Everyone hates my new business name. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I am starting my own consultancy business after 35 years working in large corporations at a senior level.

I have given it a very descriptive name, which is quite long but tells my clients exactly what I do. The problem is everyone, including my wife, hates the name. They think I should use a short, punchy name, which I think is juvenile.

Which way should I go? Descriptive and memorable? Or punchy and confusing?

And how did you come up with SmartCompany?

Nameless,
Brighton

Dear Nameless,

Let me guess. You called it: BenchmarkingProductivityManagement? And maybe BPM for short? Or umm… Accounts Best Practice Management? ABPM? Yep??

Yuck. And don’t get me wrong. I do like descriptive names. SmartCompany, which took me two months to think of, could not be more descriptive. But it is also short (ish), punchy, suggests what we are about and is memorable.

It also has a double meaning – and it has become part of who we are. Our people often say well, we’re not dumb company are we?

But descriptive names can be confusing, boring – and don’t forget advertising –your competitors as well as yourself.

On the other hand, some names for consulting companies I see are dreadful. I asked one woman why her company name was a fruit and she said she grew up in an orchard. Go figure.

Your name should be memorable, stand out, easy to remember – and say. But it should be relevant – even Google has a relevance.

So go back to the drawing board. Coming up with a name takes awhile. And just one more hint. Not everyone will like the name. Even when we launched SmartCompany, a few people wrote in and complained that it was boring!

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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