word, the name “Italiatour” is meaningful. Right away, you recognize what’s being offered. But even better, the name “Italiatour” evokes the excitement of foreign travel. “It would have been a very different name if we had called it �Italytour,’” says Master. “But we took a foreign word, �Italia,’ but one that was very familiar and emotional and exciting to English speakers, and combined it with the English word �tour.’ It’s easy to say, it’s unique, it’s unintimidating, but it still has an Italian flavor.”

Before you start thinking up names for your new business, try to define the qualities that you want your business to be identified with. If you’re starting a hearth-baked bread shop, for example, you might want a name that conveys freshness, warmth, and a homespun atmosphere.

Immediately, you can see that names like “Kathy’s Bread Shop” or “Arlington Breads” would communicate none of these qualities. But consider the name “Open Hearth Breads.” The bread sounds homemade, hot, and just out of the oven. Moreover, if you diversified your product line, you could alter the name to “Open Hearth Bakery.” This change would enable you to hold onto your suggestive name without totally mystifying your established clientele.

Begin brainstorming business names, looking in dictionaries, books and magazines to generate ideas. Get friends and relatives to help if you like; the more minds, the merrier. Think of as many workable names as you can during this creative phase. Professional naming firms start out with a raw base of 800 to 1,000 names and work from there. You probably don’t have time to think of that many, but try to come up with at least 10 names that you feel good about. By the time you examine them from all angles, you’ll eliminate at least half.

The trials you put your names through will vary depending on your concerns. Some considerations are fairly universal. For instance, your name should be easy to pronounce, especially if you plan to rely heavily on print ads or signs. If people can’t pronounce your name, they will avoid saying it. It’s that simple. And nothing could be more counterproductive to a young company than to strangle its potential for word-of-mouth advertising.

Other considerations depend on more individual factors. For instance, if you’re thinking about marketing your business globally or if you’re located in a multilingual area, you should make sure that your new name has no negative connotations in other languages. On another note, Master points out, if your primary means of advertising will be in the telephone directory, you might favor names that are closer to the beginning of the alphabet. Finally, make sure that your name is in no way embarrassing. Put on the mind of a child and tinker with the letters a little. If none of your doodlings make you snicker, it’s probably OK.

Chuck Brymer, president of naming firm Interbrand U.S.A., advises name seekers to take a close look at their competition. “The major function of a name is to distinguish your business from others,” Brymer observes. “You have to weigh who’s out there already, what type of branding approaches they have taken, and how you can use a name to separate yourself.”
Making Up a Name

At a time when almost every existing word in the language has been trademarked, the option of coining a name is becoming more popular. Perhaps the best coined names come from professional naming firms. Some examples are Acura, a division of Honda Motor Co. coined by NameLab, and Flixx, a name CDI coined for a chain of video rental stores.

Since the beginnings of NameLab, founder Ira Bachrach has been a particular champion of the coined name. He believes that properly formulated coined names can be even more meaningful than existing words. Take, for example, the name “Acura.” Although it has no dictionary definition, it actually suggests precision engineering, just as the company intended. How can that be? Bachrach and his staff created the name “Acura” from “acu,” a word segment that means “precise” in many languages. By working with meaningful word segments (what linguists call morphemes) like “acu,” Bachrach claims to produce new words that are both meaningful and unique.

“One of the reasons a new company is formed is that it has new value; it has a new idea,” Bachrach contends. “If you adopt a conventional word, it’s hard to express the newness of your idea. But as long as it’s comprehensible, a new word will express that newness.” Bachrach also admits, however, that new words aren’t always the best solution. A new word is complex and implies that the service or product you’re offering is complex, which may not be what you want to say. Plus, naming beginners might find this type of coining beyond their capabilities.

An easier solution is to use new spellings of existing words. For instance, CDI’s creation: “Flixx.” “Flixx” draws upon the slang term “flicks,” meaning movies. But the unusual spelling makes it interesting, while the double “X” at the end makes it visually appealing. Just as important, “Flixx” is more likely to be available for trademarking than “Flicks,” a factor that’s especially important to a chain operation interested in national expansion.

After you’ve narrowed the field to, say, four or five business names that are memorable, expressive and can be read by the average kindergartner, you are ready to do a trademark search.

Must every name be trademarked? No. Many small businesses don’t register their business names. As long as your state government gives you the go-ahead, you may operate under an unregistered business name for as long as you like–assuming, of course, that you aren’t infringing on anyone else’s trade name.

But what if you are? Imagine either of these two scenarios: You are a brand-new manufacturing business just about to ship your first orders. An obscure company in Ogunquit, Maine, considers your name an infringement on their trademark and engages you in a legal battle that bankrupts your company. Or, envision your business in five years. It’s a thriving, growing concern, and you are contemplating expansion. But just as you are about to launch your franchise program, you learn that a small competitor in Modesto, California, has the same name, rendering your name unusable.

To illustrate the risk you run of treading on an existing trademark with your new name, consider this: When NameLab took on the task of renaming a chain of auto parts stores, they uncovered no fewer than 87,000 names already in existence for stores of this kind.

That’s why even the smallest businesses should at least consider having their business names screened. You never know where your corner store is going to lead. If running a corner store is all a person is going to do, then, he doesn’t need to do a trademark search. But that local business may become a big business someday if that person has any ambition.

Ensuring that your name is going to be federally registerable is important. Also make sure that the individual states that you want to do business in will let you do business under that name. Enlisting the help of a trademark attorney or at least a trademark search firm before you decide on a name is highly advisable. The extra money you spend now could save you countless hassles and expenses further down the road. Try to contain your excitement about any one name until it has cleared the trademark search. It can be very demoralizing to lose a name you’ve been fantasizing about.
Trademark Classes

There are many misconceptions about trademarks and service marks and the level of protection provided for them under the law. One of the first misconceptions is that a trademark is all-encompassing. In fact, trademarks and service marks are filed under a specific class or classes. (For a complete list of eligible classes, visit the “International Schedule of Classes of Goods and Services” at the USPTO website.) There are 45 classes to choose from when filing for a trademark or service mark. Companies can file under one class or multiple classes depending on the nature of their product or service.

For instance, if a company has a registered trademark under class 15, musical instruments, another company using that same name in the pursuit of doing business in the category of musical instruments would potentially cause confusion in the marketplace and infringe upon a registered trademark. However, if a company does business within a different class, say class 1, chemicals, the potential for confusion would be extremely unlikely.
Conducting Your Own Trademark Search

If you’re going to search on your own, the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDL) nationwide have directories of federally registered trademarks and an online database of registered marks and pending registration applications. You can also use product guides and other materials available in these libraries to search for conflicting marks that haven’t yet been registered. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) websitelists PTDLs in your state.

The site also has a free database of pending and registered trademarks; these are usually entered in the PTO database one to two months after filing. You can also contact the PTO at (800) 786-9199 for general information about trademark registration or to ask about the status of specific trademark applications and registrations.

It’s also a good idea to search the web and see if anyone is using the name without having registered it. Do this with more than one search engine for the most thorough results. Also, check with domain name registrars like Network Solutionsto see what’s available. This can help you find other businesses using your chosen name or similar names, and it can also help you narrow down your choices. If you can’t have your top choice of a business name as a .com domain, you might want to consider alternative spellings, choices or top-level domains (i.e., “.net” or “.us”).

If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with three to five business names that pass all your tests. How do you make your final decision?

Recall all your initial criteria. Which name best fits your objectives? Which name most accurately describes the company you have in mind? Which name do you like the best?

Each company arrives at a final decision in its own way. Some entrepreneurs go with their gut or use personal reasons for choosing one name over another. Others are more scientific. Some companies do consumer research or testing with focus groups to see how the names are perceived. Others might decide that their name is going to be most important seen on the back of a truck, so they have a graphic designer turn the various names into logos to see which works best as a design element.

Use any or all of these criteria. You can do it informally: Ask other people’s opinions. Doodle an idea of what each name will look like on a sign or on your business stationery. Read each name aloud, paying special attention to the way it sounds if you foresee radio advertising or telemarketing in your future. Professional naming firms devote anywhere from six weeks to six months to the naming process. You probably won’t have that much time, but plan to spend at least a few weeks on selecting a name. Once your decision is made, start building your enthusiasm for the new name immediately. Your name is your first step toward building a strong company identity, one that should last you as long as you’re in business.
Filing a DBA

Now that you’ve decided upon a name, do you need to file a DBA? If you’re structuring your company as a sole proprietorship or a partnership, a dba (“doing business as”) or fictitious business name allows you to legally do business under your new business name (rather than your own name). You may be required by the county, city or state to register your fictitious name.

Procedures for doing this vary among states. In many states, all you have to do is go to the county offices and pay a registration fee to the county clerk. In other states, you also have to place a fictitious name notice in a local newspaper for a certain amount of time. The cost of filing a fictitious name notice ranges from $10 to $100. Your local bank may also require a fictitious name certificate to open a business account for you; if that’s the case, they can tell you where to go to register. In most cases, the newspaper that prints your fictitious name ad will also file the necessary papers with the county.

In most states, corporations don’t have to file fictitious business names unless the corporations do business under names other than their own. For example, using dbas allows your corporation to run several businesses without creating separate legal entities for each one. But if you’ve just got one business that’s a corporation, incorporation documents have the same effect as fictitious name filings do for sole proprietorships and partnerships.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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