11 Tips on How To Choose A Name For Your Business
Starting a new business is a bold move. It takes courage and energy and determination. Selecting the right name for your new battlefield business start-up can be a conundrum.
Something that sounds pretty easy can actually end up being a confusing and difficult problem.
Choosing a great name can have a significant impact on your business success. Getting the wrong name can mean failure.
A bad business name can fail to connect with your customers. And it may cause you legal headaches.
Go for a simple, powerful name that will boost your branding and your business.
Here are 11 tips on how to choose a great name for your live gaming business
1. Brainstorm It
Think of a bunch of names that appeal to you. Get your creative juices flowing! Make a long, long list. Write them down. Forget being critical or trying to cull some out in this initial stage.
Just welcome all and every idea. You can shortlist them later. First up you just want to capture all possibilities.
2. Be Creative
Business names are competitive. You want something that depicts what you do but is unique. Go for a catchy, memorable business name. You might want to consider a portmanteau. Consider blending two words to create a new one, like cosplay (costume + play) or cyborg (cybernetic + organism) or emoticon (emotion + icon). A mash-up of two or more words can work well, take LEGO for example which comes from the Danish words “leg godt” (play well).
3. Use Tools
There are several tools online that can help you generate possible business names. One example is the Shopify business name generator. See https://www.shopify.com/tools/business-name-generator
4. Be Inspired
Some of the best business names have been inspired by Greek or Roman legends. Nike, for example, is the Ancient Greek goddess of Victory. You might be inspired by a character or a place. The famous coffee chain Starbucks got its name from a character in the novel Moby Dick. Sometimes you can get your inspiration from the location of your venue, “Thorpe Park” an amusement park owned by Merlin Entertainments got its moniker from the land on which it sits, Thorpe Park Estate.
5. Keep it Simple
Avoid hard to understand or hard to spell names. You will want to go with something that is easy to spell and is phonetic. In other words, it is spelled how it sounds. If you use a foreign word it can get confusing. For example, if you go for “Battle Corps” this is actually pronounced “Battle Cor” because bot the “p” and the “s” are silent.
More, you want to choose a name that won’t limit your business in the future. For example, a name like “Laser Tag Kids Parties Smithfield” is too narrow. You don’t want to limit your business to a particular product silo.
6. Avoid Acronyms
There are some famous businesses that use 3 letters as their names, such as AOL (American Online) and BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). But using acronyms can be fraught. For example, some have confused the American TV network ABC with the Australian TV broadcaster ABC.
7. Do A Domain Search
Ok, this might sound obvious, but you need to check to see if your proposed business name is already taken. Type your front-runner into google and see what pops up.
You will want to register the dot-com domain name. If you are in the United Kingdom then you will want a dot-co-dot-uk domain name. Or if you are in Australia you might go for the dot-com-dot-au name.
While there are heaps of domain name suffixes like .net or .info most people are still familiar with the common .com name. Avoid including a hyphen in your domain name. You want to avoid having to explain on the phone where to find the dash on their keyboard! Or having to add “laser dash tag” onto the end of your radio advertisements.
8. Avoid Using Your Own Name
Consider your exit plan. If you are planning to sell your business on one day then don’t name it after yourself. Sure, William E Boeing (founder of Boeing) and Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac (founder of Cadillac) got away with it. Nowadays with digital marketing ideally you can have a descriptive business. If and when it comes to on-selling your business many people would prefer not to have a business with someone’s name on it.
9. Consider the Legals
You might want to consider registering a trademark for your business.
Having a domain name registered is not actually legal protection. You can only get that with an officially registered trademark. Likewise, you don’t want to impinge on someone else’s trademark. You can do an online search via USPTO.gov (for the United States) or IPAustralia (for Australia) to get an idea if someone else already had a trademark that you considering.
You also need to consider if you plan to register as a company or simply start as a sole trader. There are a myriad of options — LLC or C-Corp or an S-Corp or even a 501(c)! [But that’s a blog for another day!]
10. Choose Something You Like
As a business owner, you need to be comfortable with your final choice. After all, you will need to live with the name for a long time. It will be on your business cards, in your web domain name, and you will need to use that name when you answer the phone or chat. Take a bit of time to consider your options. Choose a name that you are comfortable with.
Be aware of local terms. For example, in the USA referred to as “Laser Tag”. In Australia, it is often referred to as “Laser Skirmish”. And in the UK and Europe the term “Laser Games” is often used.
11. Survey It
So, you’ve got your business name contenders to a shortlist. Let’s say you’ve got our favorite five. While you might think these names are fabulous they might not gel with your customers. Get feedback from your target audience to see how it pans out with them. Did you know that the original name of the online store giant Amazon was actually “Cadabra”? Legend is that Jeff Bezos realized that not only that people had a tough time spelling it, but also, they didn’t really get that it was part of abracadabra. Even the most successful business doesn’t get it right the first time.
Conclusion: Laser Lag Business Name Ideas
To sum up, choosing a business name is not easy
Take a bit of time and consider it. You might choose something obvious like “Laser Tag + Your Town” or something totally flamboyant.
Either way, make it something you like because you are going to use it for a long time!
