WHAT IS IN A NAME, ANYWAY?
Juliette didn’t seem to care, but we all know your name is key in business!
In the previous blog post, you learned how to identify your ideal niche for your expanded teacherpreneur business.
Now that you have established that, it’s time to think of a catchy name for this extension of your business.
Your name is key. It says everything about what your audience need to know about you and what you can offer. BUT, its also a good idea to make sure you have room to grow in it too.
GET YOUR NAME RIGHT NOW, IT WILL SAVE YOU TROUBLE LATER
There’s nothing worse than narrowing your name to a specific subject or grade and the deciding later down the road that you actually want to offer something else. Your name won’t match what you offer anymore and that can get confusing for when you want to attract an audience.
I’ll be really vulnerable with you here so you can learn from my mistakes. My store on TpT is “Teachers Resource Force”. Honestly, I don’t love it.
So many times people have made an effort to refer me and have gotten my name wrong – because it’s not easy to say or remember!
I once recall one of my fave teacher vloggers doing a shout out for me as I mentioned her in one of my blog posts! I jumped up in excitement knowing she was talking about me but I could tell she had no recollection of my store name, butchered what she kind of remembered, and thus the whole world was none the wiser about my store. Major fail!
If people can’t remember your business name, it’s not their fault. We never forget Apple, Amazon or Ebay do we! Short, simple and snappy always works.
I wish I had known then what I know now. Sure, it’s possible to rebrand and many have, but honestly that’s not something I want to invest my time doing. My branding is so intertwined deep in the many crevices of the internet now, there’s no way I could find them all! I’d rather put that time into building new things, so I’ve accepted Teachers Resource Force for what it is!
One thing I did do right however, was make sure I had room to scale with my business name. Teachers Resource Force is very open and generic to education, so I can take it anywhere.
Naming your new teacherpreneur business is a fine art between making sure you make it clear what you do yet leaving room to grow too.
3 SIMPLE RULES FOR GETTING THE NAME OF YOUR NEW TEACHERPRENEUR BUSINESS JUST RIGHT
RULE 1:Make sure your name is SEO friendly. Search Engine Optimization means you are including some keywords that you offer in your business (e.g. “teacher”, “teacherpreneur”, “primary school”, “education” etc.)
Make a list of all the key words associated with your new business and play around with words that are short, simple and sound good together.
RULE 2:Is it too limiting? Are you going to be able to branch out later if you want to?
Or, could you create a spin off sister company from this one style of name? For example, “Teachers Resource Force” could have a spin off called “Artists Resource Force” (it’s not the most catchy example, but you get the idea!)
RULE 3:Scour the internet to make sure it is unique. This rule is really important as you don’t want to get your name confused with someone else’s or get stuck in a trademark war. So here’s some things you can check to make sure your business name idea is unique:
Google it. Has anyone mentioned a similar formation of words on the internet? Someone may have a really old blog with the same name, is it a deal breaker or something you could live with? Check the domain. Type www.YOURBUSINESSNAME.com into a domain name checker like GoDaddy.com and see if it is available, or if anyone else has already taken something similar. If you find your domain is not available, check the site out and see whether anyone is actually using it or whether it has just been purchased by someone looking to sell it on. Search Trademarkia.com for anyone who might have already trademarked the name. Search all social media platforms, namely: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, PinterestIf you find you’re all clear with these 5 checks and you’re happy your name is specific enough to be clear on an audience but open enough to give you room to grow then go get it!
Buy the domain name and open up social media accounts with your name as well.
BLUEPRINT FOR CREATING YOUR BUSINESS NAME
If you’re ready to start brainstorming your new business name and would like to follow the step by step blueprint to get there, you can download the free guided question prompts and checklist, below:
