What's in a name? A lot, when it comes to small-business success.

The right name can make your

and selecting a market and location. Ideally, your name should convey the expertise, value and
uniqueness of the product or service you've developed.
There's a lot of controversy over what makes a good business name. Some experts believe that the best
names are abstract, a blank slate upon which to create an image. Others think that names should be
informative, so customers know immediately what your business is. Some believe that coined names
(names that come from made-up words) are more memorable than names that use real words. Others
think most coined names are eminently forgettable. In reality, any type of name can be effective if it's
backed by the appropriate marketing strategy.
Do It Yourself?
Given all the considerations that go into a good company name, shouldn't you consult an expert,
especially if you're in a field in which your company name will be visible and may influence the success
of your business? And isn't it easier to enlist the help of a naming professional?
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Yes. Just as an accountant will do a better job with your taxes and an ad agency

will do a better job with your ad campaign, a naming firm will be more adept at naming your firm than
you will. Naming firms have elaborate systems for creating new names, and they know their way around
the trademark laws. They have the expertise to advise you against bad name choices and explain why
others are good. A name consultant will take this perplexing task off your hands--and do a fabulous job
for you in the process.
The downside is cost. A professional naming firm may charge anywhere from a few thousand dollars to
$35,000 or more to develop a name. The benefit, however, is that spending this money now can save
you money in the end. Professional namers may be able to find a better name--one that is so
recognizable and memorable, it will cut down your costs in the long run. They have the expertise to help
you avoid legal hassles with trademarks and registration--problems that can cost you plenty if you end
up choosing a name that already belongs to someone else. And they are familiar with design elements,
such as how a potential name might work on a sign or stationery.
If you can spare the money from your startup budget, professional help could be a solid investment.
After all, the name you choose now will affect your marketing plans for the duration of your business. If
you're like most small-business owners, though, the responsibility for thinking up a name will be all your
own. The good news: By following the same basic steps professional namers use, you can come up with
a meaningful moniker that works . . . without breaking the bank.
What Does It Mean?
Start by deciding what you want your name to communicate. To be most effective, your company name
should reinforce the key elements of your business.
Gerald Lewis, whose consulting firm, CDI Designs, specializes in helping retail food businesses, uses retail
as an example. "In retailing," Lewis explains, "the market is so segmented that [a name must] convey
very quickly what the customer is going after. For example, if it's a warehouse store, it has to convey
that impression. If it's an upscale store selling high-quality foods, it has to convey that impression. The
name combined with the logo is very important in doing that." So the first and most important step in
choosing a name is deciding what your business is.
Should your name be meaningful? Most experts say yes. The more your name communicates to
consumers, the less effort you must exert to explain it. Alan Siegel, chairman and CEO of Siegel & Gale,
an international communications firm, believes name developers should give priority to real words or
combinations of words over fabricated words. He explains that people prefer words they can relate to
and understand. That's why professional namers universally condemn strings of numbers or initials as a
bad choice. On the other hand, it is possible for a name to be too meaningful. Naming consultant S.B.
Master cautions business owners need to beware of names that are too narrowly defined. Common
pitfalls are geographic names or generic names. Take the name "San Pablo Disk Drives" as a hypothetical
example. What if the company wants to expand beyond the city of San Pablo, California? What meaning
will that name have for consumers in Chicago or Pittsburgh? And what if the company diversifies beyond
disk drives into software or computer instruction manuals?
Specific names make sense if you intend to stay in a narrow niche forever. If you have any ambitions of
growing or expanding, however, you should find a name that is broad enough to accommodate your
growth. How can a name be both meaningful and broad? Master makes a distinction between
descriptive names (like San Pablo Disk Drives) and suggestive names. Descriptive names tell something
concrete about a business--what it does, where it's located and so on. Suggestive names are more
abstract. They focus on what the business is about. Would you like to convey quality? Convenience?
Novelty? These are the kinds of qualities that a suggestive name can express.
For example, Master came up with the name "Italiatour" to help promote package tours to Italy. Though
it's not a real word, the name "Italiatour" is meaningful. Right away, you recognize what's being offered.
But even better, the name "Italiatour" evokes the excitement of foreign travel. "It would have been a
very different name if we had called it ‘Italytour,'" says Master. "But we took a foreign word, ‘Italia,' but
one that was very familiar and emotional and exciting to English speakers, and combined it with the
English word ‘tour.' It's easy to say, it's unique, it's unintimidating, but it still has an Italian flavor."
Before you start thinking up names for your new business, try to define the qualities that you want your
business to be identified with. If you're starting a hearth-baked bread shop, for example, you might want
a name that conveys freshness, warmth, and a homespun atmosphere. Immediately, you can see that
names like "Kathy's Bread Shop" or "Arlington Breads" would communicate none of these qualities. But
consider the name "Open Hearth Breads." The bread sounds homemade, hot, and just out of the oven.
Moreover, if you diversified your product line, you could alter the name to "Open Hearth Bakery." This
change would enable you to hold onto your suggestive name without totally mystifying your established
clientele.

Making Up a Name
At a time when almost every existing word in the language has been trademarked, the option of coining
a name is becoming more popular. Perhaps the best coined names come from professional naming
firms. Some examples are Acura, a division of Honda Motor Co. coined by NameLab, and Flixx, a name
CDI coined for a chain of video rental stores.
Since the beginnings of NameLab, founder Ira Bachrach has been a particular champion of the coined
name. He believes that properly formulated coined names can be even more meaningful than existing
words. Take, for example, the name "Acura." Although it has no dictionary definition, it actually suggests
precision engineering, just as the company intended. How can that be? Bachrach and his staff created
the name "Acura" from "acu," a word segment that means "precise" in many languages. By working with
meaningful word segments (what linguists call morphemes) like "acu," Bachrach claims to produce new
words that are both meaningful and unique.
"One of the reasons a new company is formed is that it has new value; it has a new idea," Bachrach
contends. "If you adopt a conventional word, it's hard to express the newness of your idea. But as long
as it's comprehensible, a new word will express that newness." Bachrach also admits, however, that new
words aren't always the best solution. A new word is complex and implies that the service or product
you're offering is complex, which may not be what you want to say. Plus, naming beginners might find
this type of coining beyond their capabilities.
An easier solution is to use new spellings of existing words. For instance, CDI's creation: "Flixx." "Flixx"
draws upon the slang term "flicks," meaning movies. But the unusual spelling makes it interesting, while
the double "X" at the end makes it visually appealing. Just as important, "Flixx" is more likely to be
available for trademarking than "Flicks," a factor that's especially important to a chain operation
interested in national expansion

Business Plan
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed
attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the
organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals being attempted may be for-profit or non-profit. For-profit business plans typically
focus on financial goals. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on service
goals, although non-profits may also focus on maximizing profit. Business plans may also target changes
in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan
having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are
important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed
information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities,
external stakeholders include investors and customers.[1] External stake-holders of non-profits include
donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. [2] For government agencies, external stakeholders
include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF,
the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.

Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They
may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance,
the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business is often
developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows
success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target
internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. [3] Project
plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may
also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals. [4][5]
Business Plan Content
For more details on this topic, see Content of a business plan.
Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the
content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan
should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.
For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the
organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will
build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily
concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring
equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and
sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.

Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines:
finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management,
operations management, and marketing, among others.[6]. It can be helpful to view the business plan as
a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines