Deciding on a Business Name

The back story: Sarah, an unhappy PR employee, sets out to start a wedding photography business. As a small business owner, she learns how to market herself and acquire customers.

A lot of people have heard of the phrase “Brand,” but don’t know what it means. The dictionary of business and management defines it as “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitor.”  But it’s even more basic than that. It simply the emotional or reputational feeling one gets when they read or hear your company’s name. The greater the emotional response, the better.

The first thing we had to do was decide what to call her company. In other words, which name did we want to build a reputation behind?  In the commercial photography business, there are two ways to go. You can either use your name, like “Dave Scott Photography”—or pick a clever name like “Studio B Portraits” (which is the name of a friends studio www.studiobportraits.com – another shameless plug).

Using her name sounded more classic, so we decided to go in that direction. Carpinelli didn’t roll off the tongue so we went with her middle name, Brooke. Good simple all American name seemed quite reasonable now we had to come up with a logo.

Homework: How did you come up with your name? Is it easy to remember? Have you built a brand behind it?

Next Blog: Sarah develops a very cool looking logo