The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up 2017/18, 30th Edition

Chapter 11

Names and brands

At an early stage in your planning, the question will come up: ‘What am I going to call my business?’ or ‘What am I going to call my product?’ You may be tempted to plump for your own name or your initials and quickly move on to other tasks. But this would be a mistake.

Choosing a name is a long-term decision, which is all wrapped up with working out what you are trying to sell and identifying why customers will buy from you rather than your competitors. Your company or product name should encapsulate a message to potential or existing customers. This will not happen overnight; it takes many years to build up a name to carry the message you want. But one thing is for sure, you cannot change horses midstream. The ...